We as Californians and voters should have had the opportunity to vote down his threatened initiatve. Most of the important polls said that the working man would never allow it to pass despite the backing of the California Chamber of Commerce, a synonym for "Big Corporate Interests." The people of California never got that chance. He pulled off the "Biggest Bluff of the 21st Century!"

His bluff worked. The time was right. The voters were unhappy with Gray Davis and wanted to see some new blood in the Governor's office and Schwarzenegger had a real good poker face. The legislators caved in to his demands. They didn't want him messing around in their districts. They passed his bill even though they knew that it was not in the best interests of working Californians. They didn't realize that they had just opened Pandora's Box and exposed California to the evils of the insurance industry.

They passed the bill in the middle of the night, just as they had when the de-regulated the Workers Compensation industry some ten years earlier on then Governor Pete Wilson's watch. They didn't want anybody reading it, so they simply pulled their shenanigan again. One legislator did read it, and didn't want anything to do with it and voted it down as 5 others who follwed suit.

All those who were in his inner circle are now profiting hand over fist from the fallout of Senate Bill 899 introduced by former Senator Charles Poochigian.

Let's fast-forward to 2007. California's injured workers simply can't get the medical treatment and benefits that the constitution mandates that they should. The Department of Workers Compensation is not run as an administrating agency, expediting cases, but simply as an insurance industry model to help facilitate the delay and denial of benefits which in some cases are the difference between life and death! ACOEM treatment guidelines were never meant for chronic injuries which the majority of occupational injures are turning into. They simply don't fit.

The so-called reforms of 2004 have simply given the insurance industry the tools by which to delay and deny medical treatment, medications, and everything else that the Workers Compensation legislation of the early part of the 20th century gave to the injured worker. The insurance industry still enjoys those protections, having lost nothing from that historical agreement.

They rely on the "Exclusive Remedy" umbrella to shield them from civil prosecution from the heinous criminal acts that they foist of Californa's working injured. It's fairly obvious that an injured worker has no chance to defend his rights in a California Court, but what about a federal court. What about his constitutional rights; his rights to due process under the law; his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and all those other constitutional guarantees that we take for granted.

Many injured workers and their legal advocates are seriously considering taking the fight to the federal arena and filing lawsuits under the "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [RICO]" where the "Exclusive Remedy" has no legal standing. But first let's just see what precisely a RICO lawsuit is, what kind of crimes it covers and what it entails.

RACKETEERING ACTIVITY - Any act or threat involving murder, kidnaping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in narcotic or other dangerous drugs, which is chargeable under State law and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year; any act which is indictable under the following [sections] of 18, U.S.C.:

201 (bribery)
224 (sports bribery)
471, 472, and 473 (counterfeiting)
659 (theft from interstate shipment) if act indictable under 659 is felonious
664 (embezzlement from pension/welfare funds)
891-894 (extortionate credit transactions)
1029 (fraud with access devices)
1084 (transmission of gambling info)
1341 (mail fraud)
1343 (wire fraud)
1344 (financial institution fraud)
1461-1465 (obscene matter)
1503 (obstruction of justice)
1510 (obstruction of criminal investigations)
1511 (obstruction of State or local law enforcement)
1512 (tampering with a witness, victim, or informant)
1513 (retaliating against a witness, victim, or informant)
1951 (interference w/commerce, robbery, or extortion)
1952 (racketeering), 1953 (transport of wagering paraphernalia)
1954 (unlawful welfare payments)
1955 (illegal gambling businesses)
1956 (laundering of monetary instruments)
1957 (monetary transactions derived from specified unlawful activity)
1958 (use of interstate commerce facilities in murder-for-hire)
2251-2252 (sexual exploitation of children)
2312 and 2313 (interstate transport of stolen motor vehicles)
2314 and 2315 (interstate transport of stolen property)
2321 (traffic in motor vehicles or parts)
2341-2346 (traffic in contraband cigarettes)
2421-24 (white slave traffic); any act indictable under 29 U.S.C. 186 (payments/loans to labor orgs) or 501(c) (embezzlement from union funds); fraud connected with a case under title 11, fraud in sale of securities, or felonious dealing in narcotic/other dangerous drugs; or any act indictable under Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act. 18 USC.

Originally, an organized conspiracy to commit extortion. Today, punishable offenses created by Congress to "seek the eradication of organized crime by establishing new penal prohibitions and by providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies to deal with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime." Pub. L. 91-452, §1, 84 Stat. 922 (1970). The federal statute is entitled "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [RICO]" under Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (18 U.S.C. §§1961-68) and many states have adopted similar statutes, e.g., N.J.S.A. 2C:41-1.1 et seq.

There are four punishable racketeering offenses under the federal statute:

  1.   Directly or indirectly investing income derived from a pattern of racketeering activity or through collection of an unlawful debt in any enterprise affecting trade or commerce;
  2.  Acquiring or maintaining any interest in an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity or collection of an unlawful debt;
  3.  Conducting or participating in the affairs of the enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity or collection of an unlawful debt; or
  4.  Conspiring to violate the racketeering provisions. 18 U.S.C. §1962. See also, N.J.S.A. 2C:41-2a to 2C:41-2d. "Pattern of racketeering activity" requires engaging in at least two incidents of racketeering conduct (specified offenses ranging from murder, kidnapping, criminal usury, and theft to forgery, alteration of motor vehicle identification numbers, and possession or use of firearms or explosives) within 10 years of each other, and where at least one of the incidents occurs after the effective date of the act. Some states also require that there be a showing that the incidents of racketeering are interrelated in some way.

The term "enterprise" in the federal act includes any individual, partnership, corporation, or any union or group of individuals associated in fact though not a legal entity, and some states have expanded the meaning to include sole proprietorships, business or charitable trusts, governmental entities, and illicit as well as licit entities. A criminal forfeiture provision is included in the act that allows for forfeiture of "any interest in money or property acquired in violation of the act." 18 U.S.C. §1963.

Some state racketeering statutes have civil forfeiture provisions as well. N.J.S.A. 2C:41-4. Finally, the provisions of the acts are directed to be liberally construed to best effect the overall purpose. The acts are felt to be a powerful tool in assisting prosecutors in apprehending and convicting those persons involved in organized crime and are preferred to viable alternatives under traditional conspiracy or professional criminal or habitual offender statutes. See 571 F. 2d 880.