Newport couple faces taxes on income never earned 
BY ROBERT MOORE, Tribune Staff Writer  (taken from citizentribune.com)


For Lora and Jamey Costner, a $7,854 federal income tax bill is the painful
indigestion that followed two unsatisfying servings of identity theft cooked
up by two former Koch Foods employees, records indicate.

The criminal cases involving the Newport married couple and the two illegal
immigrants, who IRS records indicate worked for Koch Foods, have been
resolved in the court system.

The bitter aftertaste that remains is the unpalatable possibility of having
their wages garnished to pay tax bills on income they never earned at the
Morristown chicken-processing plant. 

"The overall burden of it all is crushing us, please help," the Costners
wrote in an appeal to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "We have done all we
know to do." 

Mrs. Costner says she realized the magnitude of the problem in July when the
IRS informed her that she and her husband failed to report approximately
$30,000 in income they earned at Koch Foods during 2005. 

The Costners say it’s easy to prove they both worked at Wallace Hardware in
Morristown during 2005. Relatedly, Mrs. Costner maintains it’s child’s play
to prove they never worked at Koch Foods during that year. 

Tim Steffin, Koch Foods human resources manager, did not return a telephone
call to comment on the identity-theft cases this morning. 

Mrs. Costner says the first indication that something might go badly in July
came five months earlier in February when she was out of work due to an
on-the-job injury.

Mrs. Costner says state labor officials told her she should not be drawing
workers compensation benefits through Wallace Hardware because she had
returned to work at Koch Foods the previous month following another
on-the-job injury. 

Records indicate that someone using her maiden name — Hale — and her Social
Security number had fallen off a production line at the Koch Foods deboning
plant in the East Tennessee Progress Center, according to the Newport woman.


"I’ve never deboned a chicken in my life," she said Wednesday afternoon. 

The foreshadowing for Mr. Costner materialized in April 2006 when learned
that he was in danger of losing his driver’s license because of unpaid
citations for speeding and driving without insurance.

The traffic stop came at 3 o’clock in the morning while Mr. Costner was
asleep. Also, the driver reportedly did not speak English. 

Police identified Mrs. Costner’s impersonator as Elizabeth Velasco Bautista,
who later pleaded guilty to criminal impersonation, according to Detective
Bob Ellis with the Morristown Police Department. 

The interloper in Mr. Costner’s life was Douglas Valdez, according to Ellis.
Ellis says Valdez avoided the identity-theft charge because a judge ruled
that it was not a crime to use someone’s identity to obtain employment.

Valdez reportedly served 45 days on other charges. Mrs. Costner says her
sister lived with Valdez at one time, and she’s convinced that’s how their
identities were stolen.

Mrs. Costner says when she discovered her identity-theft trail appeared to
lead to Koch Foods, she contacted the Koch Foods human resources manager. 

She alleges that Steffin was uncooperative and indicated he could not verify
whether or not the Lora Hale that was working at Koch Foods had assumed her
identity. 

In a matter of minutes, the MPD detective conclusively determined that the
woman who was working under the name Lora Hale at Koch Foods was actually
Elizabeth Velasco Bautista.

The response that Mrs. Costner alleges she received from Steffin is similar
to the treatment described by Julie Wheeler, a Maine woman whose identity
was stolen when she lived in Morristown.

Detective Sgt. Randall Noe arrested a 27-year-old Koch Foods employee named
Lucia Perez last week and charged her with identity theft in connection with
the Wheeler case. 

Wheeler alleges Steffin was reluctant to act on her complaint. She was in
peril of having to repay $14,000 in disability benefits because IRS records
showed she had been working at Koch Foods for the past two years. 

Wheeler maintains she was living in Maine for the past two years. Wheeler
says she’s sorting out the problems involving her disability payments. 

The Costners remain in IRS legal limbo. The agency hasn’t begun garnishing
their wages, but Mrs. Costner says she fears that could begin any day. 

What’s more, the Costner’s $7,854 IRS bill is for the 2005 calendar year.
Mrs. Costner says she believes it’s only a matter of time until they receive
a delinquent tax notice for the time the two imposters worked at Koch Foods
during 2006. 

Ellis wrote a letter on the Costners behalf, attempting to resolve the
identity-theft morass, but the correspondence didn’t bring immediate
results. 

Wednesday afternoon, Paul Chapman, a field representative for U.S. Rep.
David Davis, R-Tenn., said he would intervene on the Costner’s behalf. 

Chapman says he’s been successful in the past resolving issues with the IRS
in cases where it’s clear that an error had been made.