(02-27) 16:43 PST Santa Ana, Calif. (AP) --
A slow-burning leadership struggle within the Minuteman Project has flared into a full-blown court fight that threatens the 2-year-old anti-illegal immigration group's influence, if not its survival.
Ousted Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist sued the group's board of directors last week for control of the organization after he was fired and accused of embezzling $400,000 in donations.
Board members, who also fired the group's executive director, also allege Gilchrist used $13,000 of the organization's money for his own legal fees. And they recently filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, saying Gilchrist illegally received a nonprofit postal discount.
On Tuesday, a judge set a March 21 hearing to decide whether to intervene in the dispute, which had been building for more than a year, according to court papers.
Gilchrist and other activists upset at what they perceived as a lack of action on the part of Congress began patrolling the Mexican border in Arizona in 2005 using cars, trucks, private planes and night-vision goggles. The effort drew criticism even from some conservatives including President Bush, who called participants "vigilantes."
The Minuteman Project struck a nerve, however, and now has about 200 spin-off groups around the U.S.
"What they've done here is going to have a reflection ... on the other groups around the country and I've got to spend the next year or two repairing my reputation," Gilchrist said of the board's takeover.
Gilchrist rejected the allegations of skimming and sloppy oversight. He said if he was guilty of anything it was of working too hard and not keeping volunteers up-to-date on all of his decisions.
"There's no $400,000 of hidden money, there's no hidden bank accounts, there's no hidden P.O. boxes," he said. "We're moving at the speed of light. You've got me running from one side of the country to the other. I've done 1,000 media interviews and I don't have time to cross every 't' and dot every 'i.' What's everybody else doing?"
Marvin Stewart, the Minuteman Project's newly appointed president, said Gilchrist and former executive director Stephen Eichler were guilty of gross mismanagement. He said the new leadership has hired an investigator to try to ferret out thousands of dollars in missing donations.
"All opportunities were given to Mr. Gilchrist to do the right thing, to take charge and clean the house, but he chose not to do it," Stewart said.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/27/national/a164341S34.DTL