Rader faces taxing problem

By CAROL DIUGUID

NEW YORK --- Journalist Dotson Rader received two years' probation for failing to file a 1988 federal income tax return in a Hauppauge, L.I., federal district court Tuesday.

Rader, editor of Parade magazine and a biographer of playwright Tennessee Williams, pleaded guilty to the charge two years ago this month, admitting that he failed to pay taxes on his income of more than $70,000 in 1988.

However, he was granted an unusual two-year delay of possible imprisonment by U.S. District Court Judge Leonard D. Wexler. Wexler granted the stay in 1995 in response to numerous letters he received pleading leniency for Dotson from the author's literary colleagues, including Norman Mailer, Budd Schulberg and John Lahr.

The judge instructed Rader to continue to cooperate with the IRS in repaying any back taxes he might still owe the government. While no dollar amounts were made public, previous reports have shown Rader to owe about $100,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest.