Gary Graham, S-R Editor, emailed Larry Shook of Camas Magazine  requesting that he remove the Franklin photo from the Girl from Hot Springs site for copyright infringement.

Here’s the S-R archive link to the infamous 1991 photo of the then RPS garage manger, Rex Franklin, attempting to restrain one of the many parking barriers that failed.  It was one of these same barriers that failed in a similar manner that caused the death of Jo Savage in 2006 some FIFTEEN YEARS later.  To me when I first saw this photo I immediately recognized it as critical evidence in the Savage manslaughter case.  This photo is direct evidence that this was a serious imminent public hazard, that the owners were well aware and did nothing to mitigate this hazard over the ensuing years (Hinzman engineering report and Franklin sworn depo statement).

The Franklin photo goes to the very heart of the Savage manslaughter case showing the “reckless” intent of the garage owners (Cowles Co and owners of the S-R).  A move to remove this photo now from the public view is very suspicious.  As you are probably aware I‘m on record in my professional opinion that the Spokesman-Review is an instrumentality of an ongoing criminal enterprise/conspiracy to conceal its criminal acts.   If the RPS bond fraud and the Savage death were  reported by a uncorrupted newspaper there would be a clamorous hue and cry of the citizens of Spokane for justice.  An action to remove this photo from the public view borders on evidence tampering which could be considered aiding/abetting the “perps” to conceal this crime.  This copyright infringement notion is nothing more than a sham effort to conceal these crimes from the public which has been the usual MO of these perps to control the flow of information to the public through intimidation, character assassination, and unfair competitive business practices.

For those interested in previous S-R coverage of the RPS bond fraud and the Savage death here are the ongoing coverage links.  The S-R has switched from their old web page to their new “beta” site and as yet these links are not active from the home page:

Old links still active but may not be updated:

Jo Savage death in RPS parking garage:
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/sections/rpscrash/

Stories for RPS  bond fraud:

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/sections/rps/

New URL links to new site.  Not all of the past info/photos are at these new links:

Savage Death

http://www.spokesman.com/sections/rpscrash/

RPS bond fraud

http://www.spokesman.com/sections/rps/

Ryan Pitts, S-R Online Editor, has said when they get the time and the staff they will be moving these links forward.

Ron the Cop

Former garage manager Rex Franklin secures damaged portion of barrier at RPS garage after vehicle impact (Dan Pelle file photo/ March 11, 1991 – Spokesman-Review)

*****

Forwarded conversation
Subject: Re: Your unauthorized use of Spokesman-Review photos
————————

From: Larry Shook <lwshook@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 9:46 PM
To: GaryG@spokesman.com

Hi, Gary. Thank you for your email below. In it you inform me that I am in violation of copyright laws by publishing Spokesman-Review photos of Rex Franklin and the exterior of the River Park Square Parking garage at www.girlfromhotsprings.com. I don’t believe that I am in violation of the law, because these photos are included as evidence in criminal complaints regarding your employers that have been filed with various public officials by former Sheriff Tony Bamonte and former Detective Ron Wright. The public officials include the Spokane City Council, Spokane County Commission, the Spokane Police Chief, Spokane County Sheriff, and the Washington State attorney general. Sheriff Bamonte and Detective Wright have provided me with copies of their complaints. As such, I believe the photos in question are now in the public domain and my reproduction of them does not violate copyright law. I’m sure Sheriff Bamonte and Detective Wright would be happy to provide you with copies of their complaints in order to assist you with your reporting. You may contact them at the email addresses above. As part of his extensive efforts to have first-degree manslaughter charges brought against your employers in the matter of Jo Ellen Savage’s April 8, 2006 death in the River Park Square garage, I know Sheriff Bamonte has shared a considerable amount of correspondence with your publisher, Stacey Cowles. I assume Mr. Cowles would be happy to share that correspondence with you to assist in any reporting you might wish to do about this matter.

Beyond that, my understanding is that my use of the photos in question is protected under the fair use doctrine of federal copyright law. As a fellow journalist, I know you agree that you and I work under significant professional ethical mandates to serve the public interest. Those mandates are supported by a variety of legal protections. A cursory review of fair use doctrine provides such guidance as:

www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
“Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered ‘fair,’ such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes…”

The Girl From Hotsprings Web site is published in the public interest, at my expense, free of charge. I do not realize any income from it. If I wish to reproduce Spokesman-Review photos in the book I plan to publish I will do so only with your publishing company’s express written permission.

And the following from Boston attorney Andrew D. Epstein, a member of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts.

“Q. Are there any times that I can use a copyrighted work without risking infringement?

A. Yes. The concept of fair use permits the utilization of copyrighted materials for certain purposes. For example, a newspaper can publish copyrighted works for purposes of reporting news and a teacher can make multiple copies of certain works for classroom use without risking infringement. In order to determine if a use is fair or is an infringement, one must determine how much of the copyrighted work is used and the impact this use will have on the potential market for the copyrighted work. If large portions of a copyrighted work are used or if the use lessons the potential market for the work, there will be infringement.”

Still, I want to be clear: I do not wish to violate copyright law; I intend not to do so. Again, Gary, as a fellow journalist, I know you recognize my ethical obligation to balance your assertion of your paper’s legal rights against my duty to the public interest. (As you know, in the case of the River Park Square securities fraud case, your newspaper’s First Amendment attorney made a variety of highly dubious assertions of confidentiality rights that thwarted both the public’s and bond purchasers’ rights to know.)

So, I need to request additional assistance from you. In view of the information above, if you still believe that I am in violation of copyright law I ask that you provide me with a written specific legal opinion stating why, as well as any professional guidance of which you may be aware, such as from the Society of Professional Journalists, etc.

Meanwhile, I have another request of you to assist me in my continuing reporting about River Park Square. In your email you state that the S-R photos on the Girl From Hotsprings Web site were “brought to my attention.” Please tell me who brought them to your attention and who instructed you to request that I take them down. I will want to interview you further about this matter, as I feel it is relevant to the question of the Cowles family’s use of its media to cover its business affairs. For now your timely answers to these questions will be helpful. Thank you very much.

Best wishes, Larry Shook

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 4:17 PM, Gary Graham <GaryG@spokesman.com> wrote:

Larry,

It has just been brought to my attention that the girlfromhotsprings
website has at least three of our photos posted on it. We never
authorized such use. It would appear that you are in violation of
copyright laws because all of our published photos and stories are
copyrighted each day.

I am referring to the 1991 photo of Rex Franklin and the two later
photos of the exterior of the parking garage.

I respectfully ask that you remove the photos from your site
immediately. If they are being used in a proposed book, they should be
removed. You do not have our permission to use the photos.

Regards,

Gary Graham
Editor
The Spokesman-Review

———-
From: Larry Shook <lwshook@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 9:27 AM
To: Gary Graham <GaryG@spokesman.com>

Thank you, Gary. Again, if I wish to use S-R photos in my book I will do so only with your company’s express written permission. Best wishes, Larry Shook

  Larry,

     Thanks for your reply. Although I don’t agree with your justification, I’m not inclined to pursue the matter further at this time.

     From an ethics standpoint, I think you are on shaky ground. It’s common courtesy in newspapers and magazines to credit the source of photos. Happens every day. I couldn’t help but notice that you apparently used photos from a Washington business magazine without credit as well. That’s your technique. So be it.

     Should you decide to use the photos in a book, I believe you will need our permission. And of course there would be a fee for such use if we would decide to allow the use.

     Your request that I tell you who brought the use of our photos to my attention is laughable. Your site is in the public domain, isn’t it?  And I find it insulting that you suggest I was “instructed” to ask the photos be removed. Needless to say, I won’t be answering any of your questions.

