Nearly ten years later, Lon and Bonnie Mabon, the founders and supporters of the OCA, continue to defy the legal victory of Stauffer and refuse to pay up. Once again, Stauffer is dragging the Mabons into court--this time to force them to finally make good on the money that they owe. Not surprisingly, though, the OCA is not going peacefully and continues to throw up roadblocks.
Stauffer's case gained media and public attention during last year's election, when the OCA proposed its de facto ban on teaching about homosexual or bisexual behaviors in public schools. During the election, Stauffer and her lawyers pushed to prove that the money the OCA spent on their voter initiative should have actually gone to her. But the challenge lay in the shell game that the Mabons laid out: the Mabons created several different organizations to funnel money and contributions through and essentially hid the money from Stauffer. Since, technically, Stauffer only sued the OCA, the Mabons argued the United States Citizens Alliance (USCA)--which held most of contributions and funds for Measure 9--did not owe Stauffer anything.
But in recent weeks, Brent Foster, Stauffer's lawyer, may have finally caught the Mabons at their own game. Foster had already insisted that the OCA and the USCA were corporate reflections of each other--the organizations shared the same staff and offices. Now, Foster may finally have his smoking gun: Recently granted permission by the courts to observe certain records and files belonging to the OCA, he discovered that the Articles of Incorporation for the OCA and the USCA are identical. This essentially amounts to a legal admission that the corporations are built from the same blueprint and, in fact, are the same corporation. From here, Foster hopes to prove that the money in the USCA account is also that of the Mabons.
By appealing nearly every decision that the court has made, the Mabons are doing all they can to stop the ensuing trial from happening. Even so, Foster anticipates the case will go to trial sometime in late August; he also anticipates several fundraisers in the near future in order to help Stauffer's cause.
