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Departments Election Issues Programmer Jeff Dean worked for chief of White House Plumbers unit by Bev Harris, Kathleen Wynne, and John Howard January 26, 2006 Convicted of 23 felonies for computer crimes, Jeffrey Dean was sent to prison for four years. Shortly after his release from incarceration, his company was awarded one of the largest ballot printing contracts in history. In a 2003 deposition, Dean states that he was a scapegoat who was left holding the bag in a series of unapproved payments from Culp, Guterson & Grader, one of the most politically connected law firms in Washington state. One of this firm's partners at the time was Egil "Bud" Krogh, who headed the White House "plumbers" unit under Richard Nixon. Krogh ordered the burglary of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. Dean claimed that other persons from the firm were involved in a scheme, and upon discovery of illicit payments (averaging $14,000/month) he was made to take the blame. Krogh was a partner at Culp Guterson & Grader during the time period that Dean was receiving illicit payments of approximately $15,000 per month. Like Jeffrey Dean, Krogh did time in prison -- four months for Watergate-related crimes. He was disbarred, but after a fight from a Culp Guterson & Grader attorney, his credentials were restored. At the time, the firm was called "Culp Dwyer Guterson & Grader." 'He [Krogh] was hired on the merits of his character, intelligence and skills as a lawyer,'' said William L. Dwyer, the firm's senior partner, who had represented Mr. Krogh in his disbarment fight. Dwyer became a U.S. district judge. DEAN BECOMES A BALLOT PRINTER Shortly after Jeffrey Dean was released from prison a company owned by his wife (but run by Jeffrey Dean) was awarded one of the largest ballot-printing contracts in history, with King County, Washington. In SEC documents, this company (Spectrum Print & Mail Ltd.) lists assets located in the Seattle area, British Columbia, San Francisco and in the Norwalk (CA) location that houses the Los Angeles County Elections Division. DEAN DEVELOPS COMPUTERIZED ELECTION SYSTEMS According to depositions taken in 2003, Jeffrey Dean programmed the ballot sorting software used to process incoming and outgoing mail-in ballots; he also developed the Vote Remote software used to track and authenticate mail-in ballots. Key logs from King County Elections show that Jeffrey Dean was given intimate access to the GEMS server (Diebold central tabulating software); internal memos from Diebold refer to an ongoing consulting arrangement with Dean, and document that he had management involvement in the touch-screens, the 1.96 version of the optical scan, the votercard encoder and the Windows CE operating system used in Diebold voting machines. In addition, during recent litigation Dean called Peter G. Martin as a witness, indicating that he had worked closely with Martin, who programmed the new upcoming High Speed Central Count system. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS WITH THE DEAN FAMILY Black Box Voting has learned that Jeffrey Dean and his wife Deborah have recently been ordered into Chapter 7 bankruptcy by a trustee who become fed up with their "gamesmanship" in recent attempts to obstruct discovery of their assets. A 25 YEAR HISTORY OF TROUBLE Jeffrey Dean has a 25-year history of financial problems, tax liens and litigation, going back to a company he formed while working for Boeing. Though he refers to this company in recent depositions as "Astec," its real name was Advanced Systems Technology, Inc., a company run by Dean and partner Michael C. Redman. Dean represents that this company did aircraft design, and says that he sold it to Raleigh-Durham Aviation in 1980. Legal documents show that he had a $700,000 tax lien imposed on him in connection with the "failed business" in 1984, and several creditors filed civil suits against him in 1979 and 1980. By 1982, Dean was a contractor for Culp, Guterson & Grader. Assets began accumulating under his wife's names. When Dean divorced his first wife and married wife #2, Lorimay, she began accumulating real estate under an entity called "JAL Investments Inc." This entity and its real estate was transferred to Dean's third wife, Deborah M. [Pederson] Dean. These efforts failed when it was revealed that over $180,000 of inappropriately received funds were spent on Deborah Dean's house, and that Deborah had been cashing checks as large as $10,000 at a time from the illicit funds. Although she was involved in litigation over restitution issues, Deborah Dean was not prosecuted in the thefts from Culp, Guterson & Grader. Jeffrey Dean entered an Alford Plea admitting to 23 felony counts, and was ordered to appear at the Shelton Correctional facility to begin his incarceration. Instead, he failed to show up and went to Oregon, where he apparently lived under a different name. Bench warrants were issued and he went to prison. Meanwhile, wife Deborah began "Spectrum Print & Mail Ltd." According to depositions, this firm was mostly delivering newspapers to contract deals like the Washington ferries. Shortly after Jeffrey Dean got out of prison, however, Spectrum Print & Mail got into ballot printing and designing software for elections. This ballot printing plant, using software Dean claims to have developed, handles ballot printing and mail-ballot processing for counties like King County (WA) and Los Angeles County, Fresno County, San Diego County, Alameda County (CA), and for the state of Georgia and many other locations. The Deans were rewarded for Jeffrey Dean's ballot printing and election software programming work in a $4 million buyout by Global Election Systems shortly before election 2000. The Deans became the largest stockholders of Global Election Systems, and Jeffrey Dean took a position on the board of directors. In January 2002, Diebold Inc. purchased Global Election Systems. Oddly, in a 2003 deposition, Jeffrey Dean claims that his contact with Global was always Pat Green -- but Green is a Diebold employee, not a Global Election Systems employee. Yet Diebold claims it hasn't worked with Jeffrey Dean. The Dean's ballot printing company was acquired by Diebold in the Global Election Systems acquisition. WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? The Vote Remote software and the absentee ballot processing software developed by Jeffrey Dean was never submitted for certification, has not been examined by anyone, and due to technicalities i n the certification regulations, is not subject to certification. Several counties have recently announced plans to force voters into all mail-in voting, including King County, Jeffrey Dean's first elections client. Exactly what Jeffrey Dean was doing to the GEMS database program, what "oversight" he was providing to the touch-screen technology purchased by Diebold, and what expertise he provided for the votercard encoder, the optical scan 1.96 series, and the upcoming High Speed Central Count are not publicly known at this time. DIEBOLD CLAIMS MERIT FURTHER SCRUTINY Diebold claims that it did not work with Jeffrey Dean after acquiring Global Election Systems in 2002. However, the Dean depositions reveal that in May and June 2002, during the time the "rob-georgia" patch was created, Jeffrey Dean was called back to do consulting for Diebold. The Deans have been accused of obstructiveness and evasion by attorneys seeking to recover funds in a pending bankruptcy case. Specifically, when asked to identify monies paid by or due from Diebold Election Systems, they omitted answers. YA'LL COME BACK NOW: DOCUMENTATION GOING UP SHORTLY Depositions, documents, and supporting documentation will be posted on the Black Box Voting Web site this week. These documents include depositions, bankruptcy papers, criminal court records, SEC documents and civil litigation records. Jeffrey Dean prison records: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/14323.html by Black Box Voting investigators Bev Harris, Kathleen Wynne, and Jim March, with assistance from Black Box Voting members Pat Vesely and John Howard. NEW Citizen research & investigations section now available: http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/17141/17141.html (you must register and log in to use this) Email this article to a friend |
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