above picture was posted on Ms Hill Pennington (nee Berg) Instant-gram account open to the public
Our readers should note that the Gold Bar Reporter has never been sued for any reason. We do however make a slight retraction on this original story.
***************** In June 2019, when this story was originally published, we made a clerical error stating that Eastern Oregon University had its accreditation pulled for failing to meet basic US Department of Education guidelines when in fact Eastern Oregon had its accreditation monitored as a result of failing to meet basic US Department of Education guidelines. *******************
In 2017, Crystal Hill Pennington and John Edward Pennington Jr were charged with failing to pay and file tax returns, sued by the Washington State Attorney General’s Office for not paying their taxes and found liable, WA State v John and Crystal Pennington Case No: 17-2-06169-7; and in late 2016, the Gold Bar Reporter sued Crystal Hill Pennington and John Edward Pennington for the tort of forgery and harassment in King County Superior Court Case No: 16-2-26600-2, both were found liable to the Gold Bar Reporter in Block v Penningtons for the tort of forgery.
In an effort to stop our news investigative reports on the Penningtons crime spree, Crystal Hill Pennington and John Edward Pennington Jr filed for a retraining order in Penningtons’ v Block Pierce County Superior Court, Case No: 6Z622286A. The Judge dismissed the Penningtons complaint after a 3.5 hour hearing. At this hearing, Crystal Hill Pennington admitted that she plead guilty to bank fraud and John E Pennington didn’t deny he raped, kidnapped and tried to murder a 5 year old little girl in Cowlitz County Washington 1992. A pedophile.
The Judge held that the Gold Bar Reporter was member of the press. All Pierce County District Court proceedings are audio recorded and a copy of the hearing audio will uploaded within a few days.
As always, we contacted the targets of this story for comment and the only response Crystal Hill Pennington sent was a copy of an order from Special Assistant Attorney General and now US Federal Court Judge Ricardo Martinez stating “you can’t file in Western Washington. ” What Ms. Hill Pennington failed to negate is that we have evidence she was misusing computers at Michelle Hamlin Law School to anonymously cyber-stalk the Gold Bar Reporter just like she and her husband did on their foe website titled “The Sky Valley Chronicle” from 2006 to September 2018. In 2018, Ms. Hill Pennington ( nee Berg) removed the Sky Valley Chronicle from the internet.
On January 5, 2019, a student at Michelle Hamlin ( who apparently experienced the real Crystal, i.e. the nasty, angry, and sociopath lunatic ) wrote to the Gold Bar Reporter explaining that Ms. Hill Pennington was denied entrance into a Juris Doctorate program because she did not qualify because of low LSAT scores and past criminal history, and lied on her applications, but Michelle Hamlin did allow her into their online Executive Juris Doctorate program (EJD Hybrid).
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/venessawong/executive-jd-ejd
An Executive Juris Doctor, by contrast, is not a Juris Doctorate (JD). The EJD program is a roughly three-year commitment of time and money — the exact length as many JD programs (although JD takes four years) — the completion of which does not make EJD students eligible to sit for the bar exam in any state, which means they are unable to practice law despite sitting in many of the same classes as JD students. What students are able to do with the EJD that they couldn’t have done without it is unclear.
Crystal Hill Pennington ( nee Berg) was convicted of bank fraud in 2000, North Carolina, where she served time in jail for failing to adhere to her criminal plea diversion program, Case No: 01710PERQUIMAN2000CR000235, and Case No: 7102000000234CR (warrant for her arrest for failing to adhere to her probation agreement and order ordering her imprisoned), date March 10, 2000, and then a few years latter convicted of the same charge ” bank fraud”, here in Snohomish County Washington, is up to her little racketeering scam again, but this time with a small law school, ranked # 192 by US World News ( out of 229 US law schools).
