Programmer Jeff Dean worked for chief of White House Plumbers unit

Convicted of 23 felonies for computer crimes, Jeffrey Dean
was sent to prison for four years. Shortly after his release
from incarceration, his company was awarded one of the
largest ballot printing contracts in history.

In a 2003 deposition, Dean states that he was a scapegoat
who was left holding the bag in a series of unapproved payments
from Culp, Guterson & Grader, one of the most politically connected
law firms in Washington state.

One of this firm's partners at the time was Egil "Bud" Krogh,
who headed the White House "plumbers" unit under Richard Nixon.
Krogh ordered the burglary of Pentagon Papers whistleblower
Daniel Ellsberg.

Dean claimed that other persons from the firm were involved in
a scheme, and upon discovery of illicit payments (averaging
$14,000/month) he was made to take the blame. Krogh was a
partner at Culp Guterson & Grader during the time period that
Dean was receiving illicit payments of approximately $15,000
per month.

Like Jeffrey Dean, Krogh did time in prison -- four months for
Watergate-related crimes. He was disbarred, but after a fight
from a Culp Guterson & Grader attorney, his credentials were
restored. At the time, the firm was called "Culp Dwyer Guterson
& Grader."

'He [Krogh] was hired on the merits of his character, intelligence
and skills as a lawyer,'' said William L. Dwyer, the firm's senior
partner, who had represented Mr. Krogh in his disbarment fight.
Dwyer became a U.S. district judge.

DEAN BECOMES A BALLOT PRINTER

Shortly after Jeffrey Dean was released from prison a company
owned by his wife (but run by Jeffrey Dean) was awarded one
of the largest ballot-printing contracts in history, with King County,
Washington. In SEC documents, this company (Spectrum Print & Mail
Ltd.) lists assets located in the Seattle area, British Columbia, San
Francisco and in the Norwalk (CA) location that houses the Los Angeles
County Elections Division.

DEAN DEVELOPS COMPUTERIZED ELECTION SYSTEMS

According to depositions taken in 2003, Jeffrey Dean programmed
the ballot sorting software used to process incoming and outgoing
mail-in ballots; he also developed the Vote Remote software used
to track and authenticate mail-in ballots.

Key logs from King County Elections show that Jeffrey Dean was
given intimate access to the GEMS server (Diebold central tabulating
software); internal memos from Diebold refer to an ongoing consulting
arrangement with Dean, and document that he had management
involvement in the touch-screens, the 1.96 version of the optical scan,
the votercard encoder and the Windows CE operating system used in
Diebold voting machines. In addition, during recent litigation Dean called
Peter G. Martin as a witness, indicating that he had worked closely with
Martin, who programmed the new upcoming High Speed Central Count
system.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS WITH THE DEAN FAMILY

Black Box Voting has learned that Jeffrey Dean and his wife Deborah
have recently been ordered into Chapter 7 bankruptcy by a trustee
who become fed up with their "gamesmanship" in recent attempts to
obstruct discovery of their assets.

A 25 YEAR HISTORY OF TROUBLE

Jeffrey Dean has a 25-year history of financial problems, tax liens
and litigation, going back to a company he formed while working for
Boeing. Though he refers to this company in recent depositions as
"Astec," its real name was Advanced Systems Technology, Inc.,
a company run by Dean and partner Michael C. Redman. Dean
represents that this company did aircraft design, and says that
he sold it to Raleigh-Durham Aviation in 1980. Legal documents
show that he had a $700,000 tax lien imposed on him in connection
with the "failed business" in 1984, and several creditors filed civil
suits against him in 1979 and 1980.

By 1982, Dean was a contractor for Culp, Guterson & Grader. Assets
began accumulating under his wife's names. When Dean divorced
his first wife and married wife #2, Lorimay, she began accumulating
real estate under an entity called "JAL Investments Inc." This entity
and its real estate was transferred to Dean's third wife, Deborah M.
[Pederson] Dean.

These efforts failed when it was revealed that over $180,000 of
inappropriately received funds were spent on Deborah Dean's house,
and that Deborah had been cashing checks as large as $10,000 at a
time from the illicit funds.

Although she was involved in litigation over restitution issues,
Deborah Dean was not prosecuted in the thefts from Culp, Guterson
& Grader.

Jeffrey Dean entered an Alford Plea admitting to 23 felony counts,
and was ordered to appear at the Shelton Correctional facility to
begin his incarceration. Instead, he failed to show up and went to
Oregon, where he apparently lived under a different name. Bench
warrants were issued and he went to prison.

Meanwhile, wife Deborah began "Spectrum Print & Mail Ltd."
According to depositions, this firm was mostly delivering newspapers
to contract deals like the Washington ferries.

Shortly after Jeffrey Dean got out of prison, however, Spectrum
Print & Mail got into ballot printing and designing software for elections.

This ballot printing plant, using software Dean claims to have
developed, handles ballot printing and mail-ballot processing for
counties like King County (WA) and Los Angeles County, Fresno
County, San Diego County, Alameda County (CA), and for the state
of Georgia and many other locations.

The Deans were rewarded for Jeffrey Dean's ballot printing and
election software programming work in a $4 million buyout by
Global Election Systems shortly before election 2000. The Deans
became the largest stockholders of Global Election Systems, and
Jeffrey Dean took a position on the board of directors.

In January 2002, Diebold Inc. purchased Global Election Systems.
Oddly, in a 2003 deposition, Jeffrey Dean claims that his contact with
Global was always Pat Green -- but Green is a Diebold employee, not
a Global Election Systems employee. Yet Diebold claims it hasn't worked
with Jeffrey Dean.

The Dean's ballot printing company was acquired by Diebold in the
Global Election Systems acquisition.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

The Vote Remote software and the absentee ballot processing
software developed by Jeffrey Dean was never submitted for
certification, has not been examined by anyone, and due to technicalities i
n the certification regulations, is not subject to certification. Several
counties have recently announced plans to force voters into all mail-in
voting, including King County, Jeffrey Dean's first elections client.

Exactly what Jeffrey Dean was doing to the GEMS database
program, what "oversight" he was providing to the touch-screen
technology purchased by Diebold, and what expertise he provided
for the votercard encoder, the optical scan 1.96 series, and the
upcoming High Speed Central Count are not publicly known at this time.

DIEBOLD CLAIMS MERIT FURTHER SCRUTINY

Diebold claims that it did not work with Jeffrey Dean after acquiring
Global Election Systems in 2002. However, the Dean depositions
reveal that in May and June 2002, during the time the "rob-georgia"
patch was created, Jeffrey Dean was called back to do consulting
for Diebold. The Deans have been accused of obstructiveness and
evasion by attorneys seeking to recover funds in a pending bankruptcy
case. Specifically, when asked to identify monies paid by or due from
Diebold Election Systems, they omitted answers.

YA'LL COME BACK NOW: DOCUMENTATION GOING UP SHORTLY

Depositions, documents, and supporting documentation will be
posted on the Black Box Voting Web site this week. These documents
include depositions, bankruptcy papers, criminal court records, SEC
documents and civil litigation records.

Jeffrey Dean prison records:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/14323.html

by Black Box Voting investigators Bev Harris, Kathleen Wynne, and
Jim March, with assistance from Black Box Voting members Pat Vesely
and John Howard.

NEW Citizen research & investigations section now available:
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/17141/17141.html
(you must register and log in to use this)

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Black Box Voting is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501c(3) elections
group, supported entirely by small citizen donations.

This story required the skills of our research staff, along with
expenses for two trips to Canada to review Canadian public
records. There appears to be even more to this story, and it is
unraveling through our Canadian contacts. ;

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