The State : Former Judge Held for Taxes

A former Michigan probate judge was arrested in Mendocino for investigation of income tax fraud more than a year after he became a fugitive from justice and took on a new identity as a radio talk-show host. Federal agents said Leon Edmond Kowalski, 47, was being sought for failure to pay nearly $75,000 in taxes on 1981 and 1982 returns. Investigators discovered he was going by the name Ed Kowas and hosted Mendocino radio station KMFB’s “On the Record.” “He lived very austerely,” said Bruce Anderson, editor-publisher of a local newspaper and an occasional guest on Kowalski’s show. “He rode his bicycle everywhere he went, obviously because he couldn’t apply for a driver’s license. We figured he was on the lam from something, but we thought maybe it was a bad marriage.”