     I’ve not dealt with you prior to this, so I didn’t know that your practice is to share your emails with so many people without giving me a heads up. Given your style in this manner, I’m not likely to respond to further messages from you. I’ll go ahead and copy my colleagues on this. It will save you time.

    Have a great day.

Gary

To All:

It is apparent that the SEC was asleep at the switch regarding the Berne Madoff $50B Ponzi scheme.  The SEC in the preceding decade had multiple warnings and yet did nothing.  Why?

We are destined to have more of these financial cons that threaten to destablize our economy unless there is swift action by financial crimes units of law enforcement agencies to hold these people accountable for their illegal acts.  Did we learn nothing from ENRON?

See this related post by AJ Strata of The Strata-Sphere:

This Is The Story Of American Corruption

Perhaps instead of reactively responding once the “marks” have be scammed and the money is long gone, how about installing system mechanisms that allow self regulation and behavior?  In essence “neighborhood watches”  to “police” the neighborhood by folks that have a self interest that can act immediately independent of governmental oversight and action.  Government action often come too late to prevent successful cons.

Here’s a unique idea of using the Net, Blogos, the New Media and or “crowd sourcing” to force leverage scarce police resources in these high tech financial crimes.  This is a concept developed by law Prof. Glenn Reynolds (Univ of TN, Knoxville) in his book An Army of Davids.  The explanation of my analogy to law enforcement as sheepdogs guarding the sheep can be found here:

On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs
(From the book, On Combat, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman)

If you’re interested continue to read the below discussion thread.
Ron the Cop
AKA Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

*****

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: rocketsbrain <nar9350@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 8:24 AM
Subject: “Crowd sourcing” to police the financial markets.

To: Reynolds <pundit@instapundit.com>

Prof Reynolds,

FYI – I’ve been off line for the last few days.  I don’t know if you saw this article in WIRED or someone has forwarded it to you.  I think this has merit.

BTW still could sure use a link on a related matter in a $100M bond fraud and manslaughter.  The “perps” own/control the local media.  The perps use their media as an instrumentality of their ongoing criminal enterprise to conceal their illegal activity from the public.  Shades of Madoff.

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

Ron T. Cop takes on Spokane City Council

[…]

——— Forwarded message ———-
From: rocketsbrain <nar9350@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 8:09 AM
Subject: “Crowd sourcing” to police the financial markets.

If the MSM won’t police the markets to keep the wolves from raiding the flock then require open info/transparency so “crowd sourcing” can act as multiple sheepdogs:-)  Actually this is Prof Glenn Reynolds’ concept of an “army of davids.”  I was reading this article in this month’s issue of WIRED Magazine on my flight back to Spokane.

Ron

WIRED MAGAZINE: 17.03

Tech Biz  :  IT  

Road Map for Financial Recovery: Radical Transparency Now!

By Daniel Roth 02.23.09

The financial world doesn’t need new regulations. It needs radical transparency.
Photo: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Recipe for Disaster: The Formula that Killed Wall Street

On the morning of March 29, 1933, dozens of reporters filed into the Oval Office for a press conference with the new president. Franklin Roosevelt had taken office earlier that month amid the greatest economic crisis the US had seen: 5,700 banks had failed, 25 percent of the country was unemployed, and more than half of all mortgages were in default.

Hope for a recovery was dim; the public had lost faith in the entire financial system. The number of American investors had exploded, from a few hundred thousand before 1916 to more than 16 million. Yet few of them understood the investments they held, many of which had proven to be junk. Supposedly sound companies were exposed as pyramid schemes. Of the $50 billion in securities sold in the previous decade, half had become worthless.

And yet, as reporters huddled around his desk, Roosevelt sounded confident. “I have something on the Securities Bill today,” he announced. That day, members of his brain trust were on Capitol Hill, submitting a plan that would spark the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission. One overriding concept lay at the center of the legislation: transparency. Louis Brandeis, before becoming a Supreme Court justice, had written an exposé of the financial system for Harper’s Weekly, and one passage in particular had lodged in Roosevelt’s brain: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants. Electric lights the most efficient policeman.” The proposed bill would require, for the first time, companies to file detailed accounts of their financial health and activity, and bankers would have to report their fees and commissions. As Roosevelt explained it to the reporters around him, the bill “applies the new doctrine of caveat vendor in place of the old doctrine of caveat emptor. In other words, ‘Let the seller beware as well as the buyer.’ In other words, there is a definite, positive burden on the seller for the first time to tell the truth.”

Now, here we are again, 76 years later, facing another crisis of trust that threatens the entire financial system. This time, the issue is no longer a lack of transparency. Since the 1933 Securities Bill, corporate America has been required to disclose a deluge of information in a multitude of ways—10-Ks and 10-Qs, earnings calls and Sarbanes-Oxley-mandated 404s. Between 1996 and 2005 alone, the federal government issued more than 30 major rules requiring new financial disclosure protocols, and the data has piled up. The SEC’s public document database, Edgar, now catalogs 200 gigabytes of filings each year—roughly 15 million pages of text—up from 35 gigabytes a decade ago.

—
RBT

AKA Ron the Cop
http://friendsofmarkfuhrman.org/blog/

 Tim Connor recently appeared on the Mike Fitzsimmons Radio Show on KXLY 920AM.  Mike’s opinion is that there has to be someone better qualified than Ormsby.  Mike advised his listeners to call Sen Patti Murray (here) and Sen Maria Cantwell (here) and ask them to withdraw Ormsby nomination.  Mike also said to contact US Representative Cathy McMorris Rogers (here) to express concern about Ormsby’s nomination.

Ron the Cop

The Case Against Mike Ormsby’s nomination for U.S. Attorney

By Tim Connor, former Senior Editor, Camas Magazine

Spokane attorney Mike Ormsby, the brother of state Representative Timm Ormsby, has been nominated by Senator Patty Murray to be the next U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. If he’s confirmed, Ormsby will succeed Jim McDevitt, a Republican who, coincidentally, worked alongside Ormsby in the Spokane offices of Preston, Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates) in putting together the fraudulent River Park Square garage transaction in 1996 to 1999. 

The beneficiary of the corrupt RPS transaction was the family that publishes Spokane’s only daily newspaper, the Cowles family.  

This backgrounder looks at Ormsby’s roles. It draws heavily upon my reporting and Larry Shook’s reporting at Camas Magazine but, as you’ll see, the primary source I’ve relied on here is the lengthy 2004 report by the Internal Revenue Service’s Tax Exempt Bond Unit. The IRS-TEB report names and criticizes Ormsby repeatedly for his role in organizing and facilitating activities that violated federal tax rules in order to deliver $10 million or more in illicit bond proceeds to the Cowles family.

The Bond Buyer publication reported in December 2007 that the IRS TEB subsequently referred Ormsby’s name to the Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility for disciplinary action because of his role the RPS transactions. IRS-OPR responded with four separate allegations of unethical and “disreputable” conduct that resulted in a settlement with Ormsby and another Preston attorney David O. Thompson. As part of the settlement, according to the Bond Buyer, IRS publicly named Ormsby and Thompson.

The consequences of the River Park Square frauds fell most heavily on the City of Spokane because of a successful federal securities fraud action brought by Nuveen, Vanguard and other RPS garage bond purchasers. Even though Ormsby and McDevitt’s firm settled their liability for $1.3 million (with an agreement to also cover the tax liability for bondholders) the City of Spokane was nonetheless stuck with approximately $40 million in principle and interest payments to finance the settlement with garage bondholders. 

