Thread: Jim Gilchrist sues illegal immigrant activists again

Jim Gilchrist sues illegal immigrant activists again

The Minuteman Project founder said he wants to make a group of former fellow activists "as miserable as possible."

BY CINDY CARCAMO
The Orange County Register
Monday, April 27, 2009

Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist has filed another lawsuit against fellow activists, about two years after he dropped the first saying he wanted to refocus on immigration enforcement.

"We dropped it and thought they would just go on their way and they didn't," said Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo. "They pulled the shenanigans of suing me under my own corporate name."

Gilchrist's suit, filed in March under Minuteman Project Inc., names several former fellow activists, Barbara Coe, founder of California Coalition for Immigration Reform, Marvin Stewart, and Paul Sielski. Anti-illegal immigrant activist Deborah Courtney is for now excluded from the suit because she has filed for bankruptcy, but could later be included if a bankruptcy court permits her to be named as a defendant, court documents state.

The suit alleges that the group stole a donor database, about 20,000 of the organization's letterhead with Gilchrist's signature, and funds from corporate bank accounts, among other accusations.

Coe wouldn't comment for this story. Sielski, Stewart and Courtney, who have accused Gilchrist of embezzlement and fraud, said the suit is meant to be a smoke screen to confuse the public.

The lawsuit is just the latest maneuver in a string of back-and-forth suits that started in early 2007 between two groups that were once united and among the most vocal and powerful voices against illegal immigration. The infighting has left the Minuteman Project fractured, with both sides claiming they run the organization.

The trouble began in late 2006 when some group officials expressed concerns over fundraising and suspected irregular bookkeeping. Stewart and Courtney said Gilchrist couldn't address the suspected discrepancies so they and others voted him off the board of directors.

The major source of contention stems from whether Courtney, Coe, Stewart and others were executive board members as they've claimed or advisory members without the power to oust Gilchrist, as he contends. That's why Gilchrist claims that he is the rightful owner of the Minuteman Project and not them.

"They knew that all the time and they decided they would be governing board members and stole the bank accounts," Gilchrist said.

Courtney, Stewart, and Sielski contend they are the true Minuteman Project and that Stewart is the current president of the organization.

Courtney provided the Register with documents of registration of charitable organizations for the Minuteman Project Inc. in several states -- such as Oregon, Alabama and Michigan -- listing her as a "Secretary-Board Member."

"He has sworn under penalty of perjury that I am a member of the board of directors," Courtney said about Gilchrist. "He was legally terminated. He should never have been allowed to file these lawsuits under the Minuteman Project."

Courtney claims that Gilchrist has been embezzling money from the organization, spending donors' money to file lawsuits against the group.

She claims Gilchrist dropped his first lawsuit against the group because he knew he was going to lose.

Stewart said he laments what's happened, stating that all he wanted was an audit of the Minuteman Project and transparency from Gilchrist.

"We never wanted it to get to this point right here," Stewart said. "It has truly been a black eye to those involved in the movement."


Place for comments at source link
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/gilc ... -minuteman

I hope everyone out there still sending checks to Jim Gilchrist can at least learn that their money is being used for frivolous lawsuits instead of fighting illegal immigration.

W

What a crook and wasn't he recently in an interview in California with Anderson Cooper? He is an odd one.

Wish he would figure out that his 15 minutes of fame were up long ago....