Mitchell Hamline School of Law confirms that Ms. Hill Pennington (Berg) filed a false application five material issues (1) Hill Pennington lied that she has no past criminal history records. Not true, again, the cases are clear that Ms. Hill Pennington was convicted twice of bank fraud and one time was actually sentenced to jail time; (2) that she had no debt but had defaulted on every loan and mortgage she ever took out; (3) failed to inform the college that she was found liable for tort of forgery and harassment; (4) charged with not filing and paying business tax to Washington State, and (5) Hill Pennington claimed that she obtained a college degree by attending in person classes.
Simply not true. Ms. Hill Pennington never attended a single in person class while obtaining an online diploma from Eastern Oregon University and has a long and lengthy history of bank fraud.
The Mayor of Gold Bar and former council member Jay Prueher said ” Crystal Hill was stealing from the City!” The WA State Auditor’s Office confirmed that while Crystal Hill was Mayor there was over $200,000.00 of public monies missing from Gold Bar.
See https://www.sao.wa.gov/reports-data/audit-reports/
Above Crystal Hill Pennington ( nee Berg) criminal history and criminal docket from Snohomish County Washington, documenting that she served probation for bank fraud here in Washington State
When we learned that Ms. Hill Pennington was up to her same old criminal shenanigans, we contacted Mitchell Hamline School of Law asking if they were American Bar Association approved, and once the Dean of Students confirmed they were, we asked one more question: Then how does a woman with an extensive criminal history, with an elusively online diploma from an non-accredited online school like Eastern Oregon University, obtain entrance into any ABA approved law school?
Mitchell Hamline School of Law declined comment, so this lead to a phone call the American Bar Association (ABA), and when we told them Mitchell Hamline School of Law had in fact accepted Ms. Hill Pennington with her extensive criminal history and false academic credentials, they asked us to submit a “complaint” against Mitchell Hamline School of Law for violations of the ABA guidelines for law school entrance retirements. Which obviously we did immediately.
But what was even more troubling was the fact that Ms Hill Pennington posted pictures of other persons on her Instagram account. According to Supreme Court Justice Barbara Madsen ” taking a picture of persons without their consent in Washington is felony.”
In 2009, the Gold Bar Reporter hired a open government attorney to file suit and gain access to public records to answer this question ” why was Karl Majerle given a single cent when the records from the City of Gold Bar was clear that he sabotaged the city’s water system?”
The answer to this question took years of digging through public records, and just last week we finally confirmed these facts:
1: (1) Crystal Hill was in engaged in several extra-marital affairs, including but not limited to, five county employees, Gold Bar’s police chief (2) Executive Aaron Reardon, (3) Senator Steve Hobbs, Sean Reay, and (4) John Edward Pennington.
2: Karl Majerle knew Crystal Hill had been arrested for and plead guilty to bank fraud, once in 2000, North Carolina where she served time in jail for not complying with her diversion plea agreement, and once in Snohomish County Washington Evergreen District Court, 2005, where she served probation for her fraud.
3: Crystal Hill was using an alias of Crystal Berg and had been fired for stealing from Community Transit in 2001. Community Transit never prosecuted Ms. Hill because her mom was a long term employee of Community;
4. Crystal Hill had stolen in excess of $200,000.00 from the City’s water and petty cash funds.
5. Crystal Hill and John E Pennington had illegally transferred $4500.00 of federal emergency housing funds to Crystal Hill in May 2009. Funds the federal government transfers to the County to help persons being evicted from their homes pay three months of back rent. Problem for Ms. Hill and Mr Pennington is simple: Crystal Hill was not a renter; her home was in foreclosure and as an owner she was not eligible for federal emergency housing funds, only renters are.
and
6. In 2008, Gold Bar’s Mayor Crystal Hill Pennington contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD), disseminated information relating to her STD results inside a public email. Gold Bar’s Mayor Joe Beavers felt it was “private” however since Ms. Hill infected a high ranking Washington State political official with STD, the email was in fact public email in part i.e. who it was sent to and from, the email addresses.
