AFT-Oregon and the Oregon Education Association filed a civil lawsuit in Multnomah County against Bill Sizemore, Loren Parks and his organizations for racketeering, Thursday, October 29, 2009. The claim is that Sizemore and Parks have conspired to set up a sham charitable organization to cover up their political activities, in many ways similar to the activities that a 2002 Multnomah County jury found to be racketeering.
"It's clear that Sizemore and Parks have teamed up in order to subvert the initiative process," says Richard Schwarz, AFT-Oregon Executive Director. "It's time they were held accountable for corrupting Oregon's initiative system. Anyone wanting to make laws ought to live by those we already have."
The lawsuit centers on Sizemore and Parks' use of another sham charitable foundation to gather signatures for and to promote four ballot measures during the 2008 general election campaign. The foundation was utilized to funnel money for Sizemore's political activities. Many of the allegations made in the plaintiffs' suit were referenced and substantiated in a 2008 ruling issued by Multnomah County Judge Janice Wilson in which she found Sizemore in contempt of court.
"It's unbelievable that Sizemore continues to engage in racketeering and that Parks continues to illegally funnel money into sham charities to support Mr. Sizemore in his unlawful efforts," said OEA President Gail Rasmussen. "Their intolerable actions have perverted Oregon's citizen initiative system."
The suit alleges the racketeering conspiracy between Sizemore and Parks was so prevalent that it required Sizemore to commit perjury on multiple occasions to cover up their activities. There are 33 different and separate instances of Sizemore's alleged perjury included in the plaintiffs' suit.
Under the Oregon Racketeer Influences and Corrupt Organizations Act (ORICO), the plaintiffs are claiming to have been harmed by Sizemore and Parks' activity. The amount of monetary relief being sought by the plaintiffs is equal to the amount they had to spend to defeat Sizemore's 2008 ballot measures to be trebled pursuant to the ORICO statute.