BACKGROUND

Public corruption was at the heart of the River Park Square transaction. The beneficiary was the Cowles family, which publishes Spokane’s only daily newspaper, owns its NBC-TV affiliate, and has vast private holdings in the Spokane-area, including valuable real estate in the City’s downtown core.

In 1995, the Cowles family approached Spokane officials to seek their help in expanding and rebuilding the family’s River Park Square shopping center adjacent to City Hall and Riverfront Park. Embedded in this public/private partnership was an unlawful scheme to remodel a downtown parking garage owned by the Cowles family, manipulate its value by rigging new appraisals, and then transfer the garage to a public entity (backed by the City of Spokane) so that upwards of $10 million in illicit profits would flow to the family-owned development company. 

Mr. Ormsby’s role was to broker the garage transaction. As bond counsel and lead attorney for the entity that financed the sale with a $31.5 million tax exempt bond issue, Ormsby helped put the deal together and played a pivotal role in proceeding with the transaction when it was clear that he and others knew, privately, that it wouldn’t work. He then helped to try to cover it up by signing a confidentiality agreement in which he promised to keep secret a document that was clearly a public record under Washington’s open public records law. City officials and developer Betsy Cowles repeatedly defended the garage transfer as an arms-length transaction. But the evidence is overwhelming that it wasn’t.

“It is clear from the facts of this case,” IRS investigators wrote in their June 2004 report, “the [RPS] developer had, and continues to have, a particular relationship with the City of Spokane and the Issuer/Foundation such that it was in a position to control or influence its activities.”

Mr. Ormsby was at the forefront of enabling the “particular relationship” so that the Cowles family could reap millions in illicit profits from the deal, at public expense. Bondholders got their money back because they sued, successfully, for securities fraud. Spokane taxpayers were not so lucky and remain on the hook for the tens of millions of dollars it took for the City to settle claims against it by bondholders. 

SPECIFICS

Here are the basic facts as gathered by Camas Magazine, KXLY-TV, the Internal Revenue Service’s Tax Exempt Bond Unit, and lawyers representing Nuveen, Vanguard and other RPS garage bondholders who successfully sued the City of Spokane and other parties for securities fraud in 2001. 

*In 1994 to 1996, the financial ground rules for the River Park Square project were conceived, in secret, by members and political/business allies of the Cowles family. In addition to the $22.65 million federally-backed loan the City extended, the family also wanted tens of millions in cash for the garage, even though the actual costs were less than $13 million and an appraisal commissioned by the City put the market value at just $12 million. The garage’s market value, by the IRS’s calculation, “at best was $15 million.”  Yet, the Cowles family insisted on receiving at least $26 million for the garage, plus continued, grossly inflated payments of “ground rent” on the facility. The financing of the fraudulent garage transaction was via proceeds from tax-exempt bonds. The bonds were sold in 1998. The garage changed hands in late 1999.

*As the U.S. Internal Revenue Service reported in June 2004, the River Park Square garage project violated numerous provisions of federal tax law, including restrictions that limit the enrichment of private developers with tax exempt bond proceeds. IRS found that the transaction was also replete with “concealment” and “public deception,” the purpose of which was to “unjustly enrich and profit” Cowles family real estate companies. 

*The overpayment for the garage and land rent was generated by fraudulent appraisal practices that were, according to IRS, “a notch in the post of public deception” and structured so that no matter how the transaction unfolded, the Cowles family would take millions of dollars in excessive profits while the city and taxpayers would be left with the risks. As the IRS put it in its report, “the casino was rigged.”

*Mike Ormsby played several key roles in the River Park Square transaction. 

1) In August of 1996, Ormsby was contracted by the River Park Square project director to work directly for RPS on the garage project, advising RPS on bond financing issues related to the garage transaction. 

2) The Spokane Downtown Foundation (SDF) was created as a Washington state Nonprofit Corporation in November of 1996 by lawyers working for River Park Square. The sole purpose of the SDF was to issue bonds and buy the River Park Square garage, “on behalf of” the City of Spokane, from the Cowles family. As the IRS noted in its report, Cowles family representatives recruited Ormsby to be the SDF’s lawyer. In addition, Ormsby’s firm, Preston, Gates & Ellis, was hired to be bond counsel to the SDF and, thus, had primary responsibilities to the SDF and to securities buyers for ensuring the bond issue complied with Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and IRS rules governing the transaction.  

3) When Spokane Mayor-elect John Talbott raised questions about the wisdom of the $22.65 million HUD-backed loan to the Cowles family in late 1997, Ormsby lobbied the office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray to encourage her support for the loan. He did this with a lengthy December 3, 1997 memo to the Senator’s Eastern Washington representative, Judy Olson. The memo did not disclose Ormsby’s role in the River Park Square garage transaction and the fact that he and his firm expected to receive more than $83,000 in bond proceeds for his work and the firm’s work on the garage transaction.

4) As bond counsel for the bonds issuer, Ormsby and his firm had clear duties to disclose all material facts regarding the garage transaction. But key material facts known to Ormsby were not disclosed. Among them:

a) The bond issuer, the SDF, was created by agents acting at the behest of RPS developer Betsy Cowles. 

b) Ormsby’s work directly for River Park Square (the seller) before becoming the lead counsel for the SDF (the buyer) was not disclosed. (Indeed, in October 2003, the SDF board filed papers in federal court alleging that Ormsby had not disclosed–even to them–his prior work for River Park Square on the garage transaction.)

c) The official statement for the bond issue indicated that the SDF had participated in negotiations over the purchase price of the garage. But, as IRS noted in its report: “the price was determined prior to the issuer [the SDF] being created.” 

5) Ormsby had been working closely on the RPS garage transaction for three years when a dispute between RPS and a major mall tenant, AMC Theatres, threatened to blow up the whole deal. In short, AMC had just learned that its customers, as part of the garage transfer, would no longer be allowed to park for free in the garage. This was critical because about half the garage revenues, beginning in 1999, were expected to come from AMC customers. Indeed, the garage purchase price of $26 million was predicated on AMC customers paying $1.50 an hour to park. To solve crisis, the new public entity operating the garage decided, with encouragement from RPS, to slash evening parking rates to placate AMC. But this solution presented a huge cash flow problem, putting the investment of garage bondholders at risk. It also clearly put City taxpayers at risk because part of the inner workings of the complicated garage transaction was a lien against City parking meter revenues that was needed to give the bonds an investment grade rating from Standard & Poors. A plan was worked out whereby Ormsby would make an appeal to the RPS developer to adjust the $26 million purchase price downward, to compensate for the severe drop in forecasted garage revenues caused by the evening rate reduction. As Betsy Cowles bluntly reported in her deposition in the RPS securities fraud proceedings, her answer was “no.” And, yet, Ormsby and Preston Gates went ahead with the transaction anyway, without notifying the public or garage bond purchasers.

6) Ormsby also directly participated in a cover-up to help ensure that the public, and RPS critics on the Spokane City Council, did not learn of the AMC crisis before the garage transaction was completed in the fall of 1999. On behalf of the SDF, Ormsby secretly agreed to a reimbursement agreement whereby RPS would compensate for the loss of parking revenue but only if AMC “vacates the premises covered by the lease.” There was no provision in the secret agreement to compensate for the expected $1.2 million annual loss of parking revenue caused by the the rate reduction. Simultaneous with the reimbursement agreement, Ormsby signed a contract with RPS promising to keep the agreement secret, provided that RPS agreed to pay any court fees and penalties associated with the withholding of the document in violation of the state’s open public records law.