Joe Beavers, Gold Bar’s former Mayor’s behavior captured in Snohomish County Superior Court in 2018 above; soon after taking this picture we learned Mr. Beavers was diagnosed with dementia.
According to Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Joe Beavers, a convicted from felon himself, wrote a letter of recommendation to Mitchell Hamline School of Law on behalf of Ms. Hill Pennington ( Berg) behalf.
ABA requirements for ABA law school require professors write letters of recommendation not personal friends. Part of the complaint filed against Ms. Hill Pennington with the ABA against the law school.
Joe Beavers Deposition documents that he a convicted criminal, and is guilty of racketeering and tampered with public records, a felony in Washington State.
For over ten years, Gold Bar has been sued for access to public records. During those ten years, two former Mayors, Joe ” convicted felon” Beavers and Linda ” High as a Kite” Loen, and five attorneys, Michael Kenyon, Margaret King, Ann Marie Soto, Shannon Ragonesi, and Amanda Butler, falsely claimed the City did not have access to. Then to make matters worse, all five filed false statements in every single court case, and even went on television falsely claiming that the the city was going broke paying the legal bills to block access to Mayor Crystal Hill Pennington’s public email records (STD results between Hill and a high ranking Senator).
What Gold Bar residents were never told is that the Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, Sara DiVittorio, Miko Tempski, Sean Reay, Mark Roe, and Bob Ferguson, illegally removed Gold Bar public records from the City of Gold Bar and placed a copy at Association of Washington Cities (AWC) and at the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and the State of Washington was funding the entire litigation bill for Gold Bar.
According to former Gold Bar council member Jay Prueher ” Department of Correction’s employee Lonn Turner put something stupid in his emails that if released the city will be sued again… Hill was stealing from the City.”
So when Snohomish County Prosecutors Sean Reay and Mark Roe decided to covered Mayor Hill’s racketeering crimes as a favor to a Director, John E Pennington ( fired for harassing the Gold Bar Reporter using a fake news website Penningtons controlled), Mr. Pennington was fired and is now headed for bankruptcy.
Now, thanks to Washington Court of Appeals Justice Marlin Applewick, we now know why Mayor Joe Beavers was bragging that he had the fix in with the Courts and even laughed at the Court of Appeals Division One hearing in Block v Gold Bar. What we didn’t know, but Gold Bar’s Mayor Joe “Felon” Beavers and the Penningtons’ knew was, one of the Justices on both Shavlik v Gold Bar and Block v Gold Bar, was Justice Marlin Applewick, who had declared to be a good friend to John E Pennington.
The Gold Bar Reporter contacted a Professor from the University of Chicago who was asked ” Can a judge hear and decide cases involving a friend’s wife?” The Professor said ” absolutely not! If evidence of any personal relationship, you need to file a judicial ethics complaint. This judge should be removed for breaching his ethical duties to disclose under Cannon Rules!”
Yes, we do have evidence that every time the City of Gold Bar is sued involving Washington Court of Appeals Division One Marlin Applewick’s good friend John E. Pennington’s wife, and to gain access into former Gold Bar Mayor Crystal Hill Pennington’s email communication, John Pennington’s good friend and Washington State Court of Appeals Justice Marlin Applewick appears on these cases and violates well settled case law under RCW 42.56 to stop anyone from deposing his good friend John Pennington’s wife.
http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/law/Journals/1999/hj%2099%20001.htm
In 1999, while serving in an uncontested Cowlitz County seat, Marlin Applewick and Mill Creek Rep. John Lovick ( who last year was caught masturbating beside the bed of his daughter’s best friend when she was 12 years old) made this former statement while in the legislature:
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE PENNINGTON
Representative Pennington: “Thank you, Representative Alexander for your kind remarks. I would like to introduce my wife and best friend, Valerie and my Mother-in-Law, Ruth Fox. Judge Appelwick Over the past two years in this position, I have had three wonderful teachers. One is my friend Speaker Clyde Ballard. Another, the gentleman I will soon nominate for the office of Chief Clerk, Mr. Tim Martin, and the third is my former colleague and friend, Judge Marlin Appelwick. What an honor to be sworn in by him.
