Resolution to Sizemore case delayed for months

Resolution to the teachers unions' lawsuit against Bill Sizemore's Oregon Taxpayers United's organizations was delayed several months further Dec. 9 when Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jerome LaBarre ordered the unions to re-file their request for damages using a different legal procedure.

After that, OTU attorney Greg Byrne will have another month to respond. A final ruling on the case won't be issued until at least February.

LaBarre overruled objections by Byrne to allow the state to join the case, meaning the Oregon attorney general's office will get to ask the judge for its own set of legal remedies against Sizemore's organizations, aimed at preventing a recurrence of the lawbreaking.

The lawsuit was filed in December 2000 by the Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-Oregon. On Sept. 27 this year, a jury ruled that Oregon Taxpayers United's two related organizations had engaged in fraud and forgery in qualifying several anti-union ballot measures which the unions were then forced to spend money fighting.

The judge is expected to order that Sizemore's organizations pay $2.52 million in damages to the two unions. The plaintiffs are also seeking an order dissolving Sizemore's organizations and limiting his ability to start up his operations under a new name.

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