Judge denies Julie Chrisley's request to wear civilian clothes at resentencing hearing
Julie Chrisley (Photo by: USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
ATLANTA - A federal judge has denied reality star Julie Chrisley's request to wear civilian clothes when she heads to court next week for her resentencing hearing.
The 51-year-old "Chrisley Knows Best" star has served 21 months of her seven-year sentence that was handed down to her after she and her husband, Todd Chrisley, were convicted of lying to banks throughout metro Atlanta to obtain $36 million in loans and then hiding their income from the Internal Revenue Service t to avoid paying federal taxes on more than $500,000.
Chrisley's sentence was vacated in June by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit after the court found a legal error in the calculation of her sentence, requiring the lower court to reassess her punishment.
In a motion filed on Wednesday, Chrisley's lawyers argued that the court should allow her to wear civilian clothes at her hearing on Sept. 25 in order to protect her rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments.
"There is no good cause for denying the Defendant the opportunity to appear in civilian clothing for this hearing," the lawyers argued in their motion.
U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross disagreed, however, saying that she found there was "no danger" of Chrisley's prison uniform impacting her right to a fair and impartial proceeding.
This is the latest legal setback for Chrisley as her hearing date gets closer. Earlier this month, the judge denied her request to be resentenced virtually.
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What were the Chrisleys convicted of?
Todd and Julie Chrisley, along with their accountant Peter Tarantino, were found guilty in 2022 of conspiring to defraud banks and the IRS out of millions of dollars. The case involved two main fraudulent schemes: tax evasion and bank fraud.
Prosecutors say the Chrisleys funneled Todd's income into accounts under Julie’s name and subsequently transferred those funds to family members to avoid detection by the IRS. Tarantino was found guilty of making false statements to federal agents to mislead the IRS.
Prosecutors also say along with Todd’s former business partner, Mark Braddock, the Chrisleys used falsified financial documents to secure loans and lines of credit from various banks by grossly inflating their assets.
While the appeals court vacated Julie Chrisley's sentence due to insufficient evidence linking her to losses incurred before 2007. It upheld the convictions of Todd Chrisley and Tarantino., ruling that they should continue to serve their 12-year and three-year prison sentences respectively.