In 1999, Marlin Applewick, a good friend Gold Bar’s Mayor Crystal Hill Pennington’s husband, commits egregious Cannon violations against Gold Bar Reporter Anne Block, and activist/journalist Lori Shavlik when he hid the fact that he was a good friend to John E Pennington. Cannon Rules mandate when a judge has a personal relationship with anyone inside a cases for which he is assigned, he must disqualify/recuse himself from the case.
Marlin Applewick not only failed disclose that he was a good friend to John E Pennington, he issued orders on two public records cases involving his good friend John E Pennington’s wife’s email communication here in Gold Bar.
For my readers, ask yourself one question: Should a judge ever hear and decide a case involving his good friend’s wife?
Update, January 2020, Gold Bar’s new Mayor Bill Clem fired Ann Marie Soto ( as well as Kenyon Disend) and Shannon Ragonesi ( KBM Lawyers)
Snohomish County Prosecutors and attorneys tampering with FBI National Crime Information Center data
Ann Marie Soto Shannon Ragonesi
In November 2017, the City of Gold Bar’s attorneys Ann Marie Soto and Shannon Ragonesi decided to have a meeting with a federal witness Brandia Tamuu. Besides the obvious, tampering with a federal witness ( a felony in Washington), both entered into a bribery scheme to remove the witness’s criminal arrest warrant and criminal history from the National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC) criminal data base.
Public records from the City of Gold Bar, from November 21 to December 20, 2017, document that in November 2017, Shannon Ragonesi and Ann Marie Soto were contacted for a meeting by a convicted animal abuser. The woman was desperate for money, had in fact tried extort the Gold Bar Reporter for money/car, and had offered to meet up with Ragonesi and Soto at the Law Firm of Keating Bucklin McCormack Inc in downtown Seattle. Brandia Tammu needed money as she was being threatened with eviction from her home. In exchange for meeting with Ragonesi and Soto, the woman would get money and her City of Everett arrest warrant and conviction for animal abuse would be cleared. Tammu claimed to have dirt on the Gold Bar Reporter, but had nothing of value except speculation on why the Gold Bar Reporter moved West, and it was quite apparent from an insider at the law office that the woman is suffering from mental health issues.
According to the woman, Ragonesi and Soto agreed to clear her criminal arrest warrant and conviction from NCIC via ACCESS.
Ragonesi and Soto also told the woman that they could issue secret subpoenas for any document they so desired, and further offered to help the woman get a restraining order against the Gold Bar Reporter’s news reports. One witness said that the woman recorded their meeting, but we have no knowledge of whether this is true or not.
The Washington State Patrol turned over the woman’s criminal history one week before and a week after the Ragonesi and Soto November 2017 bribery meeting, and it is clear that just days after this meeting, the criminal conviction record and arrest warrant were wiped from NCIC via ACCESS. The person who cleared the woman’s ACCESS records was Michael Meyers, King County police officer.
The City of Gold Bar, at the bequest of Ann Marie Soto and Shannon Ragonesi, illegally claimed that the meeting records were exempt from public disclosure. Obviously, a lawsuit forcing disclosure is coming, and Ms. Soto and Ms. Ragonesi will be deposed.
In early 2018, Gold Bar’s new Mayor Bill Clem agreed to an interview with the Gold Bar Reporter and he said ” those people who are threatening you are now threatening me.”
NCIC was created to assist law enforcement track or apprehend persons that may be a danger to society or have outstanding criminal warrants. When a police officer stops a person driving or is a suspect, s/he should know whether the person has a criminal history. For this reason, ACCESS and NCIC are searched, hopefully alerting the officer a potential danger to them or outstanding court issues of the driver or suspect. Self protection according to the US Supreme Court.
