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Neill reports to prison in Jesup, Ga.

Sam Neill is in prison.

Neill, the disbarred Hendersonville attorney convicted in state and federal courts of embezzlement and tax evasion, reported last week to the Federal Correctional Institute in Jesup, Ga., to begin serving a three-year term he received on the federal tax evasion charges on April 24, authorities said.
A state Superior Court judge sentenced Neill the next day to 6-8 years in prison, with that time running concurrently with the federal time. Under an agreement with prosecutors, Neill, 63, is to serve the federal time first and then the state sentence.
The federal prison complex in Jesup is made up of a medium security facility with 1,165 inmates, a low-security facility with 516 inmates and a minimum-security prison camp with 166 inmates, according to the Bureau of Prisons. The prison is located in southeast Georgia, 65 miles southwest of Savannah and 40 miles northwest of Brunswick.
Neill pleaded guilty in state court to stealing $2.4 million from trust funds that he had been hired to administer by clients and estates. He had made promises to repay a total of $2.78 million in restitution when he pleaded guilty last September. Attorneys for the trust accounts said in court in April that none had been repaid so far.
When he sentenced Neill on April 24, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger directed the federal prison system to try to accommodate Neill's request to serve in a prison that offers treatment for what his attorney described as a history of mental health issues. It was not clear whether from information available from the Bureau of Prisons whether the Jesup facility has mental health treatment programs.
U.S. Attorney Richard Edwards confirmed that Neill was in custody at the Georgia prison but said he had no information on a release date.
"He has to serve his three years," he said.