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[Bob Pickle]

The 2008 Form 990 is out.

Tommy Shelton received payments of over $12,000 in 2008, even though he retired at the end of 2006 amidst new allegations of child molestation. Looks like he did contract work for 3ABN. The 2006 and 2007 990's mentioned that someone related to the president was doing music services for 3ABN. I wondered if that might be Melody, but turns out it was probably Tommy.

When Tommy resigned about 1991 amidst similar allegations, we're told that Danny had 3ABN still pay him on the side as an independent contractor. Given how Danny so irresponsibly did that after the new allegations surfaced in Dec. 2006, it seems likely that that story from 1991 was true after all.

[Bob Pickle]

Another tidbit from the 2008 Form 990 is that 3ABN gave Danny $96,000 worth of land in 2008 as part of a non-compete agreement.

The deed from the courthouse tells us that the board actually voted to give Danny the 48 acres of land on Sept. 13, 2007. But then the IRS moved in.

Guess it wasn't too bright to be giving away lots of land to Danny in the middle of a criminal investigation. Someone had actually called up Walt Thompson before Sept. 13 and told him the IRS had called him or her. And then they vote to give Danny the land anyway.

At least they reported it as income in 2008. Danny made over $166,000 in 2008, the 990 says.

[Bob Pickle]

But the big news for us is this:

Walt Thompson testified under oath on October 22, 2008, and told the court that donations were back up to what they had been before the "attack" started, indicating that their reputation with the public was restored.

Mollie Steenson and Larry Ewing told the court under oath in May 2007 that the attack started in June or July 2006. (That would be before Gailon and I got involved, so claiming that we caused donations to slide that soon never made sense.)

Thus Walt was saying that donations were back up to what they had been before June or July 2006.

The 2008 Form 990 lists donation figures, minus what came from board members, as being about $300,000 less than in 2007, and about $1.2 less than in 2006.

Did Walt Thompson commit perjury on Oct. 22, 2008? Or was he gullible enough to simply take someone else's word for it and never checked out the facts?

At any rate, I think we are vindicated in questioning Walt's veracity and the accuracy of his hearsay affidavit, which cited the unsupported and unsubstantiated assertions of unidentified people.

In other words, according to 3ABN's filings with the IRS, donations in 2008 were not back up to 2006 levels.

[reader]

I heard a rumor today that 3ABN had serious money problems right now. Does anyone have information about this?

[Artiste]

What was the context of the deficit of donations in 2008 compared to 2006, percentage wise?

[Bob Pickle]

I heard a rumor today that 3ABN had serious money problems right now. Does anyone have information about this?

That's what I've heard.

[Bob Pickle]

What was the context of the deficit of donations in 2008 compared to 2006, percentage wise?

I'll see if I can post something by the end of today on that.

[Bob Pickle]

Much of the 2008 Form 990 can be found at http://www.3abnvjoy.com/mad-07cv40098/mad-07cv40098-doc-224-5.pdf.

An analysis of some of the figures from that 990 and a few others can be found at http://www.3abnvjoy.com/mad-07cv40098/mad-07cv40098-doc-224.pdf. I will give some of that analysis below, citing the table and such from this affidavit. I'll add the percentage, calculating it in my head, which won't make it super accurate.

Total donation figures given for 2006, 2007, and 2008 respectively are $15,075,120, $14,199,289, and $14,591,460. (Table 1).

Once you subtract out for donations from disqualified persons like board members, you end up with $14,657,705, $13,752,125, and $13,464,053. That even makes 2008 less than 2007, and 2008 almost 9% less than 2006. (Table 2).

If you calculate public support like the IRS does, you end up with $15,623,037, $13,773,652, and $14,104,665. That makes 2008 $1.5 million less than 2006. That's close to 10% lower than 2006. (Table 4).

However, if we use the figures for 2006 found on the support schedule in 3ABN's 2007 Sch. A rather than in the 2008 Sch. A, the gap between 2006 and 2008's public support widens to $3.1 million. Maybe 2008 is then close to 18% lower than 2006. (Table 5 and ¶ 7).

[Artiste]

Between 10% and 18% drop in donations...I would say that was statistically significant.

[WillowRun]

Between 10% and 18% drop in donations...I would say that was statistically significant

Statistically significant yes, but we must remember that the economy was starting to tank during this time.  So donations being down would not be out of the ordinary...and not necessarily the fault of Pickle and Joy...

[Artiste]

Walt Thompson testified under oath on October 22, 2008, and told the court that donations were back up to what they had been before the "attack" started, indicating that their reputation with the public was restored.

I believe the point was that Walt Thompson was reported to have SAID that the donations were not down anymore.

[Bob Pickle]

Yes, that was the point exactly. Walt Thompson asserted without proof that some unidentified person had asserted that donations were back up to pre-June or pre-July 2006 levels.

What Judge Saylor should have done was require Walt to back up his statement with some sort of evidence. That's what we asked for in our opposition to their motion to dismiss, which Judge Saylor didn't read.

I understand that Junebug has said "Big deal" or something similar regarding donations being down in 2008. But if donations were down in 2008, then 3ABN's reason for dismissing the lawsuit was bogus.

I suppose that 3ABN could try to claim that donations plummeted again from Oct. 23 to Dec. 31, 2008, after exceeding pre-June or pre-July 2006 levels in the third quarter of 2006. But how likely is that really?

And we still have to subtract out the roughly $700,000 extra in donations that came from folks like board members in 2008. It wouldn't surprise me if those extra insider donations came in in the third quarter to make the donations appear like they were back up.

That's what the adversarial court system in America is all about. One side may assert something, and the other side scrutinizes the assertion to see if there is another way of looking at it. In the end, the truth is supposed to be revealed through the process. So of course we're supposed to ask questions like the above. And of course 3ABN is supposed to come up with the answers, if truth is on their side.

And all the above discussion leaves Danny Shelton out in the cold, since he gave no reasons for dismissal as required. Even if the court was right in dismissing 3ABN's claims against us, which it wasn't, it should never have dismissed Danny's claims unless he abided by the law by giving reasons for wanting his claims dismissed.