The Associated Press
July 5, 1977

Dr. Edmund O. Matzal, a Blairstown psychiatrist who was Lester Maddox’s vice presidential running mate on the 1976 American Party ticket in New Jersey, was sentenced to three years probation Tuesday for federal income tax evasion.

Matzal also was ordered to work eight hours weekly without pay at a hospital needing his services. He said he thought the penalty was “a fair sentence,” but he is appealing his conviction.

During a four-day trial last May, Matzal, 42, said he didn’t pay taxes because he opposed foreign aid to countries aiding North vietnamese and because income tax was “involuntary servitude.”

Matzal, a leader in a New Jersey group seeking repeal of the state income tax, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence A. Whipple.

The doctor was listed with former Georgia Gov. Maddox on the American Party ballot in New Jersey last November. Maddox had other vice presidential candidates under different party names in other states.

The psychiatrist was convicted of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns for 1970, 1971 and 1972.

Testimony presented by Asst. U.S. Atty. Lawrence S. Horn showed Matzal had a total gross income of $71,000 for the three-year period.

Whipple ordered probation on each of the three counts to run concurrently.