First, with regard to Tony Nertoli (Bernard Bouschor's first cousin). In 2002, as a seated judge Tony Nertoli (no law degree or college level education) ordered a foster parent to violate the terms of her appointment by directing her to deliver a young male child to his home in the middle of the night. ACFS and the Prosecutor had agreed on an order placing the child in foster care with restrictive covenants limiting access to the child given suspected (later proven) sexual abuse. When the foster mother got the call from Tony ordering her to violate the court order, she was besides herself. When she noted to Tony that she would not be delivering the child to him as it violated her foster care appointment and court order of no contact, Tony responded by threatening to jail her. She then called her ACFS social worker who in turn contacted James Bias as Prosecutor who then got an emergency hearing with Kandra Robbins' as judge.. Kandra in turn called Fred Paquin as Chief of Police to order his officers not to arrest the foster mom if she didn't deliver the child to Tony in the middle of the night. Sure enough, when the foster mom didn't deliver the child, Tony called the police to order them to arrest the foster mom. Luckily the police knew not to follow Tony's order due to his judicial misconduct by trying to influence a case dealing with his own relative.
James Bias as Tribal Prosecutor, Kandra Robbins as Associate Judge, and Fred Paquin as Chief of Police all signed letters to attest to their role and that they believed Tony Nertoli's actions constituted judicial misconduct. I have these letters in my possession and will post them if the Board appoints Nertoli. Those who were on the Board at the time (Abramson, McKelvie, LaPoