SWMC ER Physician Sentenced For Tax Evasion

A federal court sentenced the co-author of an Atkins diet book to federal prison and restitution for tax evasion on Thursday.

Mary C. Vernon, 62, of Lawrence was convicted on five counts of tax evasion earlier this year. She was sentenced to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $299,000 in restitution.

Vernon is a physician, and co-authored “Atkins Diabetes Revolution.” According to a news release from U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom’s office, Vernon also was medical director of a number of Lawrence-area nursing homes, and was the director of the emergency room for Southwest Medical Center in Liberal. Vernon was not an employee of Southwest Medical Center, but with the company contracted to provide services in the Emergency Room at the hospital.

Vernon failed to pay income taxes from 2004 to 2008, despite earning $588,686 from Atkins Nutritionals in 2003 and 2004, and $190,000 in promotional earnings from 2005 to 2008.

Additionally, from 1999 to 2007, the Internal Revenue Service used levies and seizures to collect about $2 million that Vernon owed from earlier taxes and fees she had failed to pay.