Case Explained: Oregon tree removal company owner sentenced for $3.5M tax evasion – Legal Perspective

The owner of a Happy Valley-based company that did tree removal and landscaping was sentenced Wednesday to a year and three months in federal prison for failing to pay more than $3.5 million in taxes over seven years ending in 2024.

Joyce Leard, 54, pleaded guilty to failing to pay employment taxes on behalf of Mr. Tree Inc. The company advertised that it was in business for more than 20 years and employed 50 to 75 people each year.

Leard withheld taxes from her employees’ wages from 2017 to 2024 but did not pay the money to the Internal Revenue Service as required or file quarterly payroll tax returns, prosecutors said.

She instead used the money to buy about $3.5 million in real estate in her name, according to Megan E. Wessel, a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer. She also failed to file personal income tax returns from 2017 through 2023, Wessel said.

Wessel urged the judge to sentence Leard to two and a half years in prison and order her to pay $2.9 million in restitution, representing the amount of federal tax due minus payments already received from Leard.

Leard failed to “fulfill serious legal obligations for many years and it should carry serious consequences,” Wessel said.

“In addition to stealing money from the United States, Defendant put her employees in detrimental positions by leading them to believe they had paid taxes when they had not. Instead of receiving their expected tax refunds, many of them were faced with substantial tax liabilities and were forced to pay out of pocket,” Wessel wrote to the court.

Defense lawyer Janet Hoffman noted that Leard has suffered from a personality disorder since early childhood and from depression.

She also was extremely disorganized with a 2-foot wall of documents piled on her desk and unable to manage her business properly, which led to “this total disaster,” Hoffman said.

Leard wanted to pay taxes but she “didn’t know how to get from A to B,” Hoffman argued.

Hoffman and co-counsel Scott Mullins argued for home detention for Leard with mental health treatment.

She already has lost her reputation, Hoffman said, “but this sentence could be a turning point and make a difference for her.”

U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut selected the 15-month sentence, finding that the crime deserved a prison term to deter Leard and others from thwarting the country’s tax system.

Immergut said she considered Leard’s mental health and decision to plead guilty in the case, but said, “The fact that she was ‘incompetent in her job’ to me is not a legitimate excuse to carry the day to get out of prison.”

The judge ordered Leard to surrender to federal marshals on April 2 to start serving her sentence and pay the remaining restitution.