Union foe Bill Sizemore
spends more time in jail
Anti-tax crusader
fails to file tax
returns
Anti-union ballot measure author
Bill Sizemore — whose sham non-
profits were convicted of racketeering
by a civil suit jury in 2002 — pled
guilty Aug. 4 to three felony charges of
tax evasion and spent 18 days in Mar-
ion County Jail. Sizemore, 60, had
been given a 30-day sentence, but was
let out early after credit for good be-
havior and for performing custodial
work at the jail.
The sentence — for failure to file
tax returns for 2006, 2007, and 2008 —
also includes three years of probation.
The guilty plea was part of a plea
bargaining agreement. A trial had been
scheduled to begin Aug. 9. If he’d gone
to trial and been convicted, Sizemore
faced up to five years in prison and a
fine of $125,000 for each count, which
is a Class C felony.
Sizemore will have until early De-
cember to file tax returns under the
agreement. Those returns could open
Sizemore up to further legal jeopardy,
however. He still owes substantial
SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
B ILL S IZEMORE
monetary dam-
ages to the Ore-
gon Education
Association and
American Fed-
eration
of
Teachers, the
two
unions
which filed a
racketeering
lawsuit against
Sizemore in
2000.
Evidence for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice tax evasion case came
from a related lawsuit by the two
unions.
“Bill Sizemore refused to file his
taxes to hide the fact that he was mov-
ing hundreds of thousands of dollars
into his own pockets and into his cor-
rupt initiative campaigns,” said Our
Oregon Executive Director Patrick
Green in a press statement. Our Oregon
is an initiative watchdog group that is
supported by unions and other groups.
The Marion County jail stay wasn’t
Sizemore’s first time behind bars; in
2008, he spent a night in Multnomah
County Jail for contempt of court after
he refused a judge’s repeated orders to
file tax forms for his sham charity.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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