Gerard Terry indicted on tax charges brought last month

The Island Now

A grand jury on Tuesday formally indicted Gerard Terry on six felony tax fraud charges prosecutors brought against him last month.

The former North Hempstead Democratic Committee chairman is charged with felony tax fraud for allegedly omitting income from his 2013, 2014 and 2015 state tax returns, and three counts of offering a false instrument for the same years.

Those charges were revealed Aug. 24, when Terry was indicted on two other felony charges of third-degree criminal tax fraud for failing to pay state income taxes in 2010 and 2015 “with the intent to evade any tax due,” according to that indictment.

Terry, a 62-year-old Roslyn Heights resident, now faces a total of eight charges following Newsday’s revelations in January that he owes $1.4 million in state and federal back taxes. He is due back in court Oct. 17.

Stephen Scaring, Terry’s attorney, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Terry did not file a 2015 tax return by at least April 19 of this year, eight days after his April 11 arrest on a separate tax fraud charge and more than two months after Newsday’s report, according to last month’s indictment and felony complaint.

Terry made more than $200,000 last year while he held six government contracts, including two posts with the Town of North Hempstead. He resigned from or lost at least five of those jobs in the wake of Newsday’s report.

He also resigned as the head of the town’s Democratic Party, a position that gave him influence over North Shore politics.

Terry has maintained he is working to resolve his tax problems and has blamed them on health issues and “self-denial.” But a prosecutor has said a check he wrote to the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year bounced at the same time he paid $8,000 to issue a public statement defending himself.

After Newsday’s report, the Town of North Hempstead started enforcing a 25-year-old requirement that leaders of town political committees file financial disclosure forms. A committee has been exploring changes to its ethics code.

 

Reach reporter Noah Manskar by e-mail at nmanskar@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @noahmanskar and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.

By Noah Manskar

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