Woman gets probation in Ridgefield horse farm case

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A woman who tried to hide $1.3 million in cash during a federal tax evasion investigation of a Ridgefield horse farm has been sentenced to one year of probation and fined $1,000.

Thirty-seven-year-old Juliana Starbuck of Ridgefield was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in New Haven in connection with the investigation of the Stepping Stone Farm equestrian center. She pleaded guilty in November to one count of removal of evidence to prevent seizure.

Federal agents say they caught Starbuck bagging cash from a safe deposit box at a Ridgefield bank in December 2007.

Starbuck is the daughter of the horse farm's owner, Juliana Cole Weber, who was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $5,000 in March for under-reporting more than $1.1 million in income to the IRS.