A federal jury in Mobile spent Thursday afternoon weighing tax evasion charges against Mobile County License Commissioner Kimberly Hastie and her husband, John Hastie, following closing arguments that capped a three-day trial in U.S. District Court.
Prosecutors allege the couple conspired to hide roughly $58,600 in income from the Internal Revenue Service, money they say came from John Hastie brokering land deals and performing timber-cutting and land-clearing work between 2009 and January 2015. According to testimony, the unreported earnings were used to cover shortfalls in the family’s bank accounts.
Court testimony detailed three specific transactions: a $38,400 arrangement in 2009 and a $15,000 deal in 2014, both with the same business associate, plus a $5,232.66 payment in January involving John Hastie’s second cousin. An accountant testified that the Hasties filed an amended 2009 tax return earlier this year acknowledging the previously unreported income and have since repaid the federal government $13,800.
Despite the repayment, an assistant U.S. attorney told jurors during closing arguments that the county’s top license-collecting official should not be exempt from the same tax obligations she enforces on others, arguing that no one is above the law regardless of position.
Defense attorneys countered that the case reflected government overreach, describing John Hastie as a hardworking outdoorsman rather than someone versed in bookkeeping or finance, and framing the extra land and timber work as an honest side effort to support his family. Kim Hastie’s attorney argued prosecutors were pursuing taxes that were never legally owed in the first place.
Testimony during the trial’s final morning came from an FBI agent who told jurors that John Hastie’s employer, a Mobile-based marine and timber company, initially failed to produce a subpoenaed contract tied to timber-clearing work performed on property in Baldwin County. A contract the company eventually turned over in late April did not match the rate sheet meant to document the work, the agent testified.
A witness who paid for some of the work testified that he directed a payment of roughly $5,232 to the Hasties’ daughter to help fund her college expenses, telling investigators he wanted the money to go to the family given the legal trouble Kim Hastie was already facing.
After roughly four hours of deliberation Thursday, jurors were unable to reach a verdict and were set to resume deliberations Friday morning. The case has drawn significant attention in Mobile County, where Kim Hastie has served as an elected license commissioner overseeing tag, title and licensing operations for county residents.
Court proceedings are expected to continue as the jury resumes weighing the evidence presented over the three-day trial.