Councilman Palermo asks for probation for not filing tax returns

In less than two weeks

will find out his punishment for failing to

In a brief filed yesterday, Vinny Palermo's attorney explains the history of these types of cases where he believes it should lead to probation.

In the defense brief asking the Federal Judge to consider the possibility of probation, attorney James Martin Davis wants to remind the court that the guilty plea for not filing three years of tax returns is a misdemeanor, not a felony.

Davis blames the previous accountant who was charged with a crime and prohibited from practicing accounting, and that it took him a year to get his old records, that he feared he could be charged with filing false tax returns if he didn't have the right information.

In Septemeber, Palermo told 6 News he would not resign.

Palermo's attorney has asked the court to give his client credit for paying the restitution early and for filing the returns 16-months before he was even charged.

As it stands, the federal judge could give him a year in prison for each count.

Palermo will be sentenced before a different judge than the one who heard the case all along. Sentencing is set for the morning of Dec. 18th.