But here in Washington State, the FBI NCIC database via ACCESS is being tampered with as political favors, bribery schemes, and to enhance criminal sentencing if a defendant is convicted of crime.
Over the past year, we found case after case where mainly prosecutors inside King and Snohomish County government are illegally removing criminal history from the NCIC.
Here’s just three cases that illustrate quite nicely three Snohomish County Prosecutors Mark Roe, Wallace Langbehn III and Sean Reay’s criminal racketeering acts exposed in public NCIC records.
Sno County Prosecutor Sean Reay, removing criminal history records from NCIC as political favors
In 2009, the City of Gold Bar’s Mayor, Crystal Hill ( nee Berg) attempted to have the Gold Bar Reporter charged with a crime for exposing her crimes against the City of Gold Bar taxpayers ( theft in excess of $200,000.00). Ms. Hill Berg was sleeping with several married men inside Snohomish County government, including but not limited to Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon and Emergency Management Director John E. Pennington.
Ms Hill Pennington ( nee Berg) and John E Pennington were stealing from Snohomish County Emergency Management and the County’s Emergency Housing Funds. Federal money distributed to the local government via a welfare block grant.
On July 5, 2008, Gold Bar’s water employee Karl Majerle was caught red handed stealing from the City of Gold Bar, and had in fact sabotaged the City’s Wells, # 3 and 4. Why, because Ms. Hill (Berg) was informed by Gold Bar council member Dorothy Croshaw that Majerle was stealing from the City. After Karl Majerle was caught stealing, he was fired, which he recorded via audio means, and then out of anger, he left City Hall and poured gravel down Gold Bar’s City wells # 3 and 4. Instead of reporting the federal crimes, as acts of domestic terrorism to Gold Bar’s water system, Ms. Hill (Berg) decided the best way to handle this was to ask Snohomish County Prosecutor Sean Reay for a favor i.e. help quash criminal charges against Majerle.
And Sean Reay did it.
Snohomish County Prosecutor Sean Reay received the criminal referral from Snohomish County Sheriff’s Officer Terry Handleman and Deputy Jeff Ross ( Brady Cops). Sean Reay received a phone call from Snohomish County Director John E Pennington and Executive Aaron Reardon asking for his help in quashing the criminal charges as “political courtesy.” Sean Reay called then Sheriff and both made an agreement to not prosecute Karl Majerle for sabotaging the City of Gold Bar’s water system.
Sean Reay, in an effort to make it look good, sent the Karl Majerle’s criminal complaint to his wife, Laura Twindale. Ms. Twinsdale is in charge of Snohomish County District Court, Evergreen Division.
Sean Reay never referred the case to the federal government as all crimes against water systems must be referred to the DOJ and FBI for investigation and/or prosecution. But instead, Sean Reay sent the criminal complaint against Gold Bar’s water employee to his wife, Laura Twinsdale. Ms. Twinsdale is only in charge of misdemeanor offenses and has no authority to issue felony charges nor prosecute federal crimes.
We later learned that Karl Majerle and Crystal Hill ( nee Berg) had entered into a bribery scheme. Why, because Karl Majerle knew what we didn’t know for five years until Snohomish County finally released a record it illegally withheld for almost 7 years now.
Simply put, Snohomish County Prosecutor Sean Reay is guilty of racketeering, quashing criminal charges as political favors. Perhaps Mr. Reay thought he and Aaron Reardon were going to the Governor’s Manson. So sad, but along came the Gold Bar Reporter, and Aaron Reardon was ousted for stealing public monies.
As a political favor, Sean Reay helped Crystal Hill ( nee Berg) remove her criminal conviction and arrest records from NCIC.
Not only did Prosecutor Sean Reay assist Ms. Hill ( nee Berg) remove her criminal history from NCIC, he also entered into a bribery scheme with Ms. Hill Pennington (nee Berg), to quash criminal charges after she violently assaulted a six year old child.
