ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. -- His neighbors in New Orleans say retired Juvenile Court Judge Sal Mule’ and his wife Margaret lived in a house on South Prieur Street for years.
Eyewitness News obtained copies of Margaret Mule’s annual, recent applications to the Orleans Parish Assessor’s office for a homestead exemption.
But the house looks gutted inside. One neighbor says the Mule’s haven’t lived there since Hurricane Katrina.
On the Orleans Assessor’s web site, the Mule’s have a mailing address in St. Tammany Parish, on Robinson Road in Folsom, and Eyewitness News photographed their house in St. Tammany.
But curiously, the house and other improvements on the property have never been taxed.
St. Tammany Parish web site records dating back to 2001 show that Mule’ has three acres in St. Tammany, and despite the house and the garage, according to the assessor’s records, there are no improvements on the property. The annual tax is between $12 and $13 per year.
St. Tammany assessor Patricia Schwarz Core doesn’t even have the Mule’s address in Folsom, just a description of the property.
The assessor’s mailing address for the Mule’s is their empty house in New Orleans.
Mule’, who still works as an ad hoc judge, said he was on the bench when WWL-TV called him and couldn’t answer questions.
But after being contacted by Channel 4, he and his wife took a series of actions the very next day. They removed the homestead exemption from their house in New Orleans for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. They had their Orleans Parish assessor fax change orders reflecting that to the St. Tammany assessor.
Mule’ also visited the St. Tammany assessor, asked her to put his house in Folsom on the tax rolls and applied for the homestead exemption going back to 2006.
Core sent Eyewitness News an e-mail response to questions, saying “since he (Mule’’) has been living in St. Tammany since Katrina, we have corrected his assessment accordingly.”
Core later clarified that she has reassessed the value of Mule’s property at $242,000. She said the homestead exemption will save him about $1,002.45 per year. So the judge and his wife will pay $1,233 in taxes a year.
Core said she will issue orders to collect three years of back taxes.
Rafael Goyeneche, the president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said this latest in a series of bad assessments in St. Tammany seems to reflect systemic problems in the assessor’s office.
“There needs to probably be some type of independent investigation assessing where the disconnect exists with respect to why are there so many questionable assessor evaluations of property. Why is property missing?” Goyeneche asked.
Sal Mule’ is a man of the law who, as a judge, has spent his career dispensing justice to other people. What about his accountability?
“He had an impeccable record as a judge, as a Juvenile Court judge for years in New Orleans. I know him and I respect him,” Goyeneche said. “I think that he owes an explanation as to this.”
Mule’ asked Eyewitness News to e-mail him questions. Several days later, he sent a statement saying, in part, “When I became aware there may possibly be a problem with my tax bill, I went to the assessor’s office in St. Tammany to resolve the problem, if any existed.”
“I have always paid my taxes when they became due, and I will continue to pay taxes upon receipt of a bill,” Mule’ wrote.
In his response, Mule’ also reveals his house “was built in 1988.” That means that for 22 years, when his neighbors were paying taxes on their houses and property improvements, Mule’s house wasn’t even listed on St. Tammany tax rolls.
“And this is something that affects every taxpayer in St. Tammany Parish,” Goyeneche said. “If property isn’t on the rolls, it means that people whose property is on the rolls are paying a disproportionate share of taxes.”
Chief among the questions that Mule’ failed to answer in his response to Eyewitness News are why didn’t he alert the St. Tammany assessor that he should be paying property taxes for improvements on his property? Also, why did he let the St. Tammany assessor keep listing his mailing address as an empty, gutted house in New Orleans when he was receiving mail in Folsom and living in St. Tammany Parish?
Core’s office said she only learns that a house should be added to tax rolls when she gets a building permit, but Mule’s house was built before building permits were required in rural areas of St. Tammany Parish.
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