| McDevitt’s Fingerprints | |
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By Larry Shook |
8/21/2007 |
Is the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington in trouble?
ON MONDAY, AUGUST 6 (Hiroshima Day for those sensitive to historical irony), a strange thing happened as I was leaving on vacation. My phone started ringing off the hook. Callers were telling me that James A. McDevitt, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington, was on the Mark Fuhrman radio show responding to an interview I had given Fuhrman the preceding Friday.
"You gotta listen to what he's saying," callers told me.
But I couldn't. The car was packed and my wife was waiting for me to wrap up my last-minute chores so we could get on the road.
What I soon learned was that McDevitt was objecting to my observation that his fingerprints were all over the River Park Square securities fraud. I was truly shocked that he would go on the radio and respond as he did. Why? Because the evidence of McDevitt's role in the RPS scandal is so conspicuous that the plaintiffs in the securities fraud case featured it prominently. That is, they featured the cover-up of the loss of half the revenue needed to pay off the city-backed bonds that financed construction of the RPS garage. McDevitt worked for Preston Gates and Ellis, the law firm that was supposed to represent the sellers of the RPS bonds. The sellers of those bonds owed explicit duties of disclosure to the bonds' purchasers. Just how involved Preston Gates and Ellis was in meeting or violating those legal duties is suggested in McDevitt's billing records for his work in the RPS boiler room.
Those records appeared in Exhibits 802 through 807 in the federal securities fraud case. This is the file containing the depositions of "Witness Ormsby." Witness Ormsby is Mike Ormsby, McDevitt's former colleague at Preston and campaign treasurer for the Cowles-backed John Powers, the former mayor who said there was no conspiracy on the part of city officials to commit securities fraud. But that's another story.
When I learned that McDevitt invited listeners to bring him evidence that the improprieties surrounding RPS justified a criminal investigation, I thought he was just thumbing his nose at the world. When I learned that Camas senior editor Tim Connor and former city councilwoman Cherie Rodgers had taken McDevitt up on his invitation, then I knew: Hiroshima Day was the perfect day for all of this to get started. To read the complaint, attachments and documents that Connor and Rodgers delivered to McDevitt on August 20, 2007, see below.
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Document downloads
Cover Letter
Attachment #1
Attachment #2
Supplemental documents
January 17, 2002 Spokesman-Review article calling James McDevitt the "perfect choice" for U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington.
Betsy Cowles certifies that the bonds' official statement is true and correct with respect to the developer.
Attorney Mike Ormsby is questioned under oath about the garage price.
Securities Exchange Act rule regarding manipulative and deceptive tactics.
RPS reimbursement agreement.
Rules for real estate appraisals involving federal funds.
State law regarding money laundering.
A-1 Exhibits
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y
A-2 Exhibits
1, 2, 3, 4, 4 page 23, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
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