A major law on the federal law books is the RICO law.

More corrupt attorneys than any other statute because it can be used to sue an attorney for conducting the attorney's practice in the same manner the Mafia conducts their business contest this statute.

In 1985, after reviewing my personal diary and obtaining information regarding the Greg Happ, Medina County Prosecutor's bribe, I decided to sue all the major conspirators under the RICO Statute.

Since I had suspected what the conspirators had done (but had no proof), I filed a RICO lawsuit in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio on September 3, 1985.

My case was to be assigned to a federal judge in the Sixth Circuit, Northern District of Ohio by the "random draw" however the defendants had petitioned the court to have Judge John M. Manos hear the case.

Manos, a Greek judge, had been the presiding judge when my wife had filed her lawsuit the year before on the basis of "contract interference." Because there was not sufficient evidence to pursue the defendants, Io dropped her suit without prejudice. She could, under the dismissal, sue the defendants again, but not with the information she presently had.

Since Manos was supposed to be an "expert" on the RICO statute, I felt that his prior knowledge of some of the allegations in my wife's lawsuit might give Manos a better handle on what my RICO lawsuit was all about.

I did not oppose Manos' taking the lawsuit and had really never met the man until I had appeared in his chambers on the first meeting with all the defendants and me in October of 1985.

After the judge had reviewed my first filed complaint, Manos instructed me to dismiss all the defendants that I had named in the suit with the exception of those defendants I could prove to be guilty with the evidence that I had at that time. Manos said if he could not understand the suit, he would dismiss the entire lawsuit.

Since I knew Dietrich, Stewart, Bedell, Angona, Roetzel and Andress, Stevenson and Best had bribed Greg Happ with the $21,069.95 bogus personal claim in bankruptcy court, I amended the complaint to bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, bribery and mail fraud.

I had obtained information regarding Bedell's conviction for his association with the New York Mafia and his one million-dollar loan that was made to the mob for loan sharking purposes. This fact also gave me Bedell's motive for falsifying the loan records to Pro Arts in his attempt to launder that loan. The fact that Dietrich needed the confirmation to be paid on his legal expenses and the need to have the confirmation plan go unappealed all tied together.

Manos, on the other hand, required me to appear in his chambers on occasions where the defendants were not required to appear.

Manos wanted me to explain to him how my lawsuit fit the RICO statute. He was not convinced I had a RICO lawsuit and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Number 11 regarding Sanctions for Harassing Lawsuits allowed the defendants damages against me if my case did not have any merit.

As I continued to dig into the files I obtained from the bankruptcy court records and letters and memos I obtained from individuals that previously worked at Pro Arts, I finally (after more than three visits to Manos' office) convinced Manos that I had a good lawsuit against the defendants.

On my last visit to Manos' Office before I was allowed to depose Dietrich, Manos turned to me as I was leaving his office and said,

" Ted, I am no longer worried about Rule 11 regarding your case. I have no doubt in my mind that your family and you have been injured by these people." With this assurance, I began my first deposition with Dietrich in Roetzel & Andress' new offices in the former Akron City Art Museum, which Roetzel & Andress had remodeled (with my money).

Little did I know that Manos would later pull the rug out from under me and dismiss my case after five years of extensive time, money and agony.

After I requested the production of documents regarding each defendant, I amended my first lawsuit on November 21, 1985 using the Gregory Happ bribe as the basis for the suit as well as bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud.

Once I obtained the productions of documents from the defendants, I realized that my suspicions regarding larger frauds could possibly be confirmed. I could figure out why Pro Arts went into Chapter 7 so shortly after the company was to have received all the money from Rooney Pace and Bedell.

I again amended my lawsuit on December 12, 1986 in which I had placed most of the previously dismissed conspirators back into the lawsuit. This of course gave me insight as to what had transpired in the company, however the discovery of the bogus check had yet to be established.

In fact, as my deposition of Dietrich had not taken place until January 15, 1987, I still had no idea that Rooney Pace was not the 60% controlling Shareholder or that the $600,000 bogus check was presented to Judge White on Confirmation Day!

I took Dietrich's deposition on January 15, 1987 without really knowing very much about the true circumstances of Pro Arts.

Dietrich's attorney, Stewart Hastings, was with a large Cleveland law firm that was hired by Roetzel & Andress' insurance company. Stu was a younger man with a very arrogant attitude. His associate, John Robertson, appeared to be a nicer man, but as most of my contact was with Hastings, I got to distrust Hastings and eventually developed a great dislike for him. He tried to stonewall me on Dietrich's deposition.

