Woman faces charges
of evading state taxes

Lucy Kagan will later go on trial
in October for cruelty to animals

A woman scheduled to stand trial later this year on 25 counts of animal cruelty is also expected to appear in court next week to face tax evasion charges.

Police arrested Lucy Kagan in Wahiawa on Tuesday on four grand jury bench warrants. They later released her after she posted $11,000 bail. She is scheduled to appear in Circuit Court next Thursday for arraignment on two counts each of tax evasion and willful failure to file tax returns.

An Oahu grand jury indicted Kagan last week on charges of failing to file state general excise tax returns and tax evasion for 2001 and 2002. According to the indictment, Kagan earned $9,100 in 2001 and $25,025 in 2002.

Willful failure to file a return is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $25,000 fine. Tax evasion is a Class C felony punishable by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Kagan is also scheduled to appear in court in October for her animal-cruelty trial. The charges are the result of an investigation that was started in May 2003 after firefighters responding to a fire in Kagan's Hawaii Kai townhouse found 27 dogs and two cats living in what Hawaiian Humane Society officials described as squalor.

The humane society seized the animals, had them examined by veterinarians and provided care. One puppy died at a veterinarian clinic. Most of the rest of the dogs were later returned to Kagan or others who claimed ownership.