Sordid Sizemore
saga continues
‘I am not a convicted racketeer!’ Bill
Sizemore declares in new federal lawsuit
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Perennial union foe Bill Sizemore
— twice jailed and four times held in
contempt of court in connection with
an 11-year-old legal battle — is now
pleading in federal court to strike
down all those whom he believes have
wronged him.
In a suit he filed March 16 without
the aid of an attorney, he names as de-
fendants a veritable enemies list that
includes Oregon’s current and former
attorney general, current and former
secretary of state, the Oregon Educa-
tion Association (OEA), the American
Federation of Teachers (AFT)-Ore-
gon, two state attorneys at Oregon De-
partment of Justice, and two judges
who ruled against Sizemore, including
the judge who ruled in 2003 that Size-
more’s “sham non-profits” (the
judge’s words) violated Oregon Rack-
eteering Influenced and Corrupt Or-
ganizations statute. An additional 50
defendants, employees of the justice
department and secretary of state’s
office, are unnamed “John Does.”
In the suit, Sizemore charges that
the defendants’ actions damaged his
reputation and credibility, caused
him a loss of liberty, property and in-
come, and inflicted “severe emo-
tional duress.” He also argues that
his First Amendment rights and his
ability to make a living were in-
fringed by a voter-approved law ban-
ning pay-by-the-signature in initia-
tive campaigns, as well as a 2007
law cleaning up ballot initiative
PAGE 2
abuses, and by court-ordered restric-
tions on his ability to found charitable
non-profits. Sizemore argues that the
two laws violate his free speech rights
because they increase the cost of sig-
nature gathering.
But the 56-page legal complaint
reads less like the opening salvo of a
federal lawsuit than a highly personal
rant in which Sizemore details his per-
ceived persecution at the hands of his
enemies. In the suit:
• Sizemore rebuts accusations that
he had been angry with his wife or
abused her in any way when she con-
sidered the state’s offer to testify
against him in a tax case.
• Sizemore says the Oregon
Supreme Court intimidated Marion
County Circuit Court Judge Joseph
Guimond, and as a result Guimond
dismissed a lawsuit Sizemore had
filed. In that 2010 suit, a Sizemore
group called “Oregonians for Honest
Elections” had sought $10 million in
damages from numerous individuals
for calling Sizemore a “convicted
racketeer.” Sizemore also accuses
Judge Guimond of defaming him for
ruling that it was not unreasonable to
call Sizemore a convicted racketeer.
• Sizemore says Secretary of State
Kate Brown violated his First Amend-
ment rights by insisting he comply
with a reform law by turning over
payroll records showing that employ-
ees had not been paid by the signa-
ture. When he refused to comply,
Brown ordered signature-gathering
halted on the petition; Sizemore ar-
gues that damaged his credibility with
previous and future donors.
• Sizemore accuses Judge Janice
Wilson of violating his right to due
process when she stated in her ruling
that he lied under oath; Sizemore
maintains that because no perjury
charges were filed, the statement was
improper.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
“Frankly I don’t expect this suit to
get very far,” says AFT-Oregon Exec-
utive Director Richard Schwarz.
For one thing, Schwarz says, two
weeks after the suit had been filed,
AFT has not yet been served. AFT
learned of the suit only indirectly,
Schwarz said.
“The state Court of Appeals and
the state Supreme Court have already
ruled on these issues, including the
constitutional questions,” Schwarz
said. “And the elements of his per-
sonal life that he’s added in are irrele-
vant to any legal questions.”
Schwarz himself was not named in
the complaint, which instead names
AFT national president Randi Wein-
garten.
To the extent the suit goes forward,
the unions will be defended by attor-
ney Greg Hartmann.
The suit is the latest development
in a convoluted legal drama that began
in 2000 when OEA, later joined by
AFT-Oregon, filed suit against two
groups founded and directed by Size-
more. In 2002, a jury found that the
groups had engaged in widespread
forgery and fraud in its campaign to
place two measures on the 2000 bal-
lot. It was learned during the trial that
the measures were specifically in-
tended to bleed the union treasuries
fighting them, and in fact the unions
spent millions of dollars defeating the
measures. Sizemore’s groups had also
directed donors to contribute to his
tax-deductible non-profit, funds
which were then bundled and sent to a
Washington, D.C., group, which sent
them back to his political committee,
thus avoiding Oregon’s campaign fi-
nance disclosure laws.
After the jury decision, Judge
Jerome LaBarre ordered Sizemore’s
groups to pay $2.5 million damages to
the two unions. He also issued an in-
junction against Sizemore personally,
ordering that he not form any similar
non-profits or engage in similar be-
havior for five years. Sizemore was
later found in contempt of court when
he attempted to evade the injunction
by forming new groups that used the
resources of the old groups to do sub-
stantially the same work. A judge
found Sizemore personally liable for
the damages.
Along with his longtime funder
Loren Parks, a Nevada millionaire,
Sizemore was named as a co-defen-
dant in a parallel $18 million lawsuit
filed in 2009 by OEA and AFT. That
racketeering suit, still pending, alleges
that Sizemore committed similar prac-
tices in efforts to get on the 2008 bal-
lot. Facts that came out in that case led
the State of Oregon to pursue criminal
charges against Sizemore, and last
year, he pled guilty to three felony tax
charges and served 30 days in jail.
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APRIL 6, 2012