When I asked questions that could lead to some indication of what really happened, Hastings objected. When we argued the issue, I realized that this was his manner of indirectly telling Dietrich to try and avoid answering my question.

I later complained to Manos that the attorneys were trying to waste my time and money by continually arguing with me and telling their client not to answer my questions.

Manos became upset with the defendants' attorneys in his office when we all met at a status hearing.

Manos ordered each attorney not to argue with me, but to note their objections on the record. Manos stated that the defendants must answer all the questions and Manos would later rule on the objections as to whether the answer would be allowed or their objections sustained.

This helped me, but as Dietrich's deposition was over, I had to go on the information I obtained and dig deeper into Pro Arts.

I ordered the transcript of the Confirmation Hearing and read it through. It was here that I realized that a $600,000 check had been placed into the evidence as Debtor's Exhibit 1.

When I ordered a copy of Debtor's Exhibit 1, I obtained the letter from Beckman's office indicating that the "funds of the check were on deposit in the firm's New York account and would be paid to Pro Arts upon Confirmation of the Plan." I still did not have any idea that the check was bogus.

I was able to obtain a copy of Faherty's deposition from a lawsuit in New York where Faherty and all his investors had sued Beckman and his firm for Stock Fraud.

It was in mid-April of 1987, that I discovered the fact that Faherty's check, drawn on the Fast Pace account, was no good and that the check had never cleared. In fact, Faherty stated that everyone knew the check was no good, but everyone insisted that Faherty write the check anyway.

When the opposing attorney asked why they wanted Faherty to write the $600,000 bogus check, Faherty stated: "They wanted to show the judge something so the judge would confirm the plan."

The importance of that statement was so mind boggling that I immediately called the Federal Bureau of Investigation to inform the government of Bankruptcy Fraud!

With the check being bogus, everything that followed Dietrich's representations to the court, the creditors and me was totally fraudulent.

White's joke about the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was no joke where Pro Arts was concerned.

I also made a copy of the deposition for White and personally gave it to him with the pages marked where the fraud was admitted!

White decided to send a letter to the Justice Department and wash his hands of the situation. The Justice Department "covered it up" and eventually transferred the FBI agent out of the state.

This was a major piece of the puzzle that I needed to give me a much better picture of the true circumstances regarding the fall of Pro Arts after the Confirmation Hearing.

In order to understand my lawsuit, you must understand why I had chosen to sue under RICO.

The Congress wanting to stop organized crime from entering into legitimate businesses enacted the RACKETEER INFLUENCE AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATION ACT.

Simply put, it stated four separate violations of this act that was easy to understand and prove:

1. No one, using money made in an illegal activity (loan sharking, drugs, gambling, prostitution, extortion, etc.) could take this money and invest it into a legally operated business.
2. No one could use any illegal action to secure ownership or control of a legally operated business. I, for instance, could not threaten a person operating a laundry with bodily harm in order to get the trucking business to haul that laundry. (Nor could I blackmail them or threaten their family)
3. No one could operate a legal business for illegal purposes. For example, I could not own an amusement park and put money from gambling through its books to "launder" that money. I could not use trucks delivering baked goods to transport drugs to locations on route to my bakery deliveries.
4. And to make the law even stronger, no one was allowed to conspire to do number 1, 2 or 3!

It is necessary for the defendants to commit two illegal acts of any of the following acts within a ten-year period related to the same situation:

• Bribery;
• Bankruptcy Fraud;
• Mail Fraud (sending fraudulent letters through the mail);
• Wire Fraud (using the telephone to make fraudulent representations);
• Stock Fraud; Fraud is easy to prove if you have all of the following facts:

  Person A is defrauded when a representation is made tothat person A (verbally or in writing) by person B (or persons B) which person A relied upon to person A's detriment and person B knew at the time that representation was made, the representation was false.

All the representations that were important to me in the bankruptcy of Pro Arts at the time of the confirmation hearing were false.

There were so many frauds committed at the hearing that to list them would be to cover an additional five or more page.

The "fact" that Dietrich presented a copy of a "Bogus" check to White before White allowed the Hearing to transpire is the biggest fraud of all. White insisted a day before the hearing in a conversation with Dietrich that the money be in cash or in "a named banking institution" before the hearing would take place. (Dietrich's June 9, 1983 Notes on conversation with Judge White)

The fact that the letter from the New York Law Firm attesting to the "fact" that the funds on that bogus check were on deposit in their escrow account was also a major fraud! As the letter and photocopy of the check were sent via the Mail, then two acts of Mail Fraud and two acts of Bankruptcy Fraud transpired in that single action! If the letter and photocopy of that check were "faxed" to Dietrich's office, then two acts of Wire Frauds were coupled with the Bankruptcy Fraud!

