Update, 1:10pm:

Each of the three counts against Sizermore could lead to a maximum penalty of five years in prison with a $125,000 fine, says Sean Riddell, chief of Kroger's criminal justice division. "There's case law statues to support the maximum on all three counts, or probation," says Riddell.

Riddell waited until after the tax amnesty period to give Sizemore an opportunity to file, he says, adding that the investigation was opened in April 2009, prior to his joining Kroger's office in August.

Sizemore will be arraigned December 7 in Marion County circuit court at 9:30am. No handcuffs.

Is the decision to indict political? "It's not," says Riddell. "When I was first hired by the Attorney General, in my first interview with him to discuss our goals and objectives, he made it quite clear that he and I were never to discuss politics, and that I was never to make any decision based on politics."

Sizemore is yet to return the Mercury's request for comment, but he's told Nigel Jaquiss at WW this morning: “If it wasn’t this it would be something else...” “This is all part of the collabortion between the AG and unions to get me. I just feel bad that they’ve sucked my wife into this.”

Original post:
OMG. Oregon initiative racketeer, and more recently, Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill Sizemore and his wife Cindy have been indicted for tax evasion. Funny, because last week, he said: "I may have to run my campaign from inside a jail cell." From the Attorney General's office:

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger today announced that the Oregon Department of Justice has filed tax evasion charges against Bill and Cindy Sizemore.

The Sizemores were each indicted by a grand jury on three counts of Oregon Personal Income Tax Evasion. The indictment alleges that Bill and Cindy Sizemore each failed to file tax returns for the tax years 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The indictments were issued by the grand jury on October 27, but not unsealed until after the state tax amnesty period ended Nov. 19. Late last week, Oregon Department of Revenue officials confirmed that the Sizemores did not seek to take advantage of the tax amnesty, which was an opportunity for taxpayers to file or amend tax returns in exchange for a waiver of civil penalties and partial interest.

This is the second tax evasion case filed by the Oregon Department of Justice since the end of the amnesty period. On Nov. 20, two counts of Oregon Personal Income Tax Evasion and two counts of Unlawful Manufacture and Delivery of Marijuana were filed against Michael Troy Dyer of West Salem.

All criminal defendants are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Evidence in support of the charges against Bill and Cindy Sizemore was uncovered during a civil lawsuit against entities controlled by Bill Sizemore. That lawsuit established that Bill Sizemore set up a sham charity to hide political contributions to various ballot measure campaigns with which he was associated. As a result of that case, Sizemore was banned from managing any charity in an order signed by the court in May 2009. The Oregon Department of Justice’s Charitable Activities Section, which handled the civil lawsuit, referred the potential criminal charges to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Division earlier this year. The Criminal Justice Division completed the tax investigation and will handle the newly indicted case in court.

“It is a written policy that any allegations of criminal wrongdoing unearthed during a Department of Justice civil investigation be referred to the department’s Criminal Justice Division for possible prosecution,” said Sean Riddell, the head of the Criminal Justice Division. “We cannot ignore evidence of criminal conduct. We were obligated to follow up on evidence of tax evasion that arose during the civil case.”

Attorney General Kroger said that several other potential tax evasion cases are under investigation.

Another chance to whip out my "Sizemore goes to jail" shot from this time last year:

More when we have it.