Comedian Carlos Mencia pleads not guilty to 12 felony charges of failure to pay taxes

Actor and comedian Carlos Mencia arrives at the 23rd Annual Imagen Awards, Aug. 21, 2008, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas, File)

LOS ANGELES — Comedian Carlos Mencia has pleaded not guilty to 12 felony charges alleging he failed to report or pay taxes on more than US$8 million in earnings.

The 58-year-old Mencia appeared behind glass in a custody area of a Los Angeles County court at his arraignment on Monday, when a judge also reduced his bail from $250,000 to $50,000.

Mencia had been in jail since his arrest on Thursday. Court documents show that he has now posted bail, but it’s not clear whether he has been released.

Emails seeking comment from an attorney representing the comedian were not immediately answered.

He was charged with six felony counts of failure to file personal income tax with the intent to evade taxes — one each for the years 2019 to 2024 — and six similar counts for corporate taxes.

When he announced the charges, District Attorney Nathan Hochman called Mencia “one of California’s biggest tax scofflaws,” saying he owes more than $300,000 in state taxes on income totaling $8.7 million.

If he’s convicted of all 12 counts he could get more than 11 years in prison.

The charges are the first filed under the district attorney’s new Business Tax Fraud Unit that was established in May by Hochman, a former longtime prosecutor of tax cases.

Born Ned Arnel Holness in Honduras and raised in East Los Angeles, Mencia began doing stand-up in LA clubs in the late 1980s. By the early 2000s, he became one of the most popular comics in the U.S. and also did some acting in film and television. He had his own TV series, “Mind of Mencia,” combining stand-up with sketches on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2008.

Mencia still does regular stand-up shows, touring clubs and small theaters. He missed a series of Southern California shows while he was in jail.

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press