Sizemore Update: He’s Still in Jail!

The following is an update of yesterday’s diary about Bill Sizemore’s arrest for contempt of court (his fourth such citation and the first time he’s been arrested for it).  It contains some more details on why Sizemore was arrested and what comes next.

My Previous Diary is here: OR Conservative Activist Bill Sizemore Gets Jailed!

Cross-Posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/sh…

Bill Sizemore currently languishes in jail due to his fourth contempt of court citation in the past few years.  As Judge Wilson said in court on Monday, “Mr. Sizemore is so blinded by his hatred of the unions who are plaintiffs in this case that he seems to have concluded that he is not required to follow the law.”  Perhaps the best quote though, comes from Kevin Looper, head of Defend Oregon, the organization which successfully defeated all of Sizemore’s measures last fall, who told the press “We’ve got John Gotti here pretending he’s Nelson Mandela.”

For those of you who wish to learn more about Sizemore, either view my previous diary yesterday (linked above) or this video from an interview he gave ABC News this fall:

What’s Next?

Sizemore has quite the conundrum ahead of him.  As I understand it the contempt citation states that Sizemore will remain jailed until he files  both the state and federal tax returns for the American Taxpayers Researchers Foundation (ARTF) for the years 2006 and 2007.  Sizemore controls ARTF and it is the contention of the plaintiffs (the teacher’s unions) that this is merely an attempt by Sizemore to go around the injunction against political activity filed as a result of his loss in the 2003 racketeering lawsuit.  The injunction has five main components:

1. It bars any Sizemore-controlled organization from giving anything of value, be it money or support, to a political action committee for five years (which just expired earlier this year I believe).

2. It bars any Sizemore-controlled political action committee from receiving anything of value from a 501c(3) organization for five years.

3. It bars any Sizemore-controlled charitable organization or political action committee from transferring assets until the plaintiffs are paid their $2.5M judgment.

4. It bars any Sizemore-controlled charitable organization or political action committee from doing business with any Sizemore-controlled signature gathering firm for five years.

5. It requires any Sizemore-controlled organization to comply with federal or state election reporting laws as appropriate for five years.  This provision might seem logical because everyone should follow the law but it appears to raise the stakes if Sizemore violates the laws again.

So Sizemore now has an unenviable choice of whether to not file the forms and therefore violate the law or to file them and disclose the extent to which he has expended moneys from these organizations for his own personal benefit.  This would then expose him to potential civil liability (and maybe criminal as well but as a non-lawyer I don’t know if what he’s doing is a crime) both as a result of this suit and from the penalties the IRS and Oregon Department of Revenue might well levy against him for violating federal and state prohibitions against expending nonprofit funds for personal gain.

Key Links:

For the only known shot of Sizemore being led away go here: http://blogtown.portlandmercur…

For Sizemore’s mug shot and current prison status go here for the official sheriff’s information: http://www.mcso.us/PAID/Bookin…

For the Court’s order go here: http://www.oregoned.org/atf/cf…

Let me know what you think.