Tenth Circuit

Tenth Circuit Affirms Conviction of Indian Gaming Player Who Embezzled Funds from Choctaw

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the available materials in United States v. Bryant:

CA10 opinion

USA Brief in Bryant

Bryant Reply

Here is a description of the crime:

On June 20, 2010, Ms. Bryant played a $1 slot machine at the Choctaw Casino and Resort, an Indian gaming establishment. She won 90 cents and took the ticket to her sister, who worked as a cashier. Her sister, and later  codefendant, paid Ms. Bryant $4,000.91. They later split the proceeds. R. 1, 26.  The casino noticed the missing $4,000 and saw the transaction as recorded by cameras. On appeal, Ms. Bryant contends that no federal law was violated. Her two-step argument is as follows: the statute upon which she was charged, 18 U.S.C. § 1168, prohibits theft by “an officer, employee, or individual licensee of a gaming establishment operated by or for or licensed by an Indian tribe.” But
she was not a casino employee, which, for purposes of this appeal, we take as true.

 

Tenth Circuit Decides Ute Indian Tribe v. Ute Distribution Corp.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is today’s opinion.

Lower court materials are here.

Update in Northern Arapaho Tribe v. Harnsberger (Suit to Oppose State Taxes)

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here are the appellee briefs (the appellant brief is here):

Fremont County Appellee Brief

Wyoming Appellee Brief

Eastern Shoshone Brief

US Brief

Tenth Circuit Vacates Sentence in Major Crimes Act Conviction

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the opinion.

Tenth Circuit Rejects “Incomprehensible” Challenge to 1954 Ute Partition Act

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here is the unpublished decision in Hackford v. State of Utah. And the briefs:

Hackford Brief

Utah Brief

Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Cert Petition in Natural Resources Tax Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials:

Final UMUT Petition for Certiorari

Appendix – Final

The questions presented are:

1. Does a state have the power to tax minerals production within the territorial boundaries of an Indian nation when the state provides no services in that location whatsoever, and where the tribe’s members cannot even vote in that state’s elections, amounting to taxation without representation?

2. Does Cotton Petroleum Corp. v. New Mexico, 490 U.S. 163 (1989), permit New Mexico to tax oil and gas operators’ activities on Indian trust land even where, as here, “the State has nothing to do with the on-reservation activity,
save tax it”?

Tenth Circuit materials are here.

Tenth Circuit Affirms Sentences of Navajo Members in Manslaughter Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the opinion in United States v. Talk.

Tenth Circuit Considers Prior Tribal Court Convictions in Sentence Enhancement Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the unpublished opinion in United States v. Romero.

The underlying conviction was for assaulting a Bureau of Indian Affairs corrections officer.

An excerpt:

Mr. Romero argues that the district court should not have considered his 2003 tribal court conviction because he pled guilty without the assistance of counsel. He fails, however, to develop this argument. He cites no case holding that a district court is precluded from considering a defendant’s prior, uncounseled tribal court convictions in its departure analysis, and in fact, our precedents do not support his contention. Cf. United States v. Concha, 294 F.3d 1248, 1253-54, 1255 (10th Cir. 2002) (upholding district court’s consideration of criminal conduct underlying uncounseled foreign convictions in departure analysis); United States v. Wyne, 41 F.3d 1405, 1409 n.5 (10th Cir. 1994) (disapproving of another circuit’s reversal of upward departure on basis that misdemeanor convictions were uncounseled).

Tenth Circuit Declines to Issue Certificate of Appealability to Andrew John Yellowbear

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the unpublished order.

Here are prior orders from federal and state courts in this matter.

Classic example of how Indian country is prejudiced in criminal cases Indian tribes cannot control; here, courts found the Wind River Reservation diminished.

Tenth Circuit Restores Dept. of Ag.’s Roadless Rule

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is today’s opinion in State of Wyoming v. United States Dept. of Agriculture.