Ron The Cop

Attorney Michael Ormsby was formally nominated for US Attorney for the Eastern District of WA by President Obama.  Talk about leaving the fox to guard the hen house.  Award winning investigative reporter Tim Connor characterized Ormsby’s nomination as:

. . .  like nominating Bernie Madoff to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. It makes no sense.

Connor has written this piece at the Center for Justice:

An “Ominous” Pick 

Larry Shook, Connor’s former publisher at Spokane Magazine and also an award winning investigative reporter in his own right wrote, this commentary:

The Ominous Mr. Ormsby – The dark implications of a U.S. Attorney nomination

Extensive evidence of Ormsby’s complicity in a multimillion-dollar federal securities fraud was provided to the President, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy in a March 2009 letter sent by a distinguished citizen group. The group has special expertise in the scandal Ormsby was involved in. The letter writers were a former Spokane mayor, a former Spokane city councilwoman, the retired sheriff credited with solving the oldest open murder case in U.S. history, and a multi-award winning journalist whose work was cited in a related securities fraud case and an IRS investigation. . .

I have written this letter in opposition to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  If you would like to contact the Committee before Ormsby’s confirmation hearing, here’s the contact information:

April 15, 2010

The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chair

The Honorable Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member

United States Senate
Committee on the Judiciary
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Re:  Nomination of Michael Ormsby for U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of WA

Dear Senators Leahy and Sessions:

President Obama has recently nominated Michael Ormsby for the position of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.  Mr. Ormsby in completing the Committee’s background questionnaire has knowingly failed to disclose and or concealed material facts that call into question his competency to hold this high office [See questionnaire here]

I support a President’s prerogative to appoint U.S. Attorneys that share his/her legal views.  This presupposes though that these nominees are above reproach in their ethical and professional standards. Mr. Ormsby doesn’t possess these high standards incumbent of being the chief federal law enforcement officer for this district.  Mr. Ormsby in his questionnaire failed to disclosed that the IRS took the unprecedented action of publicly rebuking him for his actions in the River Park Square (RPS) bond fraud as reported in Bond Buyer for,  “ . . . incompetence and disreputable conduct”[My emphasis].  The RPS bond fraud will ultimately cost the Spokane taxpayers a minimum of $87.5 million dollars. Had Mr. Ormsby followed his professional ethics and standards, this bond fraud would have never occurred. 

I would direct the Committee’s attention to the attached Table of References & Sources.  In particular the previous letter written to President Obama protesting the nomination of Mr. Ormsby by prominent Spokane citizens from both sides of the political aisle.  Former mayor John Talbott, former councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, former Pend Oreille sheriff Tony Bamonte, and former Camas magazine senior editor Tim Connor signed this letter.  I have contacted each of them and they still stand by this letter.

I request that the Committee’s investigators and staff review this material prior to the Committee’s confirmation hearing for Mr. Ormsby.  I would further request that the Committee question Mr. Ormsby as to why he failed to disclose this material information.

Sincerely,

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

8921 North Indian Trail Rd., PMB 210

Spokane, WA 99208

Attachment:  Table of References & Sources

Cc: 

President Barack Obama

Honorable Members of the U. S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary

The Honorable Patty Murray – U.S. Senate

The Honorable Maria Cantwell – U.S. Senate

The Honorable Cathy McMorris-Rodgers – U.S. House of Representatives

Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General

*****

Table of Resources & Sources

RW1  IRS report disallowing tax-exempt status of RPS Bonds I – saying the, “Casino was rigged.”

RW2  IRS public rebuke of Michael Ormsby for his actions in the issuance of RPS Bonds I as reported in the Bond Buyer

RW3  The Ominous Mr. Ormsby – A commentary by award winning investigative reporter Larry Shook

RW4  An “Ominous” Pick – An article by award winning investigative reporter Tim Connor

RW5  Attorney Gary Ceriani’s, lead counsel of the successful RPS civil bond fraud case, “91-point Omnibus Statement of Facts” (RPS Bond Frauds I)

 RW6  “RPS Fraud Losses Sustained by the Taxpayers of Spokane”

 RW7   RPS Bond Frauds and Jo Savage Manslaughter RICO Case & Table of Evidence

 RW8   March 9, 2009 letter to President Obama, protesting the Ormsby nomination, signed by former mayor   John Talbott, former councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, former Pend Oreille sheriff Tony Bamonte, and former Camas magazine senior editor Tim Connor.

 RW9  Complaint filed with US Attorney General Eric Holder by former Sheriff Bamonte re RPS Bonds Frauds and the death of Jo Ellen Savage in the RPS Parking Garage & Table of Evidence

 RW10  Professional vitae with my training, education and experience

[NOTE:  This table is online at http://tinyurl.com/y3qedmg with functional hotlinks to source documents]