"Watch. This arrangement [IRS Task Force] will bite us all in the ass."
I told you so, I told you so, I told you so...back when Midlothian's police department (led by ex-DeSoto assistant Chief Carl Smith) hooked up with DeSoto's police department (Smith's friend Mike Brodnax is chief) and several others to form a federally deputized Internal Revenue Service money laundering task force to be run out of the scandal-plagued old Midlothian First Baptist Church building (that's a separate story altogether, one that comes with a separate FBI investigation), I opposed it on the grounds that Ellis County didn't need to be anywhere near the scandal-plagued, corruption-heavy DeSoto PD or the federal government: especially when local police officers would be federally deputized under the IRS and Treasury Department (terrorism task forces I can deal with and understand.)
I also questioned the make-up of this task force between several horrible police officers, namely Lt. Paul Pothen. (check the Flashback Links below)
So here's the big scandal to rock the IRS Task Force that is coming true:
--- Richard Arledge was literally a millionaire car salesman and note financier in Richardson, Texas;And once again, I told you so. I told you so. I told you so.
--- Arledge sold a car, a brand-new Corvette convertible, to some men who put $15,000 down on the vehicle;
--- This same Corvette is later seized by the DeSoto Police Department; Arledge's companies, Richard Arledge Suzuki & Expressway Financial, are the lien holders on the car;
--- Arledge approaches DeSoto PD about getting the car back due to the men -- later to be found as drug dealers -- paying $15,000 down on the car and Arledge's company still holding the note; Lt. Paul Pothen tells him that in order to get the car back, Arledge would have to pay $15,000;
--- Arledge doesn't like this, so he calls DeSoto PD and lodges a complaint against Pothen (in the private sector, this would amount to extortion)
--- The day of the Corvette being seized, DeSoto PD and the IRS Task Force out of Midlothian show up to execute a search warrant, guns drawn and numbering about 60 officers in all, seizing everything from files, documents and records from Arledge's companies;
--- It's a fact that Arledge's companies -- mainly the dealership -- marketed and advertised in Southern Dallas County. DeSoto PD and the Task Force, plus lawyers for the government, say Arledge should have known he was selling cars to drug dealers;
--- DeSoto PD/Midlothian IRS Task Force agents end up seizing documents pertaining to "10 or 12 deals," when Arledge has done about 5,000 car deals;
--- Employees of Arledge's are indicted; Arledge is indicted as well; two employees accept probation plea bargains from federal prosecutors; Arledge and two others are fighting in a Nov. 15 federal court trial the charges; they refuse to accept deals, even though Arledge could face 30 years in prison
--- Midlothian's IRS Task Force sent undercover agents (a man and a woman) to buy cars from Arledge; they ultimately paid $75,000 for a BMW, but wanted Arledge to just take the money without filing a required IRS form, an "8300." Arledge refused, and it later came out that both of these BMW buyers were undercover and wearing wires; the audio exists and proves that after five times trying to get Arledge to sign over a car without the Form 8300, the form was in fact filed (it's federal law to file Form 8300 when one accepts $10,000 or more in a cash transaction);
--- Midlothian's IRS Task Force seized $1.7 million in cash and cars from Arledge's businesses the day of the original raid; there has been approximately $1.6 million sent back to Arledge's lender to date; Arledge could receive only a $33,000 payment in return due to this entire case being blown wide open;
--- Big down payments on vehicles were nothing new to Arledge; all customers filled out the same credit applications and other financial instruments to obtain vehicles
The indictments and allegations made by Midlothian's IRS Task Force and DeSoto PD of money laundering came after Arledge made a complaint about Lt. Paul Pothen for what amounts to blatant extortion.
"Watch. This arrangement [IRS Task Force] will bite us all in the ass."
-- Joey G. Dauben
(Nov. 4, 2008)
Flashback Links:
--- BestSouthwestBlog.com's Paul Pothen, Roy Orr, Richard Rozier, Ellis County Press archives: http://bestsouthwest.blogspot.com/2009/03/fred-orr-texas-constittion-outdated.html
--- Lt. Paul Pothen found passed out drunk outside bar; left loaded gun inside bar: http://eco2.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/midlothians-irs-task-force-lt-found-drunk/
--- Why ex-Midlothian City Councilman Ken Chambers voted against the IRS Task Force:
http://eco2.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/midlothian-why-chambers-voted-against-the-irs-task-force/
--- Midlothian PD has become an extension of DeSoto PD: http://eco2.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/political-real-estate-roy-orrs-boys/
--- YouTube videos of the IRS task force being discussed and/or approved: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh5-UW7RD-0
1 comments:
My son was involved a incident where he was in a domestic dispute with his girlfriend in desoto, the police were called out. She kicked holes in the walls at the apartment, pulled the door off the hinges. She also scratched him up as well as bit him on his thigh. She was not arrested, no pictures were taken of him, or the damage to the apartment, no was he given a number for a police report. Even though is on probation she was allowed to walk away. She later returned to gather the rest of her belongings and she stole his keys. The police were called and of course once again they did nothing. If my son had put so much as a scratch on her he would have been hauled off to jail.
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