Here’s how the IRS characterized the overpayment and the secrecy agreement in its June 2004 report: “The direct result of the payment, the concealment (confidentiality agreement) and the certification by the developer on the purchase agreement unjustly enriched the developer with $10 million or more dollars of the Issuer/Foundation assets.” 

Again, IRS unequivocally concluded that Ormsby played a central role in the payment and the concealment.

It’s regrettable that Mr. Ormsby wasn’t prosecuted, criminally, for fraud given the well-documented evidence of his involvement in the RPS garage transaction. (I continue to believe that his former law partner’s appointment as U.S. Attorney in 2001, discouraged a meaningful and timely criminal investigation.) 

According to the Bond Buyer publication (December 2007), however, the IRS Tax Exempt Bond Unit did refer Mr. Ormsby and David Thompson, another Preston Gates attorney, to the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility for disciplinary actions related to the RPS transaction. The Bond Buyer reported that IRS-OPR subsequently alleged that Ormsby and David O. Thompson of Preston Gates committed four ethics violations involving lack of diligence, conflict of interest, failure to uphold standards for tax return positions, and incompetence and disreputable conduct.

The allegations, according to the Bond Buyer, were settled with an agreement that the two lawyers would be publicly named and that they would agree to added oversight and documentation of their due diligence activities on transactions. Although IRS described the agreement to the Bond Buyer as “groundbreaking,” it appears not to have been “groundbreaking” enough to have removed Mr. Ormsby from consideration as a U.S. Attorney.

Documents cited in this piece, including the 2004 IRS report on the RPS garage fraud, are available upon request from the author.

SCROLL FOR UPDATES

Ron T. Cop addressed the Spokane City Council on February 23, 2009.  See my formal demand letter for the immediate inspection of the RPS parking garage.  I was reading from a prepared statement but Council President Shogun called time before I could finish the last paragraph.

UPDATE – Challenge to the publisher of the Spokemans-Review

Dear Mr. Cowles,

I appeared before the Spokane City Council on Feb 23, 2009.  I addressed the Council regarding my demand for the immediate inspection of the RPS parking garage as an imminent public hazard because of an ongoing series of alleged illegal acts by public officials e.g, non inspection of the RPS parking garage expansion and after retrofits after the death of Jo Savage.  It is my profession opinion that the proximate cause of Jo Savage’s death was the culmination of these illegal acts which I believe the facts and circumstances arise to the level of a 1st Degree Manslaughter under Washington state law, .

I provided at the Council meeting to your City Government Reporter Jonathan Brunt, who BTW is an excellent journalist, with copies of my formal demand, prepared statement I submitted to Council as well as a DVD copy of Larry’s Shook’s major investigative report that was released last week.  This video and report can be viewed here:

http://www.girlfromhotsprings.com/

I find it interesting that Brunt’s last story in the S-R regarding the very damning sworn statement from Rex Franklin was carried off the lead page of the local section and was given a nondescript headline.  Was this a case of burying the lede? I also find it interesting that this story was not run by the AP even though the somewhat related story by Jim Camden and Bill Morlin of the nomination of Mike Ormsby to US Atty of the Eastern District of WA was released to the AP wire service.  As an aside in my opinion Ormsby has more culpability in the RPS bond fraud than Jim McDevitt.  So far the S-R has been mum regarding Shook’s report.

I’m sure your are aware of my professional  opinion regarding the “under reporting” of the RPS story et al by the Spokesman-Review:

“This is a very unique situation where you have a newspaper that is an instrumentality of criminal activity,” says Wright. “The principals in Spokane’s organized criminal enterprise, the Cowles family, use their newspaper to control public opinion and deflect the hue and cry [that would result] from the public if they were informed.”

Wright reels off a series of other Camas stories that further support his allegations. “Look at ‘Breaking the News’” he says. “It shows developer Betsy Cowles editing a Spokesman-Review story for the purpose of deceiving the public about the true costs of the River Park Square garage.”

Another piece “shows that the city’s own bond counsel was advising the Spokesman-Review publisher how to spin the story about the securities fraud case and that ‘He is very, very concerned that his handprints are not on any of these ideas.’”

. . . “I believe based on my training, education, and investigative experience that these [facts Wright presented] are part of an ongoing criminal enterprise/conspiracy in Spokane. There is group of individuals [who] at different times have acted individually and/or in concert together to commit criminal acts with the knowledge and approval of this group headed by the Cowles Co. This criminal enterprise/conspiracy has successfully plundered the public treasury of $100 millions of dollars [sic] through successive quasi public/private projects in Spokane.”

. . . That question goes to the second reason Wright says he planted the seed of RICO: he wanted to telegraph his own plans. He quotes from the Civil Recourse section of RICO under USC 1962: “Section 1964 (c) permits any person whose property or business has been injured by a RICO violation to recover treble damages, plus costs of the suit and reasonable attorneys’ fees.”

“I have now documented that I have made multiple requests of law enforcement and government officials to do their jobs and properly investigate the evidence of RPS-related crime that I have provided them,” says Wright. “I’ll give them a chance to do their jobs. Because of the statute of limitations on Savage’s death, they don’t have much time left. If they don’t do their jobs, I intend to bring a civil RICO action against the perpetrators of River Park Square, which includes every complicit public official. I’m now in the process of searching for representation from a major class-action law firm.”

My opinion is based on speaking with former City Councilperson Cherie Rodgers, Tim Connor, Larry Shook, former Sheriff Tony Bamonte, former Mayor John Talbott, KXLY Station Manager Steve Herling, Councilpersons Bob Apple and Steve Corker, and many others.  I have reviewed the Camas Magazine reporting and documents that stand alone on their face as direct evidence of the RPS bond fraud by this ongoing criminal enterprise and conspiracy.  I read the IRS ruling disallowing the tax-exempt status of the first RPS bonds as reported by Camas Magazine in “The Casino was Rigged.”  I should note that the IRS in its ruling relied on Camas Magazine reporting and its documentation. I have reviewed the Fancher Report that was written in the 70’s that chronicles the Cowles Co dynasty in Spokane over the last one hundred years. I have also reviewed the “Joint Omnibus Statement” prepared by the RPS bondholders’ attorney Gary Ceriani.  I filed a PDR with the City of Spokane for what are known collectively as the “O. Yale Lewis documents” and have read them.  I have read Larry Shook’s reporting and documentation in, Girl from Hot Springs, which chronicles the death of Jo Savage in the RPS Parking Garage.

I have since filed a demand for a criminal investigation re the alleged non inspection of the RPS parking garage with Sheriff Knezovich and Chief Kirkpatrick . . .

Mr. Cowles the MSM business paradigm is going in the tank.  The MSM no longer exclusively controls the flow of information with the advent of the Internet and the new media/alternative media.  The stock and trade of both the new and old media is what’s it always has been – CREDIBILITY, value, predictability, reliability, and usefulness in one’s own daily life.  The new medium of expression is essentially free.  No longer are large capital expenditures necessary e.g., printing presses and TV/radio transmitters to disseminate news, information, and thoughts of the day.

Mr. Cowles in my experience as a working police detection and president of a large police officers’ association dealing with local political and police beat reporters daily, this story involving potential political corruption at the highest level of local government e.g., the alleged illegal order by former City Manager Pupo to not inspect the RPS parking garage, would be either page one above the fold or at least above the fold on the local section.  Mr. Cowles just like the Madoff $50B Ponzi scheme, this story will eventually break.   Even though the SEC had multiple warnings over some ten years and sat by like a paper tiger, this story and the truth finally emerged.

