Garden Grove : Tax Foe’s Suit Found in Contempt of Court

Garden Grove tax protester Thomas Pat Creech was in contempt of court when he filed a lawsuit against a federal court judge last summer, Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel Real ruled in Los Angeles Thursday.

Real said Creech’s suit against U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter and other government officials violated a court order against filing such suits.

Creech, former director of Your Heritage Protection Assn., an anti-tax group, was sentenced Dec. 16 to serve six months in federal prison for breaking into a building seized by the Internal Revenue Service two years ago.

Real said he would sentence Creech on the contempt charge Feb. 10 when Creech is scheduled to surrender to federal marshals to begin serving his other sentence.