Our readers, and those Ms Hill Pennington ( nee Berg) stole from ( City of Gold Bar taxpayers) should be happy to know that she is now frauding the federal taxpayers working as a contractor at FEMA in Emittsburg Maryland. According to the Office of Inspector General, persons convicted of fraud are not eligible for federal employment or federal contracts of any nature.
FEMA’s Brock Long was made aware of Crystal Hill Pennington’s criminal history and has refused comment.
Snohomish County Prosecutor Wallace Langbehn III, putting false criminal history records inside NCIC. Why? To enhance criminal sentencing if the accused is found guilty. We also have ample evidence to also document that Wallace Langbehn also falsely placed criminal history inside NCIC to retaliate against persons who exposed Dawson Place as a fraudulent 501 (3) (C).
The Gold Bar Reporter was the first to expose Dawson Place as a fraudulent 501 (3) (c) with its sole purpose used by Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Prosecutors Office for purposes of domestic spying and siphoning over $27 Million dollars of Washington State and federal taxpayer monies.
Dawson Place uses the law firm of Anderson Hunter to funnel millions of public money just as G. Geoffrey Gibbs did with attorney Lin O’Dell inside the Snohomish County Housing Authority scam known as Whispering Pines. The scam that involved Dean Bellamy, a man murdered by Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Bellamy was threatening to expose many Judges and Commissioners involved in the guardian scam with attorneys Joseph Nappi Jr, Lin O’Dell and James Spargetis in Spokane.
Click below to how Dawson Place is nothing more than a shrill set up by Snohomish County Judges, Prosecutors and attorneys siphoning off million of public dollars.
https://goldbarreporter.org/2018/08/
https://goldbarreporter.org/2018/09/
For those of my readers who have been following the County’s malicious prosecution of Lori Shavlik, it’s no surprise that Dawson Place’s Prosecutor Wallace Langbehn III was working inside Dawson Place when Snohomish County activist Lori Shavlik started piecing together the County Judges/Prosecutors/Attorneys sick little domestic spy ring also known now as Dawson Place.
Bigger question still remains unanswered: Where did the millions of public monies go?
In 2010, Snohomish County Prosecutors Mark Roe and Adam Cornell knew Lori Shavlik was getting close to exposing Dawson Place as a shrill to funnel public monies and spy on citizens. Mark Roe and Adam Cornell needed to shut Ms. Shavlik up as she was starting to unravel Dawson Place as a shadow agency owned and operated by Snohomish County government.
Mark Roe and Adam Cornell decided the best way to shut Ms. Shavlik up was to enlist the assistance of a known Brady Cop named David Fontenot. David Fontenot’s job was to find someone close to Ms. Shavlik to start a fire inside Ms. Shavlik’s tanning salon. Fontenot is as dirty as them, and had known all of the drug addicts, and one such drug addict Fontenot found worked inside Ms. Shavlik’s tanning salon. Rebecca Bradshaw was well know to David Fontenot, because Ms. Bradshaw was a drug informant on Snohomish County’s payroll.
While at the same time Rebecca Bradshaw is on Snohomish County’s payroll, Ms Bradshaw was working in and stealing from Ms. Shavlik’s tanning salon in the City of Snohomish. Brady Cop David Fontenot knew this, and enlisted Ms. Bradshaw assistance in starting a fire behind a dryer unitinside Ms. Shavlik’s tanning salon.
The false trumped up criminal charges Snohomish County set into action came only after Ms. Shavlik had exposed Dawson Place for fraud, and a government shrill to steal taxpayer monies without accountability.
In 2014, Snohomish County Prosecutors Office, known racketeering member, Franchasca Yahyavi tried Ms. Shavlik for first degree arson. Ms. Yahyavi, never disclosed that the lead detective David Fontenot was a Brady Cop, and that the County’s main witness Rebecca Bradshaw was a paid informant.
Thankfully for Ms. Shavlik one juror was a highly educated Engineer who later said ” this was bullshit. There was nothing here.” Those of you who know me, know I am partial to engineers not only because my engineer is my most loved treasure, but because persons that are trained in hard sciences are critical thinkers who analysis even small pieces of evidence.
That Engineer saved Ms. Shavlik’s life by holding out for days until the Judge called it a deadlock jury. Instead of the Prosecutors’ leaving well enough alone, Francesca Yadavvi recharged Ms. Shavlik in a second trial in February 2016.
The Gold Bar Reporter was in the audience watching as Brady Cop David Fontenot and Prosecutor Yahyavi paraded witness after witness on the stand to attest about what a bad business owner Ms. Shavlik was. One witness named Dolly even told the jury that she was told by the Prosecutors that she would get money for her testimony.
In March 2016, 12 jurors acquitted Lori Shavlik of arson.
Early this year, Ms. Shavlik started complaining that her insurance rates were over the roof. This prompted this question: have you looked at your criminal access searches and driving record from Washington State ?
When Lori Shavlik retrieved her driving record from the Washington State Department of Licensing she learned that Dawson Place Prosecutor Wallace Langbehn III had entered false information into Ms. Shavlik’s criminal history records, falsely claiming that she had plead guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In a nutshell, Wallace Langbehn III entered into Ms. Shavlik’s criminal history records, via NCIC, that Ms. Shavlik had plead guilty to giving alcohol to minors. False.
Wallace Langbehn III falsely entered a conviction record into Ms. Shavlik’s NCIC records and he did so while assigned to Dawson Place, an alleged non-profit 501 (3) (c). A shrill money laundering company to further the efforts of Dawson Place and its racketeering members. Mainly Snohomish County Prosecutors and Judges and two mobsters and attorneys G. Geoffrey Gibbs and Michael Kenyon.
Does this fit the definition of racketeering crimes?
Source: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0484.htm
The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) (18 USC §§ 1961-1968) prohibits (1) acquiring, establishing, or operating an enterprise with illegally derived income, (2) acquiring or maintaining an interest in or control of an enterprise through illegal activity, and (3) using an enterprise to commit illegal acts (Extortion, Blackmail, Etc., 31A Am Jur 2d).
RICO defines “racketeering activity” as a long list of state and federal crimes. The federal crimes include bribery, various fraud offenses, gambling offenses, money laundering, a number of financial and economic crimes, obstructing justice or a criminal investigation, murder for hire, and sexual exploitation of children. The state crimes include murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, and drug crimes.
It defines a “pattern of racketeering activity” as at least two acts of racketeering activity, one of which occurred after RICO became law and the last of which occurred within 10 years after the prior act.
“racketeering activity” means committing, attempting to commit, conspiring to commit, or intentionally aiding, soliciting, coercing, or intimidating another person to commit a specified list of felonies. These felonies include gambling activities, extortion, drug offenses, weapons offenses, murder, assault, prostitution, hazardous waste violations, securities violations, coercion, money laundering, arson, bribery, and forgery
“Pattern of racketeering activity” means engaging in at least two incidents of racketeering activity that (1) have the same or similar purposes, results, participants, victims, or methods of commission or otherwise are interrelated by distinguished characteristics; (2) are not isolated incidents; (3) include at least one incident that occurred after October 1, 1982; and (4) occurred within five years of a prior incident of racketeering activity (CGS § 53-394(e)).
“Collusion” is not defined in either RICO, although the word “collusion” is used in a number of state contracting statutes. The Black‘s Law Dictionary definition of “collusion” includes a “secret combination, conspiracy, or concert of action between two or more persons for fraudulent or deceitful purpose.” This type of conduct would appear to be covered by RICO
Wallace Langbehn III, Sean Reay, Mark Roe, Adam Cornell, Mike Kenyon, Shannon Ragonesi, Ann Marie Soto, and Snohomish County Judges were contacted and all declined comment.