Mr. Cowles if I’ve misstated the facts in anyway please correct me where I’m in error and I will immediately issue a correction and apology to those receiving this email.  However please don’t marginalize me as Steve Smith former S-R editor did; recklessly impugning my character as well as former Sheriff Bamonte, Larry Shook, and Tim Connor as loons, wackos, little green men et al.

Personally I will not park in the RPS parking garage and neither will my wife. Mr. Cowles will the S-R be reporting this story?  If not, why?

Sincerely,

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

UPDATE II:

My followup email to Sheriff Knezovich and Chief Kirkpatrick re my formal demand for a criminal investigation as to why former Spokane City Manager Pupo ordered that the RPS parking garage expansion would not be inspected as alleged by two former city officials:

Dear Sheriff Knezovich and Chief Kirkpatrick,

In my last email to you I demanded a formal investigation into the allegation by two former City of Spokane employees that former City Manger Bill Pupo ordered that there would be no inspection of the RPS garage during its renovation and expansion at the behest of Betsy Cowles the owner/developer.   This order if true would be highly unusual for any public official charged with building inspection.  This goes against all reason why the state empowers cities and counties to inspect buildings and other structures to issue certificates of occupancy to protect the public safety.

There are several potential law violations here.  Obviously there is probable cause to believe that Mr. Pupo received some inducement or other benefit that caused him to fail to performing an official act that he was required to do:

RCW 9A.80.010 Official misconduct.

(1) A public servant is guilty of official misconduct if, with intent to obtain a benefit or to deprive another person of a lawful right or privilege:

(a) He intentionally commits an unauthorized act under color of law; or

(b) He intentionally refrains from performing a duty imposed upon him by law.

(2) Official misconduct is a gross misdemeanor.

and more seriously based on the ongoing criminal enterprise/nature that surrounds the RPS bond fraud – bribery:

RCW 9A.68.010 Bribery.

(1) A person is guilty of bribery if:

(a) With the intent to secure a particular result in a particular matter involving the exercise of the public servant’s vote, opinion, judgment, exercise of discretion, or other action in his official capacity, he offers, confers, or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit upon such public servant; or

(b) Being a public servant, he requests, accepts, or agrees to accept any pecuniary benefit pursuant to an agreement or understanding that his vote, opinion, judgment, exercise of discretion, or other action as a public servant will be used to secure or attempt to secure a particular result in a particular matter.

(2) It is no defense to a prosecution under this section that the public servant sought to be influenced was not qualified to act in the desired way, whether because he had not yet assumed office, lacked jurisdiction, or for any other reason.

(3) Bribery is a class B felony.

 

RCW 9A.68.050 Trading in special influence.

(1) A person is guilty of trading in special influence if:

(a) He offers, confers, or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit upon another person pursuant to an agreement or understanding that such other person will offer or confer a benefit upon a public servant or procure another to do so with intent thereby to secure or attempt to secure a particular result in a particular matter; or

(b) He requests, accepts, or agrees to accept any pecuniary benefit pursuant to an agreement or understanding that he will offer or confer a benefit upon a public servant or procure another to do so with intent thereby to secure or attempt to secure a particular result in a particular matter.

(2) Trading in special influence is a class C felony.

 

All three are offenses fall that fall within the definition of “criminal profiteering” under the “Criminal Profiteering Act” as defined in Chapter 9A.82 RCW.  In my opinion the failure to conduct onsight inspections of the RPS parking garage directly resulted in the later death of Ms. Jo Savage.  I believe the facts and circumstances surrounding her death amount to a 1st Degree Manslaughter RCW 9A.32.50.  Unfortunately this class of homicide is not included in the definition of “criminal profiteering.

I have yet to hear back from you on the progress of your investigation.  Is there a police report number assigned to my complaint?  If not why?  Do I need to physically come into your offices to file a formal complaint?

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

UPDATE III:

S-R Reporter Jonathan Brunt has now filed this story re the demand for an immediate inspection of the RPS parking garage.  Be sure to read the comments posted re this story.  Dennis Berringer is strongly sticking by his story.  Berringer is strongly sticking by his story.  Nick Dragisich as quoted in Brunt’s story s backing off on his earlier confirmation he gave to Shook back before the Savage death.

UPDATE IV:

The “inspection/non inspection” of the RPS parking garage is really only a “red herring” to confuse the facts and circumstances surrounding Savage manslaughter death.  See this discussion I had with the attorney that represented the Savage family in their civil action against the owners of the parking garage.

The following comments were sent to both Sheriff Knezovich and Chief Kirkpatrick re this issues:

 FYI – Re spandrels “as built” meeting building code standards as alleged by the Cowles is a red herring.  Bottom line they had knowledge these barriers were failing many times in the same manner that killed Savage.  There are now two depo’s describing similar incidents however the cars hung on their undercarriage and did not go over.  The Cowles knew and did nothing for FIFTEEN years for economic reasons.  From the bond fraud and Franklin statements, re fully depreciating the garage and keeping two sets of books, it is very evident that Cowles were going to off load this accumulating liability in the RPS garage  onto the City.  This backfired when title to the garage was passed back to them in the RPS “baikout”. Yes, witness statements as of right now will only get Jim Cowles.  I would use a grand jury to get testimony to link Stacey and Betsy Cowles having the same knowledge and failing to act e.g., Bill Pupo.

[Reply to Savage’s attorney]

Thx for your reply and confirmation of my assessment.

Ron

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 4:08 PM

Ron:

I think you have their contention (WJE–Cowles).  Obviously, that accepts their assumptions about the underlying strength of the concrete.

Rob

 

---

From: rocketsbrain
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 4:00 PM
Subject: Re discussion of RPS barriers, design, and placement of rebar.

Just so that I’m clear re our panel discussion.  I’m reading from WJE final report 07-18-06. The “as designed” specs for maximum design load require the rebar to be installed at a depth of 3″ from the inside surface.  From what we discussed the rebar location is critical and the optimum distance from the neutral or center of the panel is towards the outside surface of the panel.  I’m guessing this distance should be 3″ from the inside surface of the nominal 5″ panel width.  The failed panel in the Savage death the average depth was 3.28″.  WJE using their Ferroscan scanning of the actual rebar depth found the average depth of panels to be 3.45″.  From the preliminary WJE report of 05-12-06 you mentioned as you note in this report under “Conclusions and Discussion” the placement of the rebar away from the neutral axis results in a loss of capacity of 52 percent but however would still resist the design live load of 6000 pounds as required by the current 2003 IBC.  So what is the optimum depth from the inside surface?

I find it laughable that they are quibbling re the early 1970s vintage panels only have to withstand gravity and wind loading and not crashes by cars.  Many of these 1970’s panels from the south side of the structure were recycled into the expansion.  I also find it interesting the WJE was finding fault with Hinzman re their analysis of the panel loading.  However Hinzman correctly though pointed out the elephant standing in the room – the barriers were failing with regularity whether they met standard or not.  They made the common sense recommendation to remedy the danger would be to install cables so that vehicles would not impact the barriers.  According to Franklin they did not follow through on this recommendation for economic reasons.  WJE glosses over the owner’s knowledge and attendant liability saying without intrusive detection methods there was no way for the owners to know the barriers “as built” were anything less than the “as designed” standard.  The bottom line is that the standard was not preventing the failure of the barriers.  I think Eugster’s observation [See attached letter] is salient re the definition of what a “vehicle barrier” as intended in the IBC as opposed to this cantilevered design of the RPS barriers is why while testing to standard the RPS barriers fail with regularity when struck by vehicles.

