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When Perjury Subverts Governing
By Greg L | 13 February 2007 | Rack & Roll Scandal | 6 Comments
Few things are more crucial to the effective process of governing than the requirement that governing officials are truthful about what they’re doing. That truthfulness establishes a critical trust between the government and the goverened, and ensures citizens the opportunity to perform some oversight lest that government try to become the master of, instead of the servant of the people. The various boards which adjudicate licenses and permits are critical forums for truth in a municipal government, which is why in many cases testimony under oath is given. Yet over the past several months, as I’ve dug into the Rack & Roll scandal, I keep coming across evidence that officials of Manassas Park have engaged in a conspiracy to hide the truth, and will resort to committing and suborning perjury, and tampering with witnesses in order to facilitate this conspiracy.
In “Anatomy of a setup” I walked readers through part of the story of Rack & Roll’s head of security, a Mr. Tom Kifer who described in some detail how he was part of an effort by the Joint Narcotics Task Force (JNTF) to facilitate drug activity rather than perform the job he was hired to do by Dave Ruttenberg. Prior to the recorded conversation that I provided, Tom Kifer provided testimony on behalf of the JNTF at an ABC hearing where among other things he discloses that he was a paid informant. Tom Kifer’s boss during his construction day job, Mr. Joe Wilson, also testified under oath about Kifer’s work with the JNTF, noting that the conditions of Tom Kifer’s probation were reduced after the raid the JNTF conducted and which his work for the police helped make possible. It’s also noteworthy that immediately after Kifer’s release from prison — after serving just two years of a ten year sentence — he shows up at Rack & Roll and starts begging for a job. All of the evidence I’ve seen clearly shows that Tom Kifer was working under the direction of the police during his entire period of employment at Rack & Roll.
And what a job he did for them. Testimony shows that Kifer received kickbacks from drug dealers for allowing them into the club in spite of then being barred by Dave Ruttenberg, and sworn statements describe how Tom Kifer would tell patrons that they could purchase cocaine from Dave Ruttenberg. Kifer testified that he did his best to ensure that the drug deals which undercover Police Officer Robert White participated in wouldn’t be seen by Dave Ruttenberg. And on the day of the 90 officer raid at Rack & Roll, I’ve seen a video of Tom Kifer sitting outside of Dave Ruttenberg’s office door with Officer Robert White, joking and laughing while waiting for the police to storm into the place from a vantage point where they won’t miss any of the action. Had Kifer done the job he was hired to do, there would have been no drug activity at Rack & Roll. Instead, under direction from the police, he made sure it happened. When he comes to testify at the ABC hearing, Kifer offers up a bunch of conflicted testimony about his motivations for participating in these operations and gets caught up trying to remember how to tell the story he’s supposed to present.
Officer Robert White also testified at the hearing, but denied he directed Tom Kifer to do anything, saying that the case officer (in this instance Officer Mario Lugo) would have been the one to do this. Officer Lugo similarly denies having directed Tom Kifer to do anything. But Chris Price, a drug dealer who was working with the JNTF described in his affidavit how Kifer was working with Officer Rob White. Then there’s a little matter where Officer White even went so far as to allow some of these drug dealers to live in his house while they were working on behalf of the JNTF. Chris Price never actually made it to the hearing to describe all of this in detail though, because Manassas Park Police officers apparently paid a visit to him as soon as they learned that he would testify for the defense and explained how that might not be in his best interests. It would have been interesting for the hearing officer to have him describe how “officer Lugo offered to make my drug charges go away if I would work with the police to set up drug deals inside Rack & Roll”, however.
From my reading from among the hundreds of pages of testimony, reviewing sworn statements, wading through hours of audio and video recordings, and examining a thick sheaf of documents it’s absolutely clear to me that David Ruttenberg was the victim of a conspiracy committed by Manassas Park police officers who were working with the Joint Narcotics Task Force to commit perjury, suborn perjury from Tom Kifer, and tamper with witness for the defense Chris Price. This was done for the purpose of covering up the unlawful means that the JNTF employed in order to smear Rack & Roll as a drug haven, cause this business to close, and remove the last impediment to setting the Manassas Park Shopping Center up as the perfect site for Colonial Down’s vision of a little Las Vegas near the lucrative Metropolitan Washington area if the 2004 gambling referendum had passed. It seems that a number of public officals would have handsomely profited from the land deal, development contracts, and from contracts with Colonial Downs had the referendum been successful.
Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert shut down an earlier investigation into this conspiracy. It’s clearly time he reopened that investigation so that justice can finally get it’s chance to prevail in Manassas Park.
References:
ABC Hearing Transcript, pages 34, 46-47, 48, 104, 190-191, 198-199, 267, 268, 268-269, 270-271, 271-272
Sworn Statement of Jessica Price
Sworn Statement of Chris Price (page 1, page 2)
UPDATE: Reference documentation links have been added. Enjoy.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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I continue to be outraged by this mess, but wonder when the proper “authorities” will reach the same conclusion. I wonder if this will heat up again with the latest push for the ridiculous “video horse racing” gambling, soon to come to an OTB venue near you!
Greg,
I have been following this story with some interest.
My only observation is: if the players you name have committed perjury at an ABC hearing located in The City of Alexandria, why do you think Ebert should be investigating alleged crime(s) that occurred in Alexandria? The venue for perjury is where it occurred. You and/or Mr. Ruttenberg need to contact the police and Commonwealth’s Attorney in Alexandria and make your complaint where the alleged crime(s) happened.
The ABC hearing happened locally, and a perjury investigation was initiated by the Virginia State Police, but that investigation was closed by Paul Ebert without explanation. I believe Paul Ebert should reopen the investigation.
Greg,
Check your notes again. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere in your coverage or linked coverage that the ABC administrative hearing was held in Alexandria City.
Let’s add another one.
RACK AND ROLL - ABC TESTIMONY, DAY 1
TRANSCRIPTED EXCERPT
Page 199, Lines 20 through 25: Questions by Mr. Harrington, answers by Detective Lugo.
Q And neither — Tom Kifer,then, ….was not a paid informant? That’s correct?
A No, sir.
Q Was that correct, yes?
A Yeah - I mean he wasn’t a paid
informant. Yeah.
END OF EXCERPT
Detective Lugo, your statement can do only one thing…mislead the hearing officer. Whatever your deal with him was, be it sentence reduction or money, Kifer did it in exchange for personal gain. You may think this is an exercise in semantics. I call it a lie. One of many that BVBL will soon expose. You dishonor your profession.
In reviewing this post, I noticed that Greg identifies Jessica Price’s statement as a “sworn statement.” I also noticed that the statement itself carries no notary or other oath but only Jessica’s signature.
Jessica Price is the sister of Jeffery Price. Jeffery Price was either the dealer or instigator of every marijuana deal alleged by the ABC to have been transacted at RnR (see allegations set forth in ABC “Report of License Violation,” incident # 200407200010, approved September 17, 2004). The ABC, in the same “Report,” identifies only one individual as ever buying drugs at RnR and that is the undercover Prince William County detective. Jessica Price’s testimony, therefore, as to whether Jeffery Price was working with the police to set up drug deals at RnR, i.e., whether or not those “deals” were in effect one state actor working with another state actor in order to fabricate evidence, should be critical (although not hardly the only evidence, e.g., the Chris Price statement) with respect to any objective determination about what really transpired at RnR. Accordingly I submit the following with respect to Jessica’s statement as affected by her sworn testimony at the ABC hearing.
Jessica never had the statement published in this post notarized. However, Jessica appeared before the ABC Hearing Officer, Clara A.Williams (CAW), on the second day of the hearing, i.e., August 26, 2005. Jessica was sworn in by the Hearing Officer. Her statement was marked Exhibit 14 by the Hearing Officer (see lower right hand corner of the exhibit posted above). She was then examined, under oath, as follows:
By Neil Ruttenberg:
Q. Would you read through this and identify it and tell the judge whether or not that’s your statement.
A. Yes, this is my statement.
By the Hearing Officer:
Are the contents true and correct?
The Witness:
Yes, ma’am.
(Transcript, Day 2, p. 210, lines 1-8). Accordingly, Greg is correct when he states that Jessica’s statement was a “sworn statement.”
The ABC transcript (which is a public document available to all - as is the above referenced ABC “Report”) is replete with sworn testimony by Jessica about her brother’s deals with the Manassas Park police and the Narcotics Task Force. I don’t intend to comment further on that testimony. It speaks for itself and I will leave that to Greg at his discretion. He’s done pretty well so far.