FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Subject: Citizen RICO Racketeering Complaint Against King County Government
To: The News Media, Government Entities and Interested Parties
From Ron Ewart, Fall City, WA and
Chuck Pillon, Renton, WA
Concerned Citizens of the State of Washington, USA
May 30, 2007 - 5:00 PM
 
 
Back on May 25, 2005, (2 years ago) Chuck Pillon and I filed a Citizen RICO racketeering complaint (documented evidence) with the FBI, Seattle Office, that we alleged against King County government.   After two written inquiries to the FBI in those two years, we have received not a single response from them.  Attached is our letter to the FBI of November 11, 2005 and our letter of May 14, 2007, inquiring about the status of our complaint.  No response.  When we presented the complaint to the FBI, they asked us to keep it non-public, but since they have apparently taken no action, we believe it is time to take it public.  Two years with no action seems more than long enough, if not somewhat suspect. 
 
Absent of any information to the contrary and from the FBI's silence, we can only conclude that there is no federal investigation of our allegations.  In fact, in two years, the FBI has made no communication with us whatsoever, written, verbal or otherwise, that there is an on-going federal investigation.  Thus, we have no knowledge that one exists, nor were we advised by the special agents with whom we spoke personally, that the FBI would undertake such an investigation and that public release of our complaint would be interfering with any such federal investigation.  Obviously then, it cannot be construed that this public release of our RICO racketeering complaint is in any way, interference with a federal investigation that doesn't exist.  We suspect that our complaint, in all likelihood, ended up in the round file within an hour of its delivery.
 
In any event, after the U. S. Attorney, John McKay, refused to investigate specific allegations of criminal acts in the 2004 King County voter scandal that vaulted an illegal governor into office by 129 votes, we were not overly surprised that the FBI would not investigate our RICO racketeering complaint.  We can only conclude from their in-action, in either case, that all branches of government protect all other branches of government.  Consequently, government corruption is left to the citizens to oversee and Chuck and I have decided to make our RICO racketeering complaint public and let the chips fall where they may.
 
It is of interest to note that there is currently a case in the U. S. Supreme Court, defended by the Pacific Legal Foundation, where an American citizen (large rural Wyoming landowner) has alleged RICO racketeering activities by agents of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the prevailing wisdom is that he will win.  If he does win, the decision would be precedent setting.  He has already prevailed in piercing the "qualified immunity" defense of the BLM agents.  That in itself, is precedent setting, as all public officials hide behind "qualified immunity" when confronted by citizen actions that accuse such officials with malfeasance, misfeasance, or violation of their oath of office.
 
Besides the two letters to the FBI, Seattle Office, inquiring about the status of our complaint, we have attached the full text of our complaint as a WORD document.  The following is a brief summary of the complaint. 

RICO RACKETEERING COMPLAINT SUMMARY

 

A.        King County Department of Development and Environmental Services. (DDES)

 

1.         A consistent pattern of over charging and duplication of fees for permits of all kinds.

2.         Arbitrary and capricious actions on permit applications and code enforcement actions.

3.         Piling on of charges for spurious code enforcement allegations and penalties way beyond reason in addition to a pattern of intimidation and brow beating of landowners, either in some permit application, or by a discovery of some code violation through an anonymous complaints.

4.         Purposely hiding pertinent files in code enforcement actions or during appeals.

5.         Denying citizens due process as required by the 5th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

 

B.         King County Water and Land Resources Department (WLRD)

 

Imposing fees on property owners and then not apportioning those fees for the reasons they were imposed in the first place.  Rather than those fees (over $200,000,000 since the fee was imposed) being used for their lawful purposes, said fees have been diverted to build a huge staff, initiate exhaustive studies and buy capital equipment.

 

C.        King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP)

 

The printing and distribution of material clearly designed to promote and propagandize specific land use ordinances as an advocate piece, without proper disclosures and with clear distortions and misrepresentations of fact.

 

D.            Fraudulent extortion of federal funds to build salmon restoration devices in streams and seasonal creeks that have no possibility of ever bearing salmon.

 

E.            Consistent abuse of Freedom of Information and Public Disclosure Act requests.  King County has already been sued for these violations and had to pay out over $100,000 in penalties.  One particular case is still open and the County could be obligated to even greater penalties, all of which come out of the taxpayer's pocket and caused by government legislators and bureaucrats to cover up negligence, mismanagement and outright fraud, waste and abuse.

 

F.            Governmental misconduct in the acquisition and subsequent planning-related activities pursuant to construction of an Interim East Lake Sammamish Trail.  King County acquired control over an abandoned railroad right-of-way under provisions of a federal rails-to-trails law, and has been bent on building the cheapest possible trail through wetlands and the middle of people’s yards, ignoring its own policies and codes in the process.  Numerous, documentable, unscrupulous tactics have been employed in this effort to reap the political windfall that this trail represents.

 

These are very serious allegations and at the end of our complaint we said:
 
"All the more reason this racketeering must be investigated and exposed for what it is, and an end put to it.  Therefore we undersigned Citizens of King County Washington challenge you to meet your responsibility to the public and act promptly."
 
From all appearances, not only has the FBI's investigation not been promptly, it hasn't been at all.  The Federal Government (FBI), essentially, thumbed their noses in our faces.  Corruption in government is the enemy of all the people.  If the government will not police itself, when called upon by the people, then it is up to the people to hold government's feet to the fire by any legal means, including public exposure.  If government won't do it, then It is high time for the people and the news media to start asking some very pointed questions of King County government, based on what we have provided here.  It is our intent to provide the motivation to start that investigative process in earnest.  But our deep cynicism makes us wonder if anyone really cares?
 
Respectfully,
 
 
Ron Ewart
Fall City, WA
425 222-9482