James Parker Tax Case

When a land battle turned into false IRS criminal charges

By Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter

Cimarron County, OK – 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

Oklahoma 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.

James Parker

Senior (James) Parker believes it was the Commissioners of the Land Office in OK City who sicked IRS 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 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 regarding 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 iceberg. 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, 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.

Editor’s Note: In large part due to the coverage by the US~Observer, James Parker was acquitted of his tax charges in June of 2012. His wife’s charges were dismissed shortly thereafter.

Anyone facing false IRS criminal charges call the US~Observer at 541-474-7885 or email us at editor@usobserver.com.