PRESS RELEASES

AMERICAN
REFORM
PARTY

What we all know and want, but Poetically Stated by Bob Bowman
STATE OF THE UNION: A Post-Impeachment Vision of the Future - 9/9/07

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SUBJECT:  AN ANALYSIZIS OF THE TALLAHASSEE CASE
For Immediate Release: July 17, 2007

This case began like the other dozen or so lawsuits filed in the past seven years by Beverly Kennedy (TX) whenever she did not get her way and thought she could use the courts to sue herself into a Party Office while knowing she could not get elected in any open forum. In this case however she had been elected to the position of Southwest Regional Representative only to be unanimously removed from that position a few months later by a vote of 9 – 0. Not long thereafter, Kennedy initiated another of her attempted “coups” by instigating 22 persons on 8 April 2005 to call for an “in person emergency meeting” of the national committee to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, on 23 April 2005. The alleged “emergency” was that the Party treasury had fallen below $1000 as a direct & proximate result of the then Party Treasurer “borrowing” about $750 for personal survival due to a loss of employment. Even though the funds were repaid as promised, it was this incident that prompted the alleged calling of an “emergency”!

What’s ironic about this scenario is that instead of initiating a “fund-raising” among Party faithful to refill the Party treasury – the folks lead by Kennedy decided to spend an average of $1000++, per person, to attend an “in person” meeting in Atlanta. So on 23 April 2005 nineteen persons showed up claiming to be national committee members. To hold an “in person” meeting in excess of $20,000++ was spent to discuss the less than $1000 borrowed – and in the end, not one penny was added to the RPUSA treasury! Yet these buffoons think themselves rational and pragmatic persons! What unraveled in court was that this meeting was a “bait & switch” charade called for one purpose but whose hidden-agenda was in fact to call for a national convention in order to replace the previously elected Party Officers so Kennedy and her “Dallas-faction” cohorts could declare themselves the “party officers”! Also clear was that Kennedy only invited those who would support her and her cohorts!

Problem was that court testimony showed that of the 19 persons attending Atlanta, 12 claimed to be representing State Party Organizations (SPO’s) that were neither legitimately established nor duly recognized by the government in their respective states! If any group is not REGISTERED to do business with the requisite State Agencies, then the group is not properly established as required by both State Law and RPUSA rules! Thus only those attending from Florida, Nebraska & Mississippi were legitimate, no one else attending came from a legitimate SPO. Further, the Atlanta meeting failed to have Quorum, an Agenda, proper notice, proper credentialing, and numerous other irregularities. Therefore the folks in Atlanta did NOT have the authority to call for the meeting held in Tampa, Florida, on 3 – 5 June 2005, from whence Beverly Kennedy (TX), Charles Foster (TX), Ruben Hernandez (FL) & Diane Ormond (FL) declared themselves the new national officers of the RPUSA. And failing that, they could therefore NOT have authority to take over one of the Party websites or file this lawsuit!

Following Tampa, on 2 August 2005, Charles Foster changed the URL Registrant for < www.reformparty.org > and then on 10 November 2005, they filed this lawsuit against all those they perceived as “rivals”. But since Atlanta was not legal, NOTHING FOLLOWING ATLANTA WAS LEGAL EITHER! As a direct & proximate result, the “Kennedy-Dallas-faction” lost the lawsuit in the Jury Verdict!

The Atlanta meeting further failed to have any legitimacy since of the four alleged ExCom members that also called for an “in person” meeting on 18 April 2005, while needing only three ExCom members to call for such a meeting, two of the four did not represent any legitimate SPO! Neither Sue Harris DeBauche (SC) nor Diane McKelvey (MI) represented a properly established SPO! Thus the ExCom call was defective for the same reasons as was the alleged NatCom call – not to mention the Tampa meeting utterly FAILED to meet even the bare minimum of PROPER CREDENTIALING!

Of the three elements necessary to win, Legitimacy, Credibility and Sufficiency, the “Kennedy-Dallas-faction” lost on all counts, and lost big time! Heinemann & Foley devastated any claims Kennedy thought her faction had for Legitimacy. Showing the lack-of-credibility, Doogs joined with Heinemann & Foley with respect to Foster & Kennedy claiming national titles when their SPO has no legitimacy, and was more devastating when she proved to the court that NONE of the exhibits provided by the “Kennedy-faction” were legitimate Party documents or properly certified as required for moving into evidence. And when it came to the Insufficiency of any substantive claims as filed by the “Kennedy-faction”, both O’Hara and Blare devastated any claims of the “Kennedy-faction” over following any “Party rules” as originally claimed by them – but never proven in court!

