HUNTINGTON BEACH — A porn star from Surf City who posed as a nurse on the cover of Blink 182’s album “Enema of the State” was sentenced to six months in federal prison for tax evasion and ordered to pay almost $300,000 in outstanding taxes, according to published reports.
Janine James, 40, was ordered Monday to live in a residential community corrections center for up to six months after her release from prison and to serve one year of supervised release, The News Review in Oregon reported.
James, known in the adult film world as Janine Lindemulder, pleaded guilty last summer in a Eugene, Ore. court to intentionally failing to pay her income taxes. The Penthouse model admitted making a down payment on a $647,000 Eugene home and buying a Jeep, recreational vehicle, piano and furniture while owing $300,000 in federal income taxes, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
She used nearly $163,000 from her divorce settlement from her former husband, Jesse James, owner of the West Coast Choppers motorcycle fabricator shop and host of the Monster Garage television show on the Discovery Channel, to purchase the home, the Review said.
Jesse James left Janine James in 2004 when she was about eight months pregnant with their daughter, Sunny, ending their year-long marriage, Janie James’ Oregon-based attorney Ron Hoevet said.
Jesse James married actress Sandra Bullock in 2005, and the two live in Sunset Beach.
Hoevet, an attorney with 35 years of experience as a tax fraud prosecutor and defense attorney, said James was prosecuted more for her celebrity than for her tax obligation.
“This is and should have remained a civil collection case,” Hoevet wrote, according to the Review.
James was given until March 10 to report to prison.
She was arrested following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Between 2000 and 2006, during a period in which she owed $200,000 in federal income taxes, James spent more than $750,000, investigators alleged.
The property James purchased in Oregon, which included a home with 2,300 square feet and 5 acres of land, sold for $610,000 in early 2006, according to records from the Douglas County Assessor’s Office.
The government alleged James, who earned $350,101 in 2004, had failed to pay on a tax bill stemming from 1996 to 2002.