The fact that Dietrich and Stewart bribed Greg Happ, Medina County Prosecutor's Office, to get the County and Happ not to appeal the plan is two acts under RICO.

The fact that Dietrich and the conspirators gave Cantwell the Mihalik Judgment while stating to the Unsecured Creditors they would "share" that $225,000 Judgment was over 600 counts of Mail Fraud as well as Bankruptcy Fraud! All the creditors received the information by Mail and the representation was fraudulent at the time it was made!

I considered the act of giving the Judgment to Cantwell also a bribe! Since Cantwell agreed not to appeal the Plan for the $500,000 pre-petitioned claim, his knowledge of the bankruptcy law affirmed Cantwell's assurances that the Judgment would be offset.

Later, Dietrich commits another predicate act by sending all the Creditors a disbursement letter on October 28, 1983, indicating that they would still share in that Judgment!

Then, to top it all off, Dietrich writes the Status Report on December 30, 1983 stating that the Creditors will still share the Judgment two months after Cantwell gets his "set-off letter." As Roger Faherty was to be the "sole 60% Shareholder of Pro Arts," all the letters sent through the mail to White and others indicating that Rooney Pace was the investors were fraudulent!

Additionally, Faherty was not the 60% Controlling Shareholder. Even before the Plan was beyond the Appeal date, Faherty and Beckman were scrambling to get the money to cover their commitment on the $600,000 bogus check! They promised nearly 15 people that they would be shareholders in the Pro Arts business after confirmation. This was never disclosed in the Disclosure Statement or the Plan!

The Disclosure Statement when amended to include Pro Arts $76,500 payment to Old Phoenix and $18,000 payment to my family was also a lie. Nothing was ever paid to the bank or my family.

Stewart, under oath on the Witness Stand in White's courtroom, swore that Old Phoenix was to get only $160,000 as a pay down on the equipment loan.

I later discovered that on August 8, 1983, Hallman had secretly taken an additional $112,000 in the Court Ordered Lock Box and applied this with the $160,000 to the equipment loan!

This money was to be paid to the IRS against the Federal Withholding and F.I.C.A. taxes.

Dietrich, nearly six weeks after that transfer, prepared a "motion" to White to discontinue the Lock Box . This was after Hallman, Bramley and Old Phoenix National Bank had cleaned it out. Stewart had testified in court that Rooney Pace was to be the company providing the $600,000.00 funds to confirm the plan while Dietrich questioned Stewart. Yet, Dietrich had filed the Amended Plan the day before the Confirmation Hearing stating that "Roger Faherty c/o Rooney Pace was to be the sole 60% Controlling Shareholder." Dietrich did not make any effort to correct Stewart's testimony while Stewart was on the Witness Stand and everyone in the Courtroom was lead to believe that Rooney Pace was the main shareholder in the Re-organization Plan!

As there were fraudulent Debtor-In-Possession Reports (D I P Reports), information concerning the true disposition of Pro Arts was never disclosed to the creditors the court or me.

With all this information gradually finding its way to me over the course of the next year, I again amended my lawsuit to include most of the conspirators that I had named in the First Original Lawsuit. Manos continued to pressure me into finding an attorney to represent me. He stated that as I got closer and closer to a Trial Date, I would need an attorney.

I continued to fund the lawsuit with the little money I was earning. I read many documents. The defendants refused to give me all the documents stating that the documents were protected under "client/ attorney privilege." This was bullshit. They were continuing to defraud me with their legal mumbo jumbo trying to wear me out and mislead me when ever possible.

A partner of defendant Brouse & McDowell, Linda Kersker, always presented a smiling face. Her insincere smile was typical of her nature.

In a letter to me submitting documents from both Brouse & McDowell and Old Phoenix, she admits that she will not surrender any documents related to Client/Attorney privilege without a court order.

When I sued Brouse & McDowell as well as Schwemler, Kersker became an indirect defendant since she was a partner in that firm. Here is a defendant refusing to give me complete disclosure under the Request for Documents in violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and flaunting it with a smile.

I was still able to find documents, which later established my damages, however Kersker's efforts coupled with the other defendants' attorneys efforts to mislead me required many hours of digging. I estimated that I had used nearly 6,000 hours of "free" time to continue the lawsuit.