Final Word on "RICO" Suit? BUMP & UPDATE

I hope. To be posting later on AP. (I hope.) I'd've waited for it to post but I gotta knock off soon. I'll roll the dice that this is accurate.

Not a RICO suit -- a similar but not equivalent suit under Ohio's Corrupt Activity Act, seeking dissolution of ACORN. Figure it has to be ACORN Ohio only.

To be filed Tuesday morning in in the Court of Common Pleas, Warren County, Ohio

A suit on behalf of citizens asking for, among other things, the
dissolution of ACORN.

For violation of the Ohio Corrupt Activity Act

The suit lists 19 predicate acts in Ohio and 40 out-of-state predicate
acts.

The suit demands a trial by jury.

Hardly the blockbuster I promised, I know. And the "RICO" thing was wrong as well.

Bear in mind this is a private, third-party suit, probably brought by a conservative organization, or just a few citizens. Not really the imprimatur of the DoJ here.

Not saying it couldn't lead to something. But there's not going to be any big splash about it.

Bump [Gabe]: The complaint, filed by the Buckeye Institute (a think tank), is available here (PDF). If nothing else, it is a useful catalogue of ACORN's most recent misdeeds.

I don't know enough about Ohio's Corrupt Activity Act to say whether they've got a good case, but this gives me pause: Under the Ohio Corrupt Activity Act, the core violations being alleged are forgery, uttering forged documents, tampering with writings and records, and uttering tampered writings or records. I'd have to check the statutes and find the definitions, but Acorn's practice of obtaining multiple registrations from individuals does not, at first blush, appear to be any of these things.

Obtaining voter registrations for Mickey Mouse might fall into one of those categories, but that type of activity isn't listed in the complaint. They seem to focus on the multiple fraudulent registrations instead.

Somebody shoot me some knowledge. Does that sound like forgery or tampering with writings and records to you?

posted by Ace at 12:31 PM

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