By
Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter
Cimarron County, Oklahoma - In 2007, Cimarron River Ranch (CRR) General Manager
Sam Parker filed suit against the Commissioners of the Land Office in Oklahoma
City, OK (CLO) for violation of its lease agreement with CRR on some 24,000
acres of grazing lands.
In 2009, then General
Counsel for the CLO, attorney Guy Hearst, arguing in Judge Twyla Gray's
court for the CLO, made the following statement in open
court, which is now part of the court record: "Your honor we intend
to run these people out of Cimarron County", meaning CRR. As appalling
and bigoted as this statement was, one would think the CLO's claims would
have been thrown out of court on the spot, but they were not. Instead,
insider Judge Twyla Gray granted the CLO summary judgment against CRR and
CRR's ranch
was seized by sheriffs and sold at auction in April 2010, while CRR was
appealing Gray's ruling.
Attorney Reggie Whitten
|
OK City attorney Reggie Whitten and the Whitten Newman Foundation was the
high bidder at auction, but reportedly did not pay for the ranch because
of large recorded mortgages on the CRR property.
In October 2010, Judge Gray's ruling was overturned by the Oklahoma State
Court of Civil Appeals and the summary judgment was reversed. Interestingly,
after numerous alleged threats and bullying tactics by Hearst against CRR
and CRR legal counsel, Hearst abruptly resigned as general counsel for the
CLO, just two days after the state court of civil appeals denied the CLO
request for appeal of the reversed judgment. It appears Mr. Hearst, who reportedly
masterminded the seizure of the CRR property and the rush to judgment in
its subsequent sale, knowing it was on appeal, understood the writing on
the wall and made himself scarce before the inevitable invitation for a trip
to the woodshed by his superiors.
Attorney Whitten however, persisted in his efforts to gain control of the
CRR property, despite the fact the CLO judgment was reversed and he and his
brother in law Robert Newman had been sued by CRR in June 2011, for trespassing
and causing damage to CRR property.
According to a witness, "Whitten’s
desire for ownership of CRR dates back to 2006, when he approached CRR
to purchase the
property but
was not able to secure the funds necessary. The Whitten Newman
Foundation's intended
use of the property was in conjunction with the University of Oklahoma
and the Sam Noble Museum as an archeological site and to study
the Black
Mesa
rock formations on the property. Both the president and the Regents
at the University declined comment on their relationship with Whitten."
Judge Ronald
Kincannon
|
On February 8, 2012, in Boise City, OK, Judge Ronald Kincannon, ignoring
all CRR's rights under due process of law, awarded Whitten full ownership
of CRR property on the now overturned CLO judgment. The horrible abuse of
CRR's rights in Kincannon's ruling are so pervasive, it provided a text book
example for appeal. CRR is currently appealing Kincannon's ruling to the
OK State Supreme Court. It is now CRR's second court battle to maintain ownership
of their property, which should never have been confiscated; first by the
CLO and then by Whitten using the CLO's defunct judgment.
The US Observer is now
getting a broad picture of the extent the CLO’s
Assistant Secretary Keith Kuhlman, Attorney Reggie Whitten, Judge Kincannon
and others have gone and are willing to go in their attempts to "run
these people out" and allegedly steal their property in
the process.
If aiding and abetting in this alleged travesty of justice weren't enough,
the US Observer has found the above named have reportedly conspired together
in a closely coordinated effort to not only convert CRR's property for their
own personal use, but destroy CRR and the lives of members of the Parker
family at the hands of the Internal Revenue Service.
THE ALLEGED CONSPIRATORS
Randy Ellis, corruption watchdog reporter for The Oklahoman newspaper interviewed
CRR owners, managers and state officials, as well as others and published
information on this case on the front page of The Oklahoman Sunday paper
on March 27, 2011. The following are some highlights from his story:
As early as 2006, a private investigator from OK working with a retired IRS
agent was hired by someone to follow the Parkers and document all operations
of CRR, their land acquisitions, banking, leases, etc. This information was
then taken to the IRS office in Dallas, TX where it was forwarded to the
Phoenix office of the IRS and ultimately resulted in a Federal indictment
being issued against James Parker, father of Samuel Parker, CRR's owner/manager.
Senior (James) Parker believes it was the Commissioners of the Land Office
in OK City who siccedIRS criminal investigators on him and others working
with them who did not want CRR doing business in their county. Keith Kuhlman,
then director of Commissioners of the Land Office's real estate management
division, now assistant to the secretary, denied instigating the IRS investigation,
but acknowledged being interviewed about Parker by an IRS agent on April
1, 2008. James Parker also accused Kuhlman of lying in a subsequent interview
with an IRS agent.
Documents show Kuhlman
told the IRS agent that the elder Parker did all the bidding on the school
land
leases. "I have personally never, ever bid
on any leases", Parker said, adding that all bids were made by either
his son or ranch manager Roy Young. "It makes it appear that it (the
lease) was mine, and of course it wasn't", Parker said. "My
son signed the leases. I'm an advisor to my son but I didn't do any
bidding."
Asked about the matter by reporter Ellis, Kuhlman initially told The Oklahoman
that James Parker had done the bidding. After being informed about James
Parker's statement however, Kuhlman said he couldn't remember whether James
Parker or Young had actually raised their hands. CF David, editor of The
Boise City News in Boise City, OK, was present at the 2005 public auction
and said it was his recollection that Roy Young, CRR ranch manager, did the
actual bidding.
