A Grand Rapids grand jury indicted Kerry Thomas Kilpatrick, age 55, of Rockford, with nine counts of tax evasion, U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced last week.

Dr. Kerry Kilpatrick, now indicted for tax evasion, poses with the Michigan Surgeon General Kimberly Dawn Wisdom MD at the Michigan Department of Community Health’s awards program. Dr. Kilpatrick received an award for his leadership in the chiropractic association’s public education programs. 

The indictment alleges that Kilpatrick, owner of the Kilpatrick Chiropractic Life Center in Grand Rapids, established several shell companies, including one in the Republic of Panama, for the purpose of evading taxes due on income earned through his chiropractic business. The indictment alleges that the Kilpatrick Chiropractic Life Center had gross deposits of over $3,400,000 from 1999 through 2007 but that Kilpatrick paid no personal income taxes for this time period despite deducting payroll taxes for the employees of the Kilpatrick Chiropractic Life Center. The indictment alleges that, following a meeting with the IRS in 2005, Kilpatrick filed income tax returns in 2006 for the tax years 1999-2005. In these returns, Kilpatrick acknowledged adjusted gross income of over $1,000,000 but claimed no tax due and owing because of purported miscellaneous deductions for each year that matched his adjusted gross income. The indictment further alleges that Kilpatrick filed similar income tax returns in 2010 for the tax years of 2006 and 2007 by claiming deductions that exactly matched his adjusted gross income.

Each count of tax evasion is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Kilpatrick had an initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Joseph Scoville last Thursday and was released on a $100,000 bond. Kilpatrick’s case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, and Kilpatrick’s arraignment on these charges is scheduled for October 4, 2010.

According to his website, Dr. Kilpatrick is a 1980 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Life University in Marietta, Ga. He established the Kilpatrick Chiropractic Life Center in 1981. He has held a variety of leadership positions within the profession including President of the Michigan Chiropractic Association (1995–96) and Representative from Michigan to the International Chiropractors Association (1998–2005). He was named Michigan Chiropractor of the Year on two occasions (1994, 2000).