Biography
Joseph Donato, known as Joe, was a co-owner of the McKee-Donato Construction Company and a member of the Restored Israel of YAHWEH, whose members refused on conscientious grounds to pay taxes they believed funded war. The Justice Department gave his age as 46 in April 2004 (born about 1957-1958). Arrested on April 12, 2004, he was held three nights in the Camden County Jail after initially refusing bail conditions requiring his return for court, and was released on April 15 after agreeing to the conditions and after supporters posted a 150,000-dollar bond. His only surviving conviction was conspiracy; the employment-tax counts were vacated. He was sentenced on July 1, 2005 to 27 months in prison, a 5,000-dollar fine and three years of supervised release. He reported to the Federal Correctional Institution at Fairton, New Jersey on February 21, 2006, transferred to a halfway house in October 2007, and completed his sentence on January 31, 2008.