In short, it was a combined effort which at times overlapped the three elements necessary to win, but John Blare (CA) almost single-handily destroyed the claims of the “Kennedy-faction” in the area of credibility and sufficiency in following either the 2003 RPUSA Constitution or RRoO! For unlike Janelle Weill, claiming to be NatSec, when she failed to produce a single legitimate document; Blare meanwhile had literally a TON OF DOCUMENTS from every meeting held between 2003 – 2007 by the O’Hara/Martin/Blare wing of the RPUSA. The same was true on the part of Heinemann who had a three-inch thick three-ring-binder proving the legal qualifications of each State and whether a “Reform Party” SPO was properly established or not, pursuant to his position as NatSec on behalf of the reorganized Reform Party National Committee (RPNC) under the Charter & Bylaws. Foley for his part showed that lack-of-credibility for almost a dozen of those claiming to have attended Atlanta & Tampa and how these folks represented not a single legitimate SPO!

Lastly, even Roy Downing, Chairman of the American Reform Party (ARP), began asking each witness, until the court stipulated in his favor, the following five questions: (1) Since the ARP organized on 22 SEP 1997, has there ever been any interactivity between the ARP and the RPUSA? (2) Was anyone from the ARP ever invited to attend the meeting in Atlanta or Tampa? (3) Did anyone from the ARP register as either a participant or an observer for either Atlanta or Tampa? (4) At either the meeting in Atlanta or Tampa was there any discussion in any manner regarding the ARP? And, (5) Was there any mention of the ARP in any of the minutes kept from the Atlanta or Tampa meetings? Needless-to-say the answer to each question was a resounding “NO” – and the echo was heard bouncing off all the courtroom walls into the record!

Over all, the “Kennedy-faction” lost on all fronts on all elements although they had superior means & money to hire a battery of attorneys and make-over artists to try and improve the over all image of Beverly Kennedy. From Monday to Wednesday, Kennedy was dressed via a K-Mart or Wal-Mart “special”! On Friday & following Monday, Kennedy was wearing designer cloths plus new hairdo! Regardless, their case lacked integrity, factual credibility, or any substantive legal sufficiency. And all of their witnesses, including their high-priced expert @ $3000 p/day, failed under cross-examination on the witness-stand – and he was also an attorney!

As for the Defendants – they became “THE MAGNIFICANT SIX” – as pro se litigants they were able to win the paper-war in excess of 370 court filings to force a Jury Trial, and win each day in the courtroom before a Jury, and they were able to prevail against a team of professional trial attorneys to convince the Jury to make the RIGHT DECISION based on facts and as the facts had been developed! Truly this was a unique experience in the history of the RPUSA! Of even more interest is that the “Kennedy-faction” became their own worst enemy at Trial and proved to Twelve Jurors that they held no credibility – something understood within RPUSA circles since the founding of the RPUSA on 2 November 1997! After almost 18 months, this case ended in a Victory for True Reformers accordingly!

THIS ONE WAS FOR “VIET NAM VETERAN: RICHARD LEMON”!

For anyone who had the privilege of knowing the late-Richard Lemon (CA) then you know he was a “stickler” for using parliamentarian rules in a consistent and honest manner. And while there was no love lost between California or Texas, or any other SPO for that matter with Texas under the “Dallas-faction”, it was the grossly distorted manner in which the “Twisted-Sisters”, i.e., Beverly Kennedy & Sandy Madison earned their derogatory nickname! Madison’s claim to fame has been living in the shadow of Kennedy and always coming to the support of Kennedy, no matter how absurd Kennedy has tried to distort & twist the meaning of any given RPUSA or RRoO rule to suit her purposes! And this same dementia again displayed itself throughout the Trial – and even now as Kennedy remains in DENIAL!

Kennedy has argued incessantly on RPUSA Reflectors about the IMPORTANCE OF AGENDAS and following them accordingly – but in trial Kennedy said following agendas was not that important since the will of the majority at any given meeting could do as it wished, agenda or not! She used this statement in an effort to mask over the “bait & switch” between Atlanta discussing Party financial matters and Tampa to replace all national officers WITHOUT any such Agenda! And for those that may remember the endless debates on the RPUSA Reflectors between Lemon v. Kennedy, while he tried to reason with the “unreasonable”, then you can only imagine just how difficult it was for John Blare to get any kind of reasonable, intelligent or rational answer out of Kennedy in the many hours of questioning her under Oath!

