Hilton told to be in court [American Private Police Force]

HELENA - Michael Hilton, the self-styled "Captain Mike" and California felon who founded the private security firm seeking to run an empty jail in Hardin, has been summoned back to court in California over an unpaid judgment in a fraud lawsuit.

California Superior Judge Andrew Kauffman on Friday ordered Hilton, who has also gone by more than a dozen aliases, to appear at an Oct. 29 Los Angeles County hearing where he's been asked to provide a stack of financial documents, including details of who has paid for his recent trips to Hardin.

Hilton and several of his former associates owe close to $700,000 as a result of a nine-year-old judgment in a fraud case stemming from investments Hilton and others collected for an independent-living center in California that they never built.

The judgment is one of several against Hilton, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Serbia, which total about $1.1 million.

All calls to Hilton's California work phone number were referred to Becky Shay, the Hardin spokeswoman for American Police Force. Shay did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Among the documents lawyers are seeking are any documents showing payments to Hilton or American Police Force and any assets the company may have due to its contract with the Hardin.

Hilton's newly formed American Police Force plans to run a never-opened 464-bed jail built by Two Rivers Authority, the economic development arm of the city of Hardin.

Since those plans were announced last month, however, Hilton's lengthy criminal past has been made public, and questions have surfaced about Hilton's purported past experience in law enforcement and the military. Hilton has conceded that the "captain" title he uses is not a military rank.

Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock last week launched a civil investigation into APF's contract with Two Rivers Authority, which built the jail as a way of bringing jobs to the community.

The jail has not opened because no law enforcement entity has sought to house inmates there.

The $27 million in revenue bonds sold to finance the jail has since gone into default. U.S. Bank, the trustee on the bonds, has yet to sign off on Two Rivers' contract with APF

On a related note:

Smith formally quits as director of TRA
HARDIN - The director of Two Rivers Authority, who was placed on paid leave last month two days after announcing that the agency had signed a contract to fill the empty Hardin jail, formally resigned Monday.

Greg Smith presented a letter of resignation to the TRA Board of Directors in a public meeting, after the board met for nearly an hour in a closed session to discussion Smith's suspension.

Neither the board nor Smith has ever said why Smith was placed on leave, and board President Gary Arneson said Monday that he still couldn't give any details.

Smith was placed on paid administrative leave two days after announcing on Sept. 10 that the TRA, a tax-funded economic development agency, had signed a 10-year contract with American Police Force, also known as American Private Police Force Organization.

The company said it hoped to start filling the jail with prisoners early in 2010 and then invest millions to create a training center for military and law enforcement personnel.

At an earlier meeting of the TRA board, before the closed session, a member of the audience asked if Smith had been suspended because his wife, Hardin mayoral candidate Kerri Smith, used TRA funds to fly with her husband to California to meet with an APF representative in September.

Arneson said that Kerri Smith did join the group of TRA representatives on the trip, but that her ticket was paid for by her husband. He said that had nothing to do with Smith's suspension.

Bet he shows up standing next to "Captain Mike". The authorities can arrest him too.

Story on the meeting held Monday in Hardin:

