Bill Sizemore still owes us money

Maybe it's time to bring that classic 1998 bumper sticker back: "Bill Sizemore Owes Me Money, Too!"

This week, there was yet another court ruling in his racketeering lawsuit. Sizemore and his allies are claiming it was a big win, and that he's no longer personally liable for his actions as part of Oregon Taxpayers United.

Loaded Orygun has the real story:

In one area of the appeal, Sizemore could claim a pyrrhic victory. The court found that his intentional falsification of C&E reports wasn't technically a violation of the law. So in other words, nobody thought anyone would so flagrantly piss all over the process that they hadn't created a statute that Sizemore could violate. But they said he still owed the money.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeals affirmed that Sizemore's organizations still owes the $2.5 million. The case now goes back to the trial court to issue a new judgment consistent with the Court of Appeals’ decision.

At that time the trial court will enter the new judgment which includes both the full $2.5 million judgment against Sizemore's organization and for damages that the jury awarded under the first count of the complaint in the amount totalling roughly $300,000. Both organizations will continue to be liable for the attorney fees incurred by Oregon Education Association and American Federation of Teachers in an amount of almost $1 million. And then of course, there's interest piling up on these judgements as well.

The big excitement for NWRepublican blog appears to be the notion that Sizemore isn't personally liable for the judgements. Except that isn't really the case. Since the falsifying C&Es statute wasn't broad enough to cover what Sizemore did, the Court of Appeals set aside the personal liablity on that particular offense. The other numerous claims against Sizemore personally weren't addressed.

Read the rest. Discuss over there.

Dec. 09, 2006 Posted in elsewhere.