THE S.O.M. BAGS A JUDGE
By Carl F. Worden

So far, we bagged the Director of the Medford Airport, Bern Case, for using his maintenance employees to fix things at his house during county work hours, and for conflict of interest in promoting his wife’s business on county time.

Although the Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission found Case guilty of both offenses, the Jackson County Commissioners refused to take further punitive actions against him, claiming he’d been such a fabulous airport manager.

Yeah, right:  The man steals from the taxpayers, but he’s such a sweet guy!  We have some real morons as county commissioners.

We’ve already thrown one of those county commissioners back into a real job, and we’re about to eject the other two on their next election.  Thanks to the efforts of the Southern Oregon Militia, the local voters are beginning to wake up.

We also nailed three people working as building inspectors for Jackson County.  They were contracted out to surrounding incorporated cities to do their building inspections at the same time they were working “full time” as building inspectors for Jackson County.  As soon as they realized the jig was up, they tendered their resignations and split into the private sector.

We know that Jackson County Administrator, Sue Slack, knew what was going on, and we will be dealing with her eventually as well.  She’d be real smart to start passing out her resume, but I doubt any other entity outside of Jackson County would consider her competent enough for the position of dogcatcher, let alone a be county administrator.  It’s only a matter of time before we nail you, Sue.  We promise.

Now we’ve bagged our first judge -- in a huge way.

His name is Judge Alfred Edgar, and he was the Justice of The Peace in Chiloquin, just outside of Klamath Falls.  I write, “was”, because the JP just tendered his resignation after a visit from two investigators from the Oregon State Attorney General’s Office.

It is reportedly front page news in the Klamath Falls Herald & News on 5/3-5/4, and everyone is all a’flutter because this man is a highly respected citizen and public servant, not only of the community, but of the MORMON community as well.  As I recall, Medford Airport Director Bern Case is also a highly respected member of our local Mormon community.  Hmm, what is it about these Mormons?..?..???

Anyway, when we first began recruiting members for the Southern Oregon Militia, we deliberately targeted bank employees.  Why?  Because if a public official is up to something naughty, it will probably involve money, and we wanted people in place to tell us where it went, who paid it and who deposited it.  Pretty smart, eh?

So it all started when one of our members spotted a suspicious check that had been deposited at her bank in Klamath Falls.

The check was drawn on a public trust account entitled, “Wood River Justice Court – Bail Bond Account”.  What caught our member’s attention was that the check was made payable to account number 28788 15040 in the amount of $6,000.00.  There was no notation in the memo line indicating what it was for.  She took a copy of the check and forwarded it to the S.O.M. Investigations Unit before allowing it to continue through the normal banking process.

When we first examined the check copy, it didn’t appear to be irregular – except for the fact it was made out to that account number – an account number that had to be in the same bank.  A bail bond trust account is for holding and dispersing bail money deposited with the court, and one would reasonably expect the check to be made out to an individual or Klamath County, and that an identifying memo be included.

We also noticed that the check required two signatures, and that the second signature appeared to be written by the same hand as the first, which was signed by Justice of The Peace, Alfred L. Edgar.

Because of all these darned privacy laws, our biggest obstacle was finding out who held account number 28788 15040, but we were finally able to determine that the account was a construction business called “Aspen Builders”, and a call to the Oregon Contractor’s Board revealed the owner of Aspen Builders was none other than Justice of the Peace Alfred L. Edgar.  That was enough for our investigators, and that’s when it was handed to me.

I took the copy of the check as evidence and wrote letters to the Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission, the Oregon Council On Judicial Fitness and Disability and the Oregon Secretary of State Auditor, Phil Hopkins.  I also called and spoke to a detective with the Klamath Falls Sheriff’s Office.

Apparently, my shotgun approach got their attention.

Upon being confronted with the evidence by state investigators, Judge Alfred Edgar immediately resigned his position of 17 years.  It remains to be seen if he will be criminally prosecuted.  We’ll see how determined – and stupid – the Good-Ol’-Boys in Klamath Falls will be to protect one of their own.  They’d be smart to prosecute, particularly when a person who holds the public trust commits such a misdeed, but like I wrote, we’ll see.  If not, more elected heads will roll, just like here in Jackson County.

Anyway, we did our job.  Sleep tight, Southern Oregon, the S.O.M. will eventually clean up this corrupt mess, and bring it into the 21^st century.  Right now, it operates like a Good-Ol’-Boys’ Ku Klux Klan enclave in 1930’s Mississippi, but the times, they are a’changin.

Carl F. Worden