ACORN pleads guilty to felony compensation for registration of voters

The grass-roots community organizing group ACORN once drew the ire of conservative groups and the attention of national media.

And when ACORN faced charges in Las Vegas of voter registration malfeasance in 2008, a flock of political spin doctors and lawyers rushed to its defense.

But three years later, with ACORN's two co-defendants already having taken plea deals and the group essentially defunct and in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the case received little attention as a lawyer on behalf of ACORN pleaded guilty Wednesday.

After months of negotiations and some legal wrangling, mostly because of a federal court-appointed bankruptcy trustee not wanting to deal with the criminal case, ACORN entered a guilty plea to one count of felony compensation for registration of voters. Its criminal defense attorney, Lisa Rasmussen, entered the plea.

In talks with the Nevada attorney general's office, 12 other felony counts were dropped against the organization, and prosecutors will not argue at the Aug. 10 sentencing hearing.

ACORN faces a maximum $5,000 fine. According to court records, when the national organization closed its doors in April 2010, the group had assets totaling less than $4,000 and "liabilities of more than $4 million."

Prosecutor Patrick Ferguson said he was satisfied with the outcome of the case and said the reason he agreed not to speak at the sentencing hearing was "we're not looking to take money away from other creditors, but a message had to be sent."

Rasmussen was given permission to enter the guilty plea by ACORN's general council, Arthur Schwartz of New York.

In a letter to District Court Judge Donald Mosley, Schwartz said that while he authorized the plea, he did "not in any way concede that the statute upon which the charges are based is constitutional."

ACORN has not authorized an appeal in the case, Rasmussen said.

Another defendant in the case, Amy Busefink, who in November pleaded no contest to two counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters, a gross misdemeanor, is appealing to the Nevada Supreme Court and challenging the constitutionality of the statute.

Ferguson said he is looking forward to arguing the appeal and proving the law's constitutionality.

Nevada law states it is "unlawful for a person to provide compensation for registering voters that is based upon the total number of voters a person registers."

Prosecutors argued that ACORN and Busefink authorized a Las Vegas field operative to run an illegal voter-registration program during the 2008 election cycle that paid cash to encourage workers to sign up voters.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also had an illegal quota policy that forced workers to register a certain number of people per shift or face termination, authorities alleged.

The field operative who created and ran the incentive program, Christopher Edwards, is serving three years of probation after pleading guilty to two gross misdemeanors.

Busefink is a longtime employee of Project Vote, a national grass-roots organization that registers voters and which worked in partnership with ACORN in 2008. Busefink, who oversaw Edwards, was sentenced to a year of probation in January.

ACORN officials had maintained Edwards was ordered not to run the incentive program.

The program, called Blackjack or 21-Plus, rewarded workers with $5 extra per shift if they brought in 21 or more completed voter registration cards.

The 40-year-old group, which once counted President Barack Obama among its ranks in Chicago, came under fire in recent years for its voter registration tactics.

Conservatives condemned it as a pro-Democrat group engaging in partisan political activities, which violated the tax-exempt status of some of its affiliates.

Congress effectively killed off the group when it slashed the organization's federal funding after a hidden-camera sting by conservative operatives showing ACORN workers giving advice on illegal activities.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.