All I have to say is DAH – the standard is meaningless if the barriers are failing as Franklin states or they are stretching the standard to fit this cantilevered design.   Franklin confirms at least rescuing the occupants of one vehicle hanging over the edge and now we have another vehicle hanging in a similar manner in 1999 based on the new depo I was not aware. My speculation is that longer wheeled based vehicle will high center and become stuck on their frame.  Unfortunately in Ms. Savage’s case a short wheeled base car will not be so fortunate and will be pulled over.

How much notice does the owner need!

[Docs and engineering reports mentioned above can be found here:

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/sections/rpscrash/
http://www.spokesman.com/sections/rpscrash/

or here:

http://www.girlfromhotsprings.com/documents.html ]

A Bleg from Lorie Byrd of Wizbang:

I really need your help. Don’t worry, I am not asking for money.

I am working on one of the subcommittees that will be reporting to the RNC regarding tech/grassroots.  We are trying to get as many ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. as possible from as many people as possible.  If you have ever criticized the RNC, this is the time to make your voice heard because they are listening.  If there is anything you believe the RNC has done right, this is the time to let them know so they can do more of it.

Please post a link to http://rncroots.org/  and embed the code for the form in your blog post to allow your readers to submit their ideas.  If you embed the code in your blog post, any forms coming in through your blog will be indicated as such.  In other words, the RNC will know whose readers are active and participating and that will help them determine which blogs provide the best outreach to the grassroots in the future.  If you want to be heard, and want to let your readers be heard, please post the link and embed code.  I am asking that if possible you post tomorrow morning for a “blogburst” effect.

Lorie Byrd

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Spokane, WA

Contact:

Ron Wright
nar9350@gmail.com

*****

February 23, 2009

Dear Mayor Verner and City Council Members,

I do not take this action lightly.  Please see my attached formal demand letter for the immediate public inspection of the RPS parking garage sent by “certified” US Mail to City Clerk Terri Pfister on 02-21-09.  There are now compelling “on the record” statements by Rex Franklin, Dennis Beringer, Nick Dragisich, Steve Rudd, and former Sheriff Bamonte that call into question the structural integrity of the RPS parking garage.  These statements coupled with the information contained in Larry Shook’s latest very damning investigative report:

‘Deathtrap’

Cowles media dynasty called hub of
organized crime by two former lawmen

Woman died, public threatened because of
government collusion with powerful family, they say

raise a significant public safety issue – whether the RPS parking garage is safe for continued public occupancy.  In my opinion this information demands immediate action on your part to ensure the publics’ safety.  As I conclude in my demand letter:

Mayor Verner and members of the City Council whether these allegation[sic] are true or not you have a duty and responsibility to ensure the public safety of the citizens of Spokane.  In my opinion a compelling argument has been made to require the immediate inspection of the RPS parking garage to determine whether these allegations have any merit.

. . . It is my opinion that the proximate cause of Savage’s death was a  series of criminal acts by an ongoing criminal enterprise led by the Cowles Co that culminated in her death. [My empasis]

. . . Failure to act now is at your own personal peril.  I fully intend to initiate a civil class action RICO suit on behalf of the citizens of Spokane regarding the RPS bond fraud and obstruction of justice in the Savage [18 U.S.C. § 1964(c)] [My emphasis]

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

[Photo Caption] Former garage manager Rex Franklin secures damaged portion of barrier at RPS garage after vehicle impact (Dan Pelle file photo/ March 11, 1991) [Spokesman-Review]

*****

ORIGINAL SENT BY
Certified US Mail

February 21, 2009

Mary Verner, Mayor
City Council Members
City of Spokane
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Spokane, WA 99201

Re:  Formal Demand for immediate inspection of RPS parking garage as an imminent public safety hazard

Mayor Verner and City Council Members:

I am enclosing DVD copies of Larry Shook’s video that he released with his major investigative report last week on the RPS bond fraud and the death of Jo Savage in the RPS parking garage.  Shook’s comprehensive report can be found here:

http://www.girlfromhotsprings.com/

S-R Reporter Jonathan Brunt recently wrote a story about a sworn statement  he received by Rex Franklin a former RPS parking garage manger.  The Franklin statement if true is quite damning and goes directly to the specific intent of the RPS garage owners in failing to make critical repairs to these parking barriers.  According to Franklin these barriers were failing two or three times a year in the same manner that caused the death of Jo Savage.  Franklin’s statement was obtained during the prior civil action by David Savage regarding his former wife’s, Jo Savage, horrifying death in the RPS parking garage in April of 2006 (See Franklin’s attached statement).

It is my belief that Franklin’s statement and other evidence obtained during the Savage civil action were obtained by the US Attorney’s Office in their review of the RPS bond fraud and the Savage death case.  The US Attorney’s Office took the unprecedented action of releasing this evidence secured using the subpoena power of a federal grand jury to Co Prosecutor Steve Tucker to review the facts and circumstances of Savage’s death under the “negligent homicide” provisions of Washington state law.  I believe Tucker is attempting to run the clock out on the statute of limitations on the Savage manslaughter case which will toll on April 8, 2009.   I’ve written both Sheriff Knezovich and Chief Kirkpatrick and formally demanded they conduct a complete, thorough and transparent Investigation of Jo Savage’s death in the RPS Parking Garage (Spokane PD Report #06-10161) independent of any action of Tucker.  No such investigation to my knowledge has yet been done.

Shook’s report also has “on the record” statements from former city officials, Dennis Beringer and Nick Dragisich, that former City Manager Bill Pupo ordered that the RPS parking garage would not be inspected during the expansion.  Beringer and Dragisich say Pupo received this direction from the RPS developer (Betsy Cowles):

Bamonte considers the DOJ investigation a fraud itself for the simple reason that investigators did not interview key witnesses. As he was quoted in “Death by Parking,” former city real estate manager Dennis Beringer says former assistant city manager Nick Dragisich informed department managers that the city would not inspect the Cowles garage based on orders of the developer. Beringer says he was not contacted by federal investigators. Beringer stays in touch with Dragisich, who now lives in Minnesota. Beringer emailed Dragisich on Saturday, January 17, 2009, to ask if any investigators had yet contacted him about the garage. “No,” Dragisich emailed right back, “but I would tell them everything I know.”

“Those are key witnesses concerning Savage’s death,” says Bamonte. “Both are on record saying that the city obeyed orders from the River Park Square developer not to inspect the RPS garage. There is simply no excuse for ignoring that kind of evidence of public corruption.” [My emphasis]

Shook’s report also contains a statement by Steve Rudd:

Steve Rudd, a highly commended former construction fraud investigator who worked as a laborer on the River Park Square renovation, shares the worries of former sheriff Bamonte and former City of Spokane real estate manager Beringer about the garage’s safety.

“In all my years in construction, that’s the only project I’ve ever been on where I never saw concrete being tested or work being inspected. It was also a very dangerous site. There were OSHA [federal worker safety] violations all over the place. Fire retardant chemicals were improperly handled, and there was widespread worker illness as a result.” [My emphasis]

Even more troubling, Rudd says he saw extensive evidence of the “advanced deterioration” of the RPS structure while he was working on it. “I think it should have been completely torn down, not remodeled,” he says.

Sheriff Bamonte deemed these RPS structural integrity issues an imminent public hazard and called this to your attention.   Sheriff Bamonte is also alleging that the RPS parking garage was never inspected after the repair work was completed after Savage’s death.  As of yet I haven’t seen any affirmative action by the City regarding Bamonte’s allegations.  With already one death in the RPS parking garage from a structural failure, the apparent lack of inspection of the RPS parking garage during its expansion and after the repairs made after Savage’s death, you have a significant duty and  responsibility to the public to act to either confirm or disprove Bamonte’s serious allegations.  This is especially true in light of the statements of Franklin, Beringer, Dragisich and Rudd, which largely corroborate each other.

