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Minuteman Project headed to court over internal fight

The anti-illegal immigration organization has become immobilized, with a court date this week to sort out its internal battle for control.

By MARTIN WISCKOL
The Orange County Register

It was a match made in activist heaven.

Huntington Beach's Barbara Coe had toiled for more than a decade against illegal immigration, becoming the gritty grande dame of the movement. Just as progress was sputtering, along came Aliso Viejo's Jim Gilchrist and his two-week Minuteman citizen border surveillance.

The April 2005 event along a desolate stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border attracted 880 volunteers and thrust the issue back into the national spotlight. It revitalized the movement and, with Gilchrist, gave it a public face.

Coe and her California Coalition for Immigration Reform found an instant partner in the high-profile upstart. The public debate suddenly included President Bush, who called the Minutemen "vigilantes," and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who praised the border watchers. While still facing an uphill battle, activists saw support swell by the day.

Today, the Gilchrist-Coe partnership lays in tatters. On the eve of congressional debate over legalizing those now in the country without documents – a proposal opposed by Gilchrist and Coe – the fiercest battle for the activists is among themselves.

Coe and two other directors of the Minuteman Project tossed founder Gilchrist out of his official post in a January mutiny and took control of the organization's primary bank account. Gilchrist then sued the trio, saying they lacked the authority to take over.

On Wednesday, a Superior Court judge will consider Gilchrist's argument that the group and its assets should be returned to him. But restoring the movement's momentum is another issue altogether, as bickering over financial accountability has tarnished the effort's public image.

"It's more damaging than anything (opponents) could do," Gilchrist said. "Not just for our organization, but for the movement across the nation. It's not mortally damaging, but it's going to be seriously damaging for a year or so."

The dispute
Internal conflicts began surfacing late last year. Gilchrist bounced a series of checks in December. Minuteman Project Director Deborah Ann Courtney came across a newspaper article about a nonprofit group associated with the Minuteman Project being fined for fundraising violations. Other fiscal issues arose.

On Jan. 26, Coe, Courtney and Marvin Stewart were the only ones of seven directors to show up for a scheduled meeting at the Minuteman Project's Lake Forest headquarters. The door had been locked by Gilchrist, so they adjourned to a nearby restaurant – and voted to fire Gilchrist and another director.

In papers filed with the Superior Court, Coe, Courtney and Stewart say they were worried about fundraising improprieties that may have violated U.S. Postal Service regulations and Internal Revenue Service code. A lawyer for the three has filed letters with those two agencies, raising concerns that the failure to secure tax-exempt status may have led to violations.

"We have a fiscal responsibility to the public," said Courtney, who denied Gilchrist's accusation that his firing was a power grab. "People don't understand that Jim Gilchrist is impeding the progress of the Minuteman Project."

Gilchrist, a retired accountant, acknowledges that the group's accounting left something to be desired and that he mistakenly bounced checks for a short time. But he denied wrongdoing. "I want to have an audit and get internal office help," he said. "But temporary mismanagement is not a crime."

He also says Coe, Courtney and Stewart were part of an advisory board of directors that has no legitimate authority. The basis of his lawsuit is that he is the sole director with decision-making power, and so others could not remove him. It appears that is the key issue before the court.

While the group netted $430,000 in donations last year, it only has about $32,000 in its main account, according to Courtney, who said there may be other accounts she doesn't know of.

'Betrayed'
Courtney and Stewart are relative newcomers to the anti-illegal immigration movement. Stewart, an accounts payable manager at the Long Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center, joined when Gilchrist held his first border action.

Courtney, previously a mortgage broker and an activist for crime victims, came aboard during Gilchrist's failed but highly publicized congressional bid in 2005. Although Gilchrist had a national reputation by that time, Courtney says that she and others are responsible for his subsequent status.

"We got together after the congressional race and made him the superstar he is," Courtney said.

Courtney, Stewart, Coe and two others who had become close to Gilchrist were asked by him to join a board of directors early last year. Part of the dispute is whether it was an advisory board.

The Minuteman Project was the first organized involvement with the immigration issue for Gilchrist, Courtney and Stewart, but Coe was already an old hand. She formed the California Coalition for Immigration Reform in 1992 and co-authored 1994's Proposition 187. The measure called for an end to public benefits for illegal immigrants. It passed easily but was found largely unconstitutional by a lower court. Appeals by the state were eventually set aside in a settlement that essentially gutted the initiative.

Unlike Courtney and Stewart, Coe separates her organizational concerns from her opinion of Gilchrist.

"He's a national and international icon," she said. "He is fabulous. I believe Jim was misled and deceived."

According to the accounts of Courtney and Stewart, Gilchrist refused to address the issues that they – along with Coe – presented. That led to the three voting to eliminate his decision-making role.

Earlier this month, Coe resigned her post with the Minuteman Project and – unlike Courtney and Stewart – declines to discuss details of the dispute. Despite the lawsuit, Coe said she and her organization will continue to support Gilchrist and the Minuteman Project.

Gilchrist is not so forgiving. He cited Coe as a primary inspiration for launching the Minuteman Project and said she was among the people he trusted the most. But he now feels betrayed.

"The pain caused by Barbara Coe's involvement will never be healed," he said. "This came from the most unlikely of predators. It came from within."

Timeline

January 2003 – Arizona's Chris Simcox starts weekend-long citizen border watches with about 10 others, calling it the Civil Homeland Defense group.

April 2005 – Inspired in part by Simcox, Aliso Viejo's Jim Gilchrist organizes a two-week border watch that involves 880 volunteers. The anti-illegal immigration effort is dubbed the Minuteman Project and gets national publicity.

May 2005 –Gilchrist incorporates the Minuteman Project, with himself and his wife as directors.

December 2005 –Gilchrist runs in a special election for Congress. He comes in third with 25.5 percent of the vote. Simcox works on the campaign but then splits with Gilchrist and launches his own Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

Early 2006 –Gilchrist invites five close associates to join a board of directors. He later tells reporters that the board was formed in an advisory capacity only.

December 2006 – Three directors express concerns to Gilchrist over accounting. The Minuteman Project nets about $430,000 for the year in donations and has about 2,000 dues-paying members.

January 2007 –The same three directors – Barbara Coe, Marvin Stewart and Deborah Ann Courtney – vote to fire Gilchrist and another director. The three seize control of the organization's primary bank account. Three days later, Gilchrist tells the mutinying directors that they don't have the authority to fire him and that they are fired.

February 2007 –Gilchrist files a lawsuit seeking to regain unilateral control of the group, saying that he is the only director with decision-making authority. The same day, a lawyer for Coe, Stewart and Courtney sends letters to the Postal Service and the Internal Revenue Service saying fundraising violations may have taken place without his clients' knowledge.

Wednesday –A Superior Court judge will hear Gilchrist's case.

Contact the writer: 714-285-2867 or mwisckol@ocregister.com