The fact that Blare was able to succeed in general, while Heinemann, Foley, Doogs & O’Hara were able to do so in part – speaks volumes as a TRIBUTE TO RICHARD LEMON, founding member of the Reform Party of California, who was able to show remarkable restraint & patience in his long running battles with the “Twisted-Sisters”! He too prevailed! While Lemon was a wounded Viet Nam Veteran, he finally succumbed to the detrimental effects of Agent Orange! While greatly missed, we the Defendants dedicate this LEGAL VICTORY to Richard Lemon, a Komrade-in-Arms for the Cause of Reform! Richard was a member of the Ad Hoc “Shamrock Convention” of Party Activists held in Kansas City, Missouri, on 16 March 2002! It was from this meeting that the concept of the ‘Charter & Bylaws’ was first proposed and a committee emerged to create a TRANSITION from a PAC to a real political party with a fully integrated management infrastructure! That transition continues at < www.rpnc.org >!

THE INDISPENSABLE ROLE PLAYED BY JOHN BLARE (CA)!

Since this case first began on 10 November 2005, the “O’Hara/Martin” alignment claimed that John Blare should be an indispensable party to this action which would have made him the TENTH Defendant. But since no formal motions were ever filed requesting Blare to enter the case, the court took no action – not until Blare made the specific request the Friday before the Trial was to begin on Monday. So the Federal Judge told Blare to be in court at 8:15 am with his Motion for Intervention in hand and without objection from any other parties to the action. Although there was some apprehension as to what Blare could contribute at the absolute last minute, no objections were raised by the Defendants, and the only request that the lead attorney for the “Kennedy-faction” wanted to know was if Blare would equally share in all liability as if he had been sued as a defendant from day one. Once Blare agreed, no further objections were made.

But the first day of trial was a near disaster since the Defendants were taken to the wrong courthouse in Tallahassee by the taxi service, and when the time came to meet with the Federal Judge occurred, only three Defendants had arrived on time. By the time the potential Jury was brought in, all the Defendants were there except John Blare! He did not appear until 10:30 am during a break period! Nevertheless, with documents in order, the Federal Judge allowed Blare to enter the case as a Defendant and everything else was waived for his appearance.

While Heinemann, Foley & Doogs, of the reorganized RPNC, argued that the legitimacy of any given SPO took precedence over whatever governing document or parliamentarian rules were in force or effect, Blare concentrated on the legitimacy of the documents themselves with respect to the governing document and parliamentarian rules. Thus without knowing in advance, both groups complimented each other with respect to the three elements of Legitimacy, Credibility and Sufficiency! This meant that once the Trial began after Jury Selection, a THREE-PRONG ATTACK, a verbal & paper-war on three-fronts, was opened up and pressed in the courtroom!

The lead attorney for the “Kennedy-faction” did his utmost to prevent certain documents from the respective Offices of Secretary of State and Division of Elections pertaining to the legitimate status, or lack-thereof, of certain State Party Organizations (SPO’s) and to a greater extent was able to shutdown the counterattack presented by Heinemann. Nevertheless, Foley, Doogs & Heinemann were able to elicit certain testimony on the record that supported their positions with respect to certain SPO’s legitimacy. Blare on the other hand, always confined his attack upon the failure of the “Kennedy-faction” to have legitimacy in their actions, and the lack-thereof. As for Roy Downing, he was limited to the five-questions whose answers showed no interactivity at any time between the ARP and the RPUSA. Thus feeling comfortable that they had effectively shutdown any serious damage to their clients via state government documents showing the lack-of-credibility and legitimacy for specific SPO’s claimed by the “Kennedy-faction”, the attorneys for the “Kennedy-faction” rested their case!

Heinemann as first defendant in line called Blare, Foley & Doogs as witnesses and they entered testimony regarding the lack-of-legitimacy of the alleged SPO’s claimed by the “Kennedy-faction”. The exception was Blare who was questioned over party rules & procedures. Again, D. Andrew Byrne, lead attorney for the “Kennedy-faction” raised objection after objection to prevent state government documents from being introduced into evidence since he wanted to narrow the focus to just the 2003 RPUSA Constitution and RRoO! Once Heinemann, Foley, Doogs & Downing rested their defense – John Blare rose to make his presentation – a defensive presentation still unbeknownst to everyone else since he only entered the case on the morning of the first day of the Trial.