In my opinion the key engineering report, Atwood Hinzman 1993, commissioned by the garage owners presciently warned:

Commissioned by the River Park Square developer, this engineering firm evaluated the pre-cast concrete wall panels after the “complete failure” of a panel. Further testing was done by Budinger and Associates (attached). Atwood concluded, “In our opinion, the panels are not resisting the required lateral loading of 6000# although the engineering analysis indicates they should… It is our understanding that several panels cracked in the past when they were struck in a similar way.” . . .

It appears we have contradictory information, and an informed decision with respect to load capacity can’t be made.  There are two logical solutions to the problem:

(1)  Remove and test load a panel to failure so the load capacity can be established.

(2) Assume that the panel will fail and add steel cables to stop vehicles before they impact the panels. [My emphasis]

In short the real engineering issue is not whether these barriers meet any building standards but that these barriers were FAILING with regularity.  This fact was largely ignored in the latter reports by the owners’ engineering report by WJE and as reviewed by the City’s outside engineering firm LSB.  LSB made many corrections to WJE’s proposed repairs.  Without subsequent City inspections how does the public know if the garage owners ever implemented LSB’s corrections and concerns?

Whether one finds Steve Eugster’s comments useful or not, I find his letter of 05-17-06 to City Building & Enforcement Department Head, Joe Wizner, particularly cogent.  Eugster’s nails it when he states that the RPS parking barriers as designed and built do not meet the definition of “vehicle barriers” as found in IBC Section 1607.7.3.  These “L” shape barriers are nothing more than decorative panels.  These panels as designed and built do not transfer the required horizontal loading force of 6,000 lbs to the structure.  In fact the cantilevered nature of these panels out over the parking deck multiply the horizontal force caused by a striking vehicle to a fulcrum point at the edge of the parking deck.  This is exact point where these barriers typically fail and most likely will continue to fail even after the repairs made after the Savage death.

Mayor Verner and members of the City Council whether these allegation[sic] are true or not you have a duty and responsibility to ensure the public safety of the citizens of Spokane.  In my opinion a compelling argument has been made to require the immediate inspection of the RPS parking garage to determine whether these allegations have any merit. You now potentially have criminal knowledge.  It is my opinion that the proximate cause of Savage’s death was a series of criminal acts by an ongoing criminal enterprise led by the Cowles Co that culminated in her death.  I would caution not to rely on legal advice of the City Attorney’s office, as it may be suspect.  I would seek legal advice of your own personal counsel.   In my opinion the City Attorney’s Office is complicit in the RPS bond fraud and subsequent efforts to conceal illegal acts by former and current City officials and employees.

Failure to act now is at your own personal peril.  I fully intend to initiate a civil class action RICO suit on behalf of the citizens of Spokane regarding the RPS bond fraud and obstruction of justice in the Savage [18 U.S.C. § 1964(c)]:

. . . permits any person whose property or business has been injured by a RICO violation to recover treble damages, plus costs of the suite and reasonable attorney’s fees.

Sincerely,

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

3327 N. Indian Trail PMB 135
Spokane, WA  99208

(Ron in his former life before retirement)

Larry Shook of Camas Magazine has just released this devasting investigative piece regarding the horrifying fall in her of Jo Savage from the RPS parking garage and the $100M RPS bond fraud scheme run by the Cowles:

Deathtrap in Spokane

I just received this comment from a friend with this excellent article in The Village Voice on the world’s economic meltdown.

AMEN!  I said there are high folks on both sides of the aisle and in boardrooms that must be held accountable for their lack of due diligence and duty to the people e.g., go to jail and assets forfeited! Here’s the way to do it.  It’s all laid out in the US DOJ’s procedure manual for prosecuting RICO cases.

Like in Spokane (AKA Little Chicago) this a classic case of lack of sheepdogs willing or capable to ward off the wolves from preying on the flock.  This is nothing more than a “con game” by crooks “cooking the books” in a pyramid scheme knowing full well the bubble would burst and placed bets that it would!

We shouldn’t reward them with any bailout money and should seize all their assets. President Obama are you game to change the status quo?  This is the change the people are demanding – not business as usual by another set of crooks now in power.

These folks need to be taken down like any ordinary crooks that run con/fraud schemes on the flock.  They are not above the law.

Book’em Danno!

—

RBT

AKA Ron the Cop
http://friendsofmarkfuhrman.org/blog/
*****

Thanks, Edward. This Village Voice story is a superb piece of reporting. Better than any I’ve seen, it explains the “gangsterization” of government that lead to our present economic crisis. It shows how it came from “control fraud” stemming from the top tier of corporate leadership. And it explains why the current bailout scheme “often seems to be completing the scam by quietly passing the proceeds” to beneficiaries of the fraud instead of its taxpayer victims. It explains why RICO prosecution is the only real solution, and how President Obama, with his Wall Street background, is smart enough to know that. Does Obama have the backbone to engage in an epic confrontation with white collar criminals in order to protect the desperately hopeful citizens who elected him? His first two weeks in office are very discouraging. If Obama can look into his soul and find a purpose that matches the rhetoric that sent him to office he has a chance of becoming one of history’s greatest leaders. If not, if there’s no “there” there, Bernie Madoff will likely look like a Boy Scout compared to our charismatic new President. I commend this article to every citizen wishing to hold government accountable. So much hangs in the balance. Best, Larry

WHAT COOKED THE WORLDS’ ECONOMY? NOT YOUR OVERDUE MORTGAGE

Sunday, 01 February 2009

By James Lieber

Reprinted from VILLAGE VOICE

[In this succinct article, James Lieber presents a clear and concise saga of
the global economic crisis and demonstrates its origin in fraud, from liar
loans to hedge funds on life support–all implemented through
incomprehensible FRAUD.–CB]

It’s 2009. You’re laid off, furloughed, foreclosed on, or you know someone
who is. You wonder where you’ll fit into the grim new semi-socialistic
post-post-industrial economy colloquially known as “this mess.”

You’re astonished and possibly ashamed that mutant financial instruments
dreamed up in your great country have spawned worldwide misery. You can’t
comprehend, much less trim, the amount of bailout money parachuting into the
laps of incompetents, hoarders, and miscreants. It’s been a tough century so
far: 9/11, Iraq, and now this. At least we have a bright new president.
He’ll give you a job painting a bridge. You may need it to keep body and
soul together.

The basic story line so far is that we are all to blame, including
homeowners who bit off more than they could chew, lenders who wrote absurd
adjustable-rate mortgages, and greedy investment bankers.

Credit derivatives also figure heavily in the plot. Apologists say that
these became so complicated that even Wall Street couldn’t understand them
and that they created “an unacceptable level of risk.” Then these blowhards
tell us that the bailout will pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the
credit arteries and save the patient, which is the world’s financial system.
It will take time—maybe a year or so—but if everyone hangs in there, we’ll
be all right. No structural damage has been done, and all’s well that ends
well.

Sorry, but that’s drivel. In fact, what we are living through is the worst
financial scandal in history. It dwarfs 1929, Ponzi’s scheme, Teapot Dome,
the South Sea Bubble, tulip bulbs, you name it. Bernie Madoff? He’s peanuts.

Credit derivatives—those securities that few have ever seen—are one reason
why this crisis is so different from 1929.
Read More

The door swings slowly open!

I have this feeling we’re watching a very calculated release of information to desensitize folks for the onslaught that is about to occur when the Cowles’ information dam is breached:-)

I still don’t think anyone “testified” in front of a federal grand jury.  It would be nice if someone could clarify this with Assistant US Attorney Westinghouse.

