Petition Backers Indicted On Felony Charges

Tuesday, October 2nd 2007, 6:24 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Paul Jacob, a national leader of the term limit movement, protested loudly on Tuesday when he and two others were led out of a courtroom in handcuffs after pleading not guilty to state campaign fraud charges.

The charges grew out of a signature petition drive to get a statewide vote on a so-called taxpayer of rights, commonly referred to as TABOR.

Jacob, former executive director of U.S. Term Limits, and two others were indicted on felony charges of conspiracy to defraud the state.

U.S. Term Limits is the organization that helped fund petition drives to impose term limits on lawmakers in several states, including Oklahoma, in the 1990s.

"Is this what happens when people petition their government? Is this America? What is going on?" shouted Jacob, now head of Citizens In Charge, a Virginia-based organization devoted to protecting and expanding voter rights to initiate ballot measures.

"This is an attack on our right to petition our government," said Jacob, who also has been associated with Americans for Limited Government, a think tank opposing government growth.

Also facing conspiracy charges are Susan Elizabeth Johnson of Michigan, president of National Voters Outreach, based in Nevada, and Richard Merrill Carpenter of Tulsa, head of Oklahomans In Action, which filed the TABOR petition.

Carpenter was charged with a second felony -- violating the state's initiative petition act.

The three were handcuffed together and escorted to a booking area by sheriff's deputies after appearing before District Judge Bryan Dixon. The judge set bail at $10,000 each for Jacob and Johnson and at $4,000 for Carpenter.

The defendants either pleaded not guilty or had not guilty verdicts entered for them by the judge.

The TABOR petition sought to limit the growth of government to a formula. It was similar to a plan approved in Colorado, but suspended after the state experienced revenue problems.

Joellyn McCormick, assistant attorney general, said the defendants could receive up to 10 years if convicted of the conspiracy charge, which was linked to bringing out-of-state circulators to Oklahoma to collect petition signatures.

The indictment accuses the three of "willfully, corruptly, deceitfully, fraudulently and feloniously" conspiring with each other to defraud the state through the collection of signatures on the TABOR petition.

It said the defendants brought out-of-state circulators to Oklahoma "temporarily for no other reason other than to circulate the TABOR petition." Many signed certificates that they were bona fide residents, a requirement for circulating the petition, the indictment said.

Johnson refused to testify last May before the state's multi-county grand jury, which issued the indictments. "I am completely innocent," she told the judge on Tuesday.

Michael Trevino, attorney for Carpenter, would not say if Carpenter testified before the grand jury.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out the petition last year based on nonresidents having collected signatures. The decision accused petition leaders of "outright fraud."

Johnson, who lost a court battle in Michigan to avoid appearing before the Oklahoma grand jury, labeled the court opinion "a corporate lynching."

A federal judge in Oklahoma City recently ruled that restrictions in Oklahoma law on signature-gathering were reasonable.

Yes on Term Limits, a group seeking to use out-of-state circulators for a petition drive to limit terms of several state officials, served notice on Tuesday that it will appeal that ruling.

"The will of the people is being denied," said James Dunn, chairman of the group. Dunn lost in a bid for attorney general last year against incumbent Drew Edmondson, whose office oversees the state grand jury.