(This serious news article originally appeared in the Chapel Hill News under the title "Where's Squeaky?")

The Squeaky Dog Gets the Audit--  Ed "Squeaky" Morgan sits in
front of his portrait in the Bank of America Plaza.  He was forced
out of business in January due to tax problems.
Photo by Shawn Rocco of the Chapel Hill News.
 

Where’s Squeaky?

Popular Franklin Street hotdog vendor has been forced out of business by sales tax woes.

By Matt Purdy
Correspondent

        Spring is in the air in Chapel Hill. The sun’s delicate warmth lures us out of our buildings for the lunch hour, and the soft breeze whispers "Squeaky’s" as it gently guides us towards Franklin Street.
        Squeaky’s hotdog cart has been a lunchtime fixture in Chapel Hill since 1993, but this year customers drawn to his usual location in Bank of America Plaza by the stirrings of Spring will have to settle for the two-dimensional hotdog served by Squeaky’s likeness on the hallway mural.
        On Jan. 16, Squeaky was ordered by the Orange County District Court to cease his business operations immediately due to tax problems.  For the time being, Squeaky is working part-time at the Rathskeller on Franklin Street, where he got his start in the restaurant business busing tables at the age of 16. A graduate of the old Lincoln High School on Merritt Mill Road in Carrboro, Squeaky waited tables at the Rat throughout the ‘60s. At age 62, he is back to waiting tables there until he can get his hotdog business running again.
        How soon Squeaky might be back in business depends on when and how his court cases are resolved. He faces 31 counts of failure to file and pay sales tax, and the North Carolina Department of Revenue claims that he owes $5,600 in back-taxes. Sales taxes are supposed to be paid monthly, and each of the 31 counts represents one month of payments the state claims he owes.
        The first two counts have already gone before the District Court. Squeaky, or John Edward Morgan as he is known to the court, represented himself on those two counts, and received probation under the condition that he adhere to a back-tax payment plan.  The other 29 counts make up a second case, which was heard in District Court on Jan. 16, and resulted in the court’s order that Morgan cease operation of his business pending his appeal to the Superior Court.  Depending on the result of that appeal, Morgan may face a jail sentence.
        That would be bad news for both Morgan and his customers, who say they already miss both the food and the life that he brought to the main hallway of the Bank of America building.   "He’s missed by a lot of folks," says Chapel Hill Police officer Anthony Brooks, who walks the beat on the 100 block of West Franklin where the Bank of America building is located.  "I get asked often when he’s coming back.  ‘Hopefully soon’ is all I can say."
        George Tomasic, whose Tar Heel Barber Shop has been located in the Bank of America building for 30 years, says that he would hate to see Morgan go.  "He put out a good hotdog, I know that-- and cheap too," Tomasic said.  "I miss seeing the kids up there in the hallway talking and eating.  It was comfortable, gave it an atmosphere."  But he points out that while most people in the building miss Morgan, they alson understand that everyone has to pay their taxes.
        Morgan says he wanted to pay his sales tax, but money was tight and he just wasn’t able to pay in full each month. When he went back to work after New Year’s this year, he raised his prices by 25 cents and says he had planned to use the extra money to pay his back-taxes.  "I have envelopes where I pay everybody," he said.  "My rent, my bread man, my light bill, my car payment. My sister takes those envelopes and puts in x amount.  I said, ‘Look, make an envelope for my taxes.’ Then, we went to the bank and opened up a checking account just for taxes. Every day, deposit x amount, then, at the end of the month, write a check for taxes. But the court wouldn’t let us tell them that.  They cut us off real quick. I couldn’t say anything, so I just let it go."
        Morgan has no formal training in business; he taught himself through trial and error.  "I learned the hard way and it came out easy," he recalls.  "I didn’t ask anybody and nobody told me. I just did it."
        One of his biggest inspirations to "just do it" came from the TV’s courtroom drama "Matlock." Morgan noticed that every time court let out on the show, people went straight for the hotdog cart.  Morgan has been in and out of court regularly over the past year and, while still a Matlock fan, he has had more than his fill of court proceedings. On one occasion, he says he missed court with the flu and then missed the make-up date because he was never notified about it and a warrant was subsequently issued for his arrest.   Morgan has been to jail twice over the past few months for a total of three days:  once for missing court and once on a charge of  not keeping up with the payment plan required under the terms of his probation.
        "There was a knock on the door," Morgan recalls of the first time a warrant was served, "and two policemen had a warrant for my arrest.  I was handcuffed, taken downtown, fingerprinted, picture taken, taken to the magistrate, then straight to jail. The next day I got out. Nobody said anything, and I came on home. I still don’t understand it. The policeman said it’s from not paying your taxes and not paying your probation officer.  I said, ‘I’m doing the best I can. I’m paying a little bit at least.’"
Morgan would later tell customers that he had missed those days because he was in a motel in Hillsborough.  Morgan laughs and shakes his head as he remembers the euphemism.  "That damn jail," he mutters.
        Morgan does a lot of shaking his head and laughing in exasperation when he talks about his legal problems.  It seems nonsensical to him that he must be subjected to all these legal formalities instead of simply working to pay off his debts.  "I know that I owe some tax money," Morgan admits, "but I’m looking at why I was treated like I was — going to court every month, going to jail — which wasn’t necessary.  I mean what good did that do? That didn’t solve anything by going to jail, and it didn’t solve anything by going to court every month, so I don’t know. I still don’t understand why they’re not going to let me work. They can’t get any money out of me now, because I don’t have any."
        Morgan is unsure what the next step will be for his hotdog business. "The court didn’t tell me what I can do, what I can’t do. They just said, ‘You are out of business.  You cannot run that business any more.’ That’s it. Point blank."
        Morgan’s attorney, public defender Timothy Cole, said that the next step for Morgan is his appeal to the Superior Court.  "The State has not offered a resolution which does not include incarceration," Cole said. The Superior Court appeal, he said, is based on Morgan’s right to a trial by jury, which he did not receive in District Court. Morgan is free on bond until the appeal trial, which has yet to be scheduled.
        This comes as news to Morgan. When he hears, he drops his head and slumps over, again shaking his head and laughing in exasperation. "I gotta go back to court? A jury? For what?"
        When Squeaky was running his cart, it was fairly common for a regular customer to wait in line for a hotdog, place an order, and then come to the embarrassing realization that he or she was out of cash.  Squeaky would say that it was no problem; the customer could bring the money next time.
        Now the hope for Squeaky is that 12 of his peers will decide to offer him the same consideration.

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