Blare called Heinemann, Foley & Doogs as his opening witnesses and questioned them in part as to the differences between the 2003 RPUSA Constitution and the 2004 Charter & Bylaws; then Blare called Alec McKelvey, then Blare recalled Kennedy. The grilling of Kennedy lasted for several hours as Kennedy and Blare sparred over rules and their interpretations accordingly particularly since Kennedy would agree to answer nothing – no matter how obvious the answer! This wore everyone in the courtroom out – so the Judge dismissed the Jury late Wednesday afternoon, and told them to return Friday morning. Once the Jury left the room, the Judge then chided Kennedy for being “less than honest” in her answers, and Blare for what the Judge termed “filibustering”! The Judge suspected that delaying the Trial until Friday would permit Shawn O’Hara to be present coming off his court hearings in Mississippi. But it was not until Friday that the Judge realized that this “filibustering” was not solely done on the part or sole blame upon Blare, but a plan shared by all the Defendants! There was no court on Thursday.

When court opened on Friday morning, Shawn O’Hara was called by Blare and the wait for Shawn to get to court was WELL WORTH THE EFFORT! O’Hara did a masterful job giving testimony about the “back-stabbing” efforts of the “Kennedy-faction” to undermine his every move as Chairman of the RPUSA and their utter failure to provide proper notice or follow established procedures contrary to their original claims. Blare used O’Hara to introduce certain RPUSA documents that very much upset Byrne since although the documents had been listed as potential exhibits, Kennedy apparently never considered them of interest and thus kept Byrne “out-of-the-loop” until he saw them moved into evidence! Throughout Thursday night, Blare and Ken Jones (CT) spent several hours making copies of RPUSA minutes at a 24 hour copy-center just so these documents could be entered into evidence on Friday!

The last witness Blare called was himself and he presented a spectacle seen very rarely in court whereby a pro se litigant systematically QUESTIONED HIMSELF and provided ANSWERS to the questions asked – all the while doing so within proper court etiquette! Blare went to the witness-stand with a stack of documents over six-inches high! He then procedurally introduced each document with a description of its contents, often reading into the record certain sections, and he was able to continue this format for several hours until all was completed. The key element of these documents was how QUORUM was routinely established from meeting to meeting! The total force & effect of this mighty effort was overwhelming to everyone in the courtroom since they had heard previous testimony from Janelle Weill & Diane McKelvey that no records existed as normally would be kept by a legitimate national secretary or a purported credentialing chairperson of a real political party! Yet here was John Blare, National Secretary of the national RPUSA literally producing a ton of documents all carefully documented and provable evidence as actual minutes for scores of various meetings!

Finally around 4 pm on Friday, Blare too rested his defense and the Judge asked the Jurors if they wished to remain and hear Closing Arguments @ one-hour each side, and then begin their deliberations, or go home for the weekend and return on Monday to hear the Closing Arguments and begin their deliberations. The Jury chose to return on Monday, 25 June 2007.

On Monday, 25 June 2007, the day began with lead attorney D. Andrew Byrne presenting the first part of his Closing Statement, followed by Shawn O’Hara, followed by Jerome Heinemann, followed by Nelson ‘Skip’ Foley, followed by Jeanne Doogs, and followed by John Blare, in the order in which they appeared as Defendants. Roy Downing, ARP Chairman, waived his Closing Arguments and left to return home the day before since his wife had taken ill due to the heat & humidity of Florida. Last to speak was Byrne providing the second part of his Closing Statement. The Judge then read his Instructions to the Jury into the official court record, and the Jury was excused to begin their deliberations.

After about forty-five minutes, the Juror asked for six more copies of the 2003 RPUSA Constitution, yellow markers for all, and a list of the exhibits entered into the record at Trial. They worked through lunch and somewhere around 4:15 pm announced they had reached a VERDICT. The charge to the Jury was as follows: “Do you find by the greater weight of the evidence that the vote changing officers at the June 2005 Tampa convention was valid?” All the Jury had to do was check off either “YES” or “NO” – and the Jury gave a resounding unanimous “NO”! A “Yes” would have made Kennedy & her cohorts the National Officers of the RPUSA, a “No” means Kennedy & her cohorts are NOTHING within the RPUSA!

In spite of all the hoop & holler to the contrary, the “Kennedy-faction” proved to a Jury of Twelve reasonable folks that the “Kennedy-faction” did not follow the rules even when laid right in front of them! This is something that everyone in the RPUSA has known about the “Dallas-faction” since the very beginning and founding of the RPUSA – and something that earned dear-ole-Bev and her cohorts the nickname, “TWISTED-SISTERS”! It’s a fitting demise for the treachery inflicted upon the RPUSA by the “Dallas-faction”!

Regardless, the role played by each Defendant in this epic defeat of a professional and seasoned law firm by a rag-tag, pro se paper-guerrilla-army – speaks volumes as to how a dedicated few can stand against the many and prevail! Hallelujah for the Cause of Righteousness!

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