Judge rejects St. Croix woman's plea to stop tax collection

Chief U.S. District Judge Robert A. Molloy has rejected an emergency motion filed by St. Croix resident Natasha Nelskie Ogatis-Dollete seeking to suspend collection efforts by the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue and recover bank funds she claims were improperly seized or frozen.

Ogatis-Dollete, acting without a lawyer, brought the case to the District Court of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix Division on April 30, 2026. In May, she filed the emergency motion to pause collection measures and restore access to the disputed funds while her underlying case proceeded.

In his October 8 ruling, Judge Molloy found that Ogatis-Dollete had not demonstrated the level of immediate and irreparable injury required for emergency court intervention. The judge treated her claimed financial loss as an economic matter rather than the type of harm that justifies stopping ordinary legal processes.

The court's decision does not address whether the Bureau of Internal Revenue's calculation of her 2021 tax obligation was correct or whether its collection methods were lawful. Those core questions remain unresolved. The case is docketed as a federal tax dispute centring on an allegedly improper levy.

Ogatis-Dollete's request for emergency relief has been denied, but the rejection does not conclude the broader lawsuit. The underlying dispute over the tax assessment and the legality of the collection actions continues in federal court.