APF frontman loses credibility in Hardin
HARDIN - Michael Hilton, seen as the potential savior of Hardin just two weeks ago, is quickly running out of supporters in the struggling town of 3,500.
Hilton is the Serbian-born Californian who has been representing American Police Force as a company interested in leasing Hardin's empty jail and investing millions in a prison and military training operation.
On Monday, when Two Rivers Authority, the city's economic development arm that built the jail, met to discuss possible changes in its proposed contract with APF, board president Gary Arneson said APF needs to replace Hilton as a representative to Hardin.
"I agree," said Mayor Ron Adams, standing in the audience. "He has no credibility in this community at all."
For a while Monday, it looked as though there would be no mention of the controversy churning around Hilton, who was identified last week as an ex-convict with multiple aliases and a long criminal history. He returned to California last week.
After a short discussion of the contract, the board was about to move on to another subject when board member Robert Crane asked to speak.
He said there were so many unanswered questions about Hilton and APF that he didn't see how the board could consider a contract with the company.
"It just seems like it's one thing after another, and there's too many red flags coming up," Crane said.
Crane said Hilton has been lying to him and other board members, most notably about the identity of the man Hilton said he had hired to be director of operations at the Hardin jail and training center.
The board had not previously released the man's name, and TRA Vice President Al Peterson said last week that "people will be shocked" when they learn what a high-caliber person Hilton was bringing to town.
Crane identified the so-called director on Monday as Mike Cohen, vice president of International Security Associates in Dublin, Ohio. Crane said he spoke with Cohen last week and was told he had no association with Hilton or APF.
Reached by phone later Monday, Cohen said he does have extensive experience in overseas security training and had recently returned from Iraq when he came across the APF Web site early in September. Interested in various opportunities listed there, he sent in his resume and an application.
He said Hilton called him soon after that and talked about various jobs, but refused to divulge any details unless they met in person in California or Montana.
"I just didn't feel right about the conversation," Cohen said, so he e-mailed Hilton the next day and said he needed answers to specific questions before pursuing the job any further.
Hilton didn't write or call back until about two weeks later, when he told Cohen that he still was interested in hiring him. Cohen said Hilton still refused to answer any questions, however, so Cohen stopped talking to him.
That was the last Cohen heard of APF until last Friday, when Crane called Cohen and told him that Hilton had identified him as his new director of operations in Hardin. Crane also told him that Hilton presented the TRA board with Cohen's resume, touting his new director.
"Friday afternoon was the first I heard about it," Cohen said. "I told him (Crane) flat out, I have no idea who this joker is."
TRA board members faced other tough questions at their meeting on Monday.
Rich Solberg, host of a show on KHDN radio in Hardin, asked board members if they had drawn up a contract with APF based solely on the representations of Hilton. Arneson responded that he didn't personally know the names of anyone else connected with APF, but would try to make those names available at some future date.
Solberg also asked the board about the parent company that supposedly was working with APF behind the scenes to lease the Hardin jail. At an earlier TRA meeting, Solberg said, Peterson "was speaking in praise and glory of that unnamed company."
Asked by Solberg on Monday if he knew the identity of the parent company, Peterson referred him to Becky Shay, the APF spokeswoman. Pressed again by Solberg to say whether he knew the name of the company, Peterson turned away and said, "I'm not going to answer that question at this point."
Arneson said after the meeting that he will have to speak with the Hardin people who met with Hilton in California last month to find out who else they spoke with there. The four people who flew to California were Peterson; TRA attorney Becky Convery; Greg Smith, the former director of the TRA; and Smith's wife, Hardin mayoral candidate Kerri Smith.
Peterson said after the meeting Monday that one gathering in California involved at least 15 people, several of whom worked for APF, "as far as I know."
Convery, who wasn't at the meeting Monday, said afterward that she remembers meeting Hilton, one other person who may have been associated with APF but seems to have specialized in wind power, and a man named David Gilberts, whose business card identified him as APF's communications director.
A call to the California number on Gilberts' business card was answered by a man who identified himself only as Sgt. Martin, who said he was with APF. At first he said no one named David Gilberts worked there, but, when told about Gilberts' purported position with the company, Sgt. Martin said, "He's not here," and then referred all further questions to Shay.
Convery, who used to be the Hardin city attorney, had been working for the TRA before resigning last week over a conflict of interest. She has also been working under contract with the city on deconsolidating law enforcement in Big Horn County, which is now provided solely by the sheriff's department.
APF had talked briefly of helping establish a police department in Hardin, and Hilton and several associates showed up 10 days ago in three Mercedes SUVs bearing decals that read "City of Hardin Police Department." Convery said the commotion caused by APF's involvement in law enforcement issues forced her to resign as the TRA's attorney.
Board members said Monday they would have to find a new attorney before considering changes to the contract with APF. They had said before that the contract was approved by the APF and Two Rivers but still needed the signatures of people with U.S. Bank, representing bondholders.
The city of Hardin backed the sale of $27 million in bonds to finance construction of the jail, known as Two Rivers Detention Facility.
Cohen, the man wrongly identified as the director of operations for APF's planned enterprise in Hardin, said he was still shaking his head Monday.
"I feel sorry for everyone up there in Montana," he said. "He's (Hilton) scamming everyone up there."

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