February 5, 2009 in City

Garage manager said he marked wall for replacing

Pullman woman died after car hit panel

Jonathan Brunt / Staff writer

Tags: Cowles Co. garage Jo Ellen Savage Rex Franklin River Park Square steve tucker Terry Goebel

Thirteen years before a woman died when her car hit a wall that gave way at the River Park Square garage, the garage’s manager may have marked the panel to be replaced, according to a 2006 sworn declaration the manager gave about the incident.

In the statement, which was obtained by The Spokesman-Review, former garage manager Rex Franklin said that during a meeting he attended in 1993, mall owners “clearly rejected” a suggestion from a structural engineer to erect cables in front of the walls.

“Rather, I was instructed (to) go through the garage with a can of red spray paint and apply a paint mark to those spandrels I believed should be repaired or replaced,” said Franklin, the garage manager in the early 1990s, in the declaration. “I did as directed and when I finished, I had marked so many spandrels that the RPS owners decided it was not economically feasible to replace all of them.”

River Park Square Attorney Les Weatherhead this week pointed to engineering studies of the walls. He noted that the wall that gave way in April 2006 was one of 15 spandrels, or sections of wall, tested in 1993 after River Park Square hired an engineering firm to study them. The wall was retested after the 2006 incident.

“Both tests concluded that the spandrel was capable of resisting 6,000 pounds or more of force, as prescribed by code requirements at relevant times,” Weatherhead wrote in a letter in response to an inquiry from The Spokesman-Review. “In other words, the actual spandrel was actually tested both before and after the accident and was found in both instances to be within code specifications.”

River Park Square is a subsidiary of the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

In his declaration, which has been in the possession of federal investigators, Franklin said that based on a photo, the wall hit by Jo Ellen Savage’s car appeared to have been marked by him for replacement. He added that based on his observations of the garage “few if any of the spandrels which I had marked for replacement or repair have had the benefit of any attention to date.”

Weatherhead said the engineering report commissioned by the mall after the incident described marks on the panel but made no mention of red paint.

“I have not been able to locate any useful images of the spandrel, nor have I been able to find anyone who can confirm or dispute the presence of any red painted marks on the spandrel that broke,” Weatherhead said.

He said the garage meets code, and he noted that the city reissued a certificate of occupancy after reviewing engineering data about the walls when they were reinforced after the crash in 2006.

The Spokane County prosecuting attorney’s office is investigating if manslaughter charges are applicable in the death of Savage, a Pullman resident whose car fell from the fifth floor of the garage in April 2006. Witnesses said the wall gave way after her car hit the panel at a slow speed. The Cowles Co.’s insurers later agreed to pay more than $1 million to Savage’s family as part of a civil litigation. The garage installed metal bars and plates on the walls at the end of 2006 to increase their strength.

In September, records from a federal grand jury examining the incident were turned over to Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker. Federal officials said no federal charges were applicable. Tucker said last week he is considering asking for assistance on the case from the state attorney general’s office. Attempts made to reach Tucker on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Franklin’s declaration said River Park Square hired engineers to study the walls because of the “relatively frequent spandrel failures” in the early 1990s. He said that after a failure in 1990, the front of a car “rested on its undercarriage on the parking deck as it dangled over the garage’s edge over the walkway below and its front wheels were unsupported.” He described a similar failure in 1991.

Attempts made to reach Franklin this week were unsuccessful.

Franklin’s declaration said the decision not to erect cables came at a meeting that included James P. Cowles, then-president of Citizens Realty, the Cowles Co. subsidiary that oversaw the garage; Robert Robideaux, who was then the manager of River Park Square; and Terry Goebel, owner of Goebel Construction.

Goebel, who said he was interviewed by federal investigators as part of the grand jury probe, said Wednesday that he didn’t recall the 1993 meeting described by Franklin. He noted that River Park Square replaced several panels in the early 1990s. Goebel Construction began doing work on the garage after it was built in 1974.

Cables weren’t erected in front of the walls after 1993 because testing indicated they were stronger than required by code, Goebel said. Goebel added that at the time, plans were beginning for the addition to the garage.

“When the garage was expanded in 1998, there was a lot of work done on the panels,” Goebel said.

The 1993 Atwood-Hinzman study that suggested installing cabling acknowledged “contradictory information.” The study included strength tests conducted by Budinger & Associates that showed the walls “to be well within the generally accepted range for the panels in question,” said Scott Walters, of Budinger & Associates, in the report.

But engineer Richard Atwood wrote that given the previous vehicle collisions with the wall, “it appears that a problem exists” and that “in our opinion, the panels are not resisting the required lateral loading of 6,000 pounds although the engineering analysis indicates that they should.” [My emphasis]

He said one solution to the contradictions would be to “assume the panel will fail and to add steel cables to stop vehicles before they impact the panels.”

After Savage’s death in 2006, River Park Square hired Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates to test the walls. Its report said River Park Square first hired Atwood-Hinzman in 1990 and that the garage took the advice of the firm’s 1990s report that recommended replacing 18 panels. It also argues that Atwood-Hinzman’s 1993 report “did not provide the building owner with a clear direction for future assessment of the remaining vehicle barriers.”

Jonathan Brunt can be reached at jonathanb@spokesman.com or (509) 459-5442.

While we’re at it I thought I would remind the AP of their commitment to run a clarification/correction on their last piece on the RPS bond fraud et al.

ORIGINAL SENT BY
CERTIFIED US MAIL

February 2, 2009

Mr. Tom Curley , President
Associated Press
450 W. 33rd Street
New York, New York 10001

Re: AP Story – No charges in Spokane River Park Square case (Filed by AP Reporter Nicholas K. Geranios, Spokane, WA)

Dear Mr. Curley:

Thank you for you prompt response to my last letter of September 28, 2008.  Mr. Oreskes did email me and had AP regional editor Jody DeJonge contact me by phone.  In my discussion with Ms. DeJonge she gave me a commitment that at the next opportunity the AP would run a clarification.  She also expressed that they would follow-up with Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker re the Savage manslaughter case that was handled off to his office for review by the US. Attorney’s Office.

See my enclosed demand letter to Sheriff Knezovich and Chief Kirkpatrick of January 27, 2009 which is self-explanatory.  As I expressed in an email to Ms. DeJonge now would be a good time to run the follow-up story since S-R Reporter Jonathan Brunt’s most recent story, “State may look into RPS garage death”:

Could this be the time to run your follow-up story to correct the errors in your previous feed after the DOJ press conference that you committed a while back to do:

AP wire story on RPS – A demand for correction

Here’s some original info that S-R Brunt did not have when he wrote this story.  See my demand letter to Sheriff Knezovich and Chief Kirkpatrick along with cover letters to Co Prosecutor Tucker, State AG McKenna, and Gov Gregoire.

Also included is  the US DOJ’s prosecutor’s manual for RICO filings.  Read the definitions, jurisdiction issues,  overt acts, and pattern of criminal activity et al.

I’m still shocked that the US Attorney’s Office didn’t consider using RICO to prosecute this mess in Spokane.

Brunt did a credible job but I’m sure his article was deliberately under reported again by editing from above.  Will the AP again aid and or abet the S-R in this ongoing criminal enterprise/conspiracy?

Thank you for your assistance in correcting your previous article on this very important story that has national implication.

Sincerely,

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

3327 North Indian Trail PMB 135
Spokane, WA 99208

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Attachments:

CD ROM with MS Word .doc copies with HTML text links to reference

CC:  Sheriff Tony Bamonte (former Sheriff of Pend Oreille County)
Larry Shook, Camas Magazine