Illinois officials say they will not try to extradite a California woman who owes more than $37,000 in back sales taxes, interest and penalties, because the legal process would not be worth the cost.
Atty. Gen. Roland Burris announced that Illinois will ask California officials to release Leota Sevilla from the Los Angeles County Jail, where she has been held for more than four months while Illinois considered extradition proceedings.
Burris complained that Sevilla had attempted to win sympathy for her plight by claiming "she only owed the state less than $35," when she actually owed thousands of dollars on her 1986 conviction for failing to file and pay state sales taxes on her interior decorating business.
Nevertheless, he said, the Illinois Revenue Department has determined that the cost of extraditing Sevilla to serve about one month remaining on her sentence would be prohibitive.
