UPDATED 5:44 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Two Iowa residents from a city that once hosted an AdSurfDaily meeting attended by Andy Bowdoin have filed a pro se motion to set aside the forfeiture in the case.
The motion, which used the Curtis Richmond litigation blueprint, was filed by Michael and Joyce Haws of Ankeny. ASD member Mindy Bales hosted a March gathering at an Ankeny restaurant that brought in $900,000, Bales told the Des Moines Register last year.
A similar meeting in July 2008 at an Ankeny golf club fetched $1.6 million, Bales told the newspaper. It is unclear if Michael and Joyce Haws joined ASD at the Ankeny meetings.
Their filing accuses the prosecutors and judges involved in the case of crimes. At the same time, it also appears to frame a strange argument against prosecutors’ assertions last month that filings such as Richmond’s will lead to unconscionable delays in obtaining justice for rank-and-file ASD members.
Rather than countering prosecutors’ argument about the prospect of Richmond-like pro se pleadings delaying justice, the document appears to suggest the prosecutors should be ignored because they are merely stating opinions.
Prosecutors last month responded to three pro se pleadings using the Richmond blueprint by filing a memorandum that addressed all three pleadings in the same document, rather than filing an individual document for each pleading.
Today’s filing, however, suggests that prosecutors now will have to file yet another response, which could lead to even more delays in the case — exactly what the prosecutors warned against last month.
The filing by Michael and Joyce Haws also appears to ignore a pro se pleading filed by Andy Bowdoin that acknowledged ASD was operating illegally at the time federal agents seized tens of millions of dollars last summer. One of the arguments in the document by the Haws is that the government interfered with commerce by taking action in the forfeiture case.
How the Haws intend to demonstrate it is legal to participate in an enterprise Bowdoin himself deemed illegal is unclear. It also is possible the Certificate of Service in the document is defective in multiple places for not including a date.
Richmond is associated with a sham Utah “Indian” tribe known for nuisancing public officials and filing bizarre legal motions. He was convicted in 2007 of contempt of court for threatening federal judges, and was ordered to pay resitution last year to public officials who brought a RICO lawsuit against members of the tribe.