Carlos Mencia entered a not guilty plea today to tax evasion charges that could land the comic behind bars for over 11 years if a jury finds the Mind of Mencia frontman guilty of the felonies.
Scheduled to be back in Lo Angeles Superior Court on August 14, the incarcerated Mencia also saw his bail dramatically cut to $50,000 at the hearing earlier Monday in the Van Nuys courthouse. Stand-up Mencia, who hosted his own Comedy Central show from 2005 to 2008, posted bail and was released just under two hours ago,
Back on June 18, L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman‘s office claimed the comedian was arrested early that AM “for failing to report $8.7 million in personal and corporate income taxes between tax years 2019-2024.” Today defense attorney Dana Cole argued successfully for his CAA-repped client’s reduced bail and return home. Cole also admitted the tax situation that started seven years ago for Mencia was unfortunate, but could be quickly resolved.
“We are grateful that the judge today rejected the District Attorney’s grossly inflated bail request of $250,000,” Cole told Deadline this afternoon, not long after his client was heading home following a weekend and Father’s Day in the clink. “Instead, the judge reduced the bail to $50,000 and the judge also agreed to allow Carlos to post a bond without having to prove the source of funds, which was something the district attorney also requested.”
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Cole went on to say: “Regardless, Carlos is committed to making this right and paying all taxes due with penalties and interest. We believe that the District Attorney’s effort to make Carlos the poster child of its new business tax fraud unit was overreach, and we believe the court recognized that. We look forward to resolving this case in the near future.”
Outside court Monday, Cole said when it came to Mencia’s unpaid taxes, there were “reasons why this happened, which I’m not going to get into.”
Taken into custody at his sprawling Encino home by the cops with great flourish as the D.A. filed the 12 charges on June 18, the 58-year-old Honduran-born comedian was originally given the $250,000 bail with a hold on it from the drop. Usually intended for drug dealers and other instances where the bail money may have criminal origins itself, that hold meant even if Mencia had put the quarter of a million dollars up, he wouldn’t have gotten out.
The very public and loud (literally and figuratively) manner of the arrest, which came after Mencia had been mailed 78 demand notices from the California Franchise Tax Board, has been a major point of contention for the comic and his lawyer since the cops showed up at the defendant’s door last week.
“No one argues against the obligation to pay taxes, but the raid at his home with multiple law enforcement agents, screaming ‘search warrant’ with a bullhorn, and drawing guns was an absurd show of force for the alleged offenses that do not involve weapons, drugs or violence,” states a filing from Cole for Mencia’s reduced bail.
The bail motion filing went on to take a swipe at the D.A.: “The defendant has now already paid a steep price by damaging his national reputation, incarcerating him for several days without the opportunity to post bail and missing out on four nights of a booked venue where he could have earned up to $40,000 that he would have willingly paid to the Franchise Tax Board to start to pay back any taxes owed.”
This first case filed by the DA office’s newly established Business Tax Fraud Unit alleges the rough justice of a possible more than a decade sentence kicks in because previously apparently taxes paid in full Mencia not meeting his legal and societal obligations over the 2019-2024 period cost California “more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).” To be specific, according to the D.A.’s office, “Mencia allegedly owes over $300,000 in taxes to the state of California: approximately $267,594 in personal income taxes and approximately $35,117 in corporate income taxes.”
The D.A’s office had no comment when contacted by Deadline Monday on the Mencia hearing or his release on bail. On the other hand, Mencia might get one Hell of a Netflix stand-up special out of the whole thing once this is all sewn up.