Time: Wed Jun 11 12:35:04 1997
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Wed, 11 Jun 1997 12:26:32 -0700 (MST)
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 12:25:36 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Joseph Mazurek and His Dillema (fwd: caveat lector)
<snip>
>
>"Joseph Mazurek And His Dilemma"
>June 10, 1997
>by Mike Missoula
>
>IBM's "Big Blue" can't cause stress for a Russian chess master
>like Montana Attorney General, Joseph Mazurek, feels in
>Helena. Joseph Mazurek has a dilemma.
>
>Joseph Mazurek is confronted with a series of revelations that are
>rattling the foundations of the state and may send dozens of
>attorneys, politicians, and law enforcement officers to prison. At
>first the allegations were far away and goofy. Things that the Freemen
>or Militia of Montana or the fringe groups would promote. Things like
>black helicopters and New World Order conspiracies.
>
>Joseph Mazurek, a middle-of-the-road Democrat, knew that the fringe
>groups never really had any inside information.
>
>Then, after the Jordan stand-off and the Unabomber crises last spring
>it became clear that Montana was acquiring a reputation for corruption
>that rivaled Mexico or Columbia. To be sure, the arrest of Unabomber
>suspect Ted Kaczynski had been carried out with little or no
>co-ordination with the on-the-ground Montana law enforcement. There
>was the implication that Montana law enforcement and the Attorney
>General's office couldn't be trusted.
>
>This was Joseph Mazurek's dilemma. For the first time in his life he
>was bewildered and shattered in a way that left him physically sick.
>Decisions were looming which would force him to make determinations
>which could affect not only his political career but could set the
>political course for Montana for the next twenty years.
>
>The decisions revolved around the responsibilities of the Attorney
>General in Montana to prosecute crime. Joseph Mazurek was disturbed
>that good sources were telling of a looming money laundering and drug
>smuggling scandal that was starting to bubble and percolate through
>the Montana justice system grapevine. Serious law enforcement
>veterans were talking about murder, bribery, and multi-ton shipments
>of heroin and cocaine coming from a small landing strip near Weyburn,
>Saskatchewan into Montana.
>
>Joseph Mazurek never liked Dan Nelson. Dan Nelson was a weight trainer
>at one of the health clubs in Helena. Dan had graduated a year before
>Joseph's 1967 senior class at Helena High School. Lately Nelson had
>been making lots of noise about being signed on to Stephen Speilberg's
>film cast as an extra working on the new "aliens" film around Helena.
>
>But there was something else about Dan Nelson - and it was nothing Dan
>Nelson had done wrong - it was the beating in April, 1982 which
>destroyed Nelson's career as a body builder. The beating resulted
>in a hefty judgement against the City of Helena for a police
>brutality related assault. The incident haunted Joseph Mazurek.
>
>The beating of Dan Nelson occurred during a domestic dispute involving
>Nelson's brother and his soon to be ex-wife. Mrs Theresa Nelson had
>become embroiled in a steamy affair with Christopher Racicot, a
>druggie with heavy political connections in Helena derived from his
>surname.
>
>Despite a domestic court order Christopher Racicot had come
>on to Dan Nelson's yard that day and was loading Dan's brother's
>property out of Dan's garage. The two policemen - who came with
>Christopher Racicot-and who jumped Dan, after Dan asked what was
>going on, beat Dan and choked him to the point of near death. The
>Helena policemen had been all too eager to help Christopher Racicot.
>This was the thing that disturbed Joseph Mazurek to the depths of his
>soul.
>
>Like prodigal Roger Clinton was to President Bill Clinton,
>Christopher Racicot was to his brother, Governor Marc Racicot.
>Christopher was always on the razor's edge. Christopher was a
>constant source of embarrassment to the Racicot family.
>
>The comparison was even closer than most knew. Especially since
>insiders near the Republican Central Committee had decided
>against Marc Racicot as a candidate for the VP side of the national
>ticket for the the 2000 presidential campaign. Privately brother Marc
>had hoped to be on the ticket with the younger Bush brother from
>Texas. No, something else was slated for Montana.
>
>Mazurek knew that a new inquiry into the death of Bob Krop was
>turning up evidence that Krop had been assassinated after he
>declined to act as a go between for a $50,000 bribe to the
>Montana Supreme Court. Mazurek also knew the name of another
>retired District Court judge had come up as having accepted
>a $50,000 bribe in yet another case involving a Great Falls bank.
>
>Mazurek knew that litigation around an attorney feud in the
>small town of Sidney was starting to expose newly hired MCIB
>investigator David Schettine, as being involved in drug trafficking in
>Sidney. Mazurek had promised to assist with the investigation
>of the murders of two men near Sidney, Michael Wolfe and Bruce
>Madsen, one of whom had implicated detective Schettine in Sidney
>corruption.
>
>Mazurek knew that several former intelligence operatives had
>made statements to the press that Chinook and other northern
>border towns were staging areas for an enormous drug
>smuggling operation. Mazurek also knew that the drug operation may be
>linked to a string of suspicious deaths in Chinook, Havre, Malta,
>Glendive, and Joplin.
>
>Mazurek knew that the Mountain Bank of Whitefish scandal amounted to
>more than $100 million dollars and that Missoula attorney Terry
>Wallace was only the first of many indictments to be handed down.
>Mazurek knew that Marc Racicot had been the supervisor for Libby
>County Attorney William Douglas who was acquitted after being indicted
>with the Lucianos in Eureka-Libby related money laundering matters.
>
>Joseph Mazurek had attended seminars which spoke of "white
>collar crime" and knew that there were sophisticated computer
>systems which could monitor electronic funds transfers. He had
>heard lots of things. Mazurek had heard talk about the Norwest
>Bank in Helena and money laundering.
>
>Perhaps Joseph Mazurek noticed Marc Racicot's fallen countenance. Why
>was the man always glum ? Even Jock Bovington, a broker at the DA
>Davidson office in Helena, had noticed that Racicot was very reserved
>lately. Joseph Mazurek was also puzzled that Christopher Racicot had
>spoken of leaving Helena after his position with the "Montana
>Contractor's Association" had played out.
>
>All these moves were coming very fast and Joseph Mazurek like
>Boris Kasporov struggled to make decisions. The pressure has
>become relentless.
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========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine
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