James Parker said documents
he received also show that Tim W. Barnes, president of the First State
Bank
of Boise City, talked to the IRS
about him and
filed "15
suspicious activity reports" stemming from wire transfers made from
a Belize bank account to his son's ranch corporation. Barnes told the IRS
that 36 money wires totaling $1.2 million concerned him because Belize was "on
the US State Department's list of major money laundering countries," James
Parker said. "I've never met the man - never had an account with him" the
elder Parker said. He contends the wire transfers were legitimate loans
to his son's ranch corporation from the foreign corporation that James
Parker
served as a general manager.
The US Observer, having
investigated many tax cases, wishes to inform the public, the IRS does
its own investigative
work and have much broader
powers
in their gathering of information than a private investigator. The
IRS also does not use retired IRS agents to do their work. Special
agents
are appointed
for these cases, of which they have plenty. The hiring of private investigators
and retired IRS agents to gather information on people is clearly the
work of allegedly corrupted individuals conspiring in their attempt
to ruin
or "run
someone out" by hook or crook.
It is clear to the US Observer, that both state officials and other individuals
have communicated regularly with the IRS regarding CRR and the senior Parker's
taxes from the outset of this case and some have conspired to single Parker
out for prosecution at the hands of the Internal Revenue Service and illegally
appropriate his son's ranch property.
On September 8, 2011, case no: CJ-2011-5, Attorney Reggie Whitten, in answering
the suit filed against him by CRR in Cimarron County for trespassing revealed
his complicity to single the senior Parker out for prosecution by the IRS.
On page 10 of Whitten's argument to gain ownership of CRR property in Judge
Ronald Kincannon's court, he describes the Parkers as frauds, liars and desperate
people who should receive federal prison sentences for their behavior in
regard to their IRS problems and that ownership of CRR property should be
granted to him forthwith, no further arguments being necessary. Whitten had
been following the senior Parker's tax case and reportedly had full knowledge
of it since he had allegedly helped create it and used this information for
his personal gain to obtain ownership of CRR property, when it had no relevance
whatsoever to the case at hand that he was involved in as a defendant for
trespassing.
The senior Parker is not an owner or officer of CRR and is not a party to
the CRR - Whitten Newman suit and should not have been mentioned at all.
This was simply another attempt to smear Parker's name and influence Judge
Kincannon's decision in the case against CRR - Kincannon granted ownership
of CRR to Whitten on February 8, 2012.
In Whitten's request for discovery regarding CRR's trespass suit against
him filed in Cimarron County August 1, 2011, case no: CJ-2011-5, records
show Whitten asks for detailed financial information on the senior
Parker. In an 11 page request, Whitten asks for detailed accounting of every
bank
account of Parker in the world, all assets, all corporations, all accounting
for all corporations and detailed financial information on Parker personally,
over a period of years. Most of Whitten's request in discovery focused
on financial information on the senior Parker and not on CRR, the plaintiff
in the case.
The Argument
This case is simply litigation over titled ownership of CRR real property
and has nothing to do with anyone's financials, much less Parkers' as he
was not even a party to the suit. So the question is: where was Whitten intending
to go with the detailed financial information he had hoped to obtain from
the senior Parker? We believe it safe to say, Whitten's next stop would have
been a meeting with IRS agent Lisa Giovinelli. This would have furthered
his alleged role in this conspiracy to destroy and bury Parker at the hands
of the IRS.
The US Observer would
like to know how many meetings and communications have already taken place
between
state officials, attorneys and judges, including
Judge Gray and Judge Kincannon and agents of the Internal Revenue Service
regarding this case? We are just seeing the tip of the iceburg. The US
Observer
believes IRS agent Lisa Giovinelli has not only interviewed state officials
and others in this case, but has used the government's power to influence
decisions being made in this case to stack the deck against CRR and the
Parkers. The IRS, being federally funded, thus relying on revenue-generating
convictions,
operate as a law unto themselves under the philosophy, "the means
justify the ends.”
We should note that Assistant Secretary Keith Kuhlman, Auditor Gary Jones,
CFO Karen Johnson, Attorney Reggie Whitten and others have refused to return
our calls.
Prosecution for the violation of any tax code is intended to be a process applied
evenly and fairly across the board to any violators. In this case however,
a ring of allegedly corrupted individuals have reportedly worked together to
single out Parker for destruction at the hands of the IRS. Having allegedly
done so, they have not only allegedly broken the law but have severely tainted
the Parker tax case for prosecution. These wrong intentioned individuals working
together, outside the IRS, but with the IRS, have corrupted this case.
No one should be singled
out for criminal prosecution using a Federal agency to do so just because
someone
wants to "run them out" or
destroy them.
For Federal Prosecutors to proceed in their prosecution of this case would
constitute a disregard for ethics and possible prosecutorial misconduct. This
tax case, tainted by corruption and discrimination, demands it be thrown out
of court in the garbage out of which it originated and those responsible for
it exposed and prosecuted for their wrongdoing.
The US~Observer has published
two articles regarding the Cimarron River Ranch issue at www.usobserver.com.
These articles include the bulk of the
history
on this case and I would prompt our readership to not only read the
articles, but also the blog comments at the end of each article. Article
(1) (2)
Editor’s
Note: Anyone with information on this case or the players involved
are urged to
contact Edward Snook at 541-474-7885 or by email to ed@usobserver.com.