By Antonio D. French
Filed Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 1:31 AM
PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE
Dozens of ACORN workers were disappointed Tuesday to find that the paychecks they were promised were still not available. And some gave even more details about the organization's GOTV activities which have recently drawn a formal complaint from the state's Republican Party and, according to one source, a visit last week from the FBI.
Marcus Holmes said he has worked for ACORN for more than a month and has yet to be paid. "First they said Friday. Came up here Friday, then they went from Friday to Monday. Monday to Tuesday. Now today, they don't know when its going to be up here," said Holmes, who told us he was in danger of being evicted from his apartment as a result.
Holmes was not alone. More than a dozen angry workers waited outside of ACORN's office on Manchester Street in south St. Louis, frustrated by the continued delays and empty promises. Inside, tensions ran even higher. Police were called after several loud confrontations almost turned physical.
"There's over a hundred-and-something people that haven't been paid," said Timothy Coopwood, an ACORN worker who was fired last week after the organization was hit with allegations of voter registration fraud.
Coopwood repeated claims made last week by other ACORN workers that they were instructed to go door-to-door and ask voters to support Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill.
There is no evidence of a direct link between the McCaskill campaign and ACORN's GOTV efforts. But several ACORN workers told PUB DEF that they were told by ACORN managers that the effort was part of "Project Victory 2006", which is also the name for the Missouri Democratic Party's GOTV campaign.
Josephine Perkins, a 10-year veteran ACORN worker whose allegations of improper and illegal GOTV activities we first reported in an exclusive video report two weeks ago, was also at the office Tuesday picking up her last check from the organization.
Perkins told PUB DEF that FBI agents visited ACORN last week and that afterwards, managers at the organization instructed some employees not to cooperate with their investigation. [We will be following up on this part of the story later this week.]
Perkins and others again named Johanna Sharrard, ACORN's new political field director, as one of those giving instructions to get out the vote for McCaskill along with their efforts on behalf of Proposition B, the proposal to raise the state's minimum wage.
When we attempted to interview Ms. Sharrard again to respond to these allegations, we were asked to leave ACORN's offices. We were told that no one was available to speak to us on the record.
Check back later this week as we continue to investigate this developing story...
Related stories:
Exclusive: ACORN Workers Claim Illegal Activities
ACORN Under Fire
3 Comments:
What is REALLY going on over there at Acorn? WOW!
10/18/2006 4:41 PM
nothing new here. I remember in 1994 when ACORn failed to pay their signature gatherers on the "games of chance" initiative. The workers all started showing up at the Riverboat Gaming HQ and demanding their money. Problem was ACORN had already been paid and kept the money for themselves.
10/19/2006 12:21 PM
ACORN is a corrupt organization. Their involvement in voter fraud in Florida is well documented and cost a lot of people their right to vote. You can read more about these bad actors at www.RottenACORN.com
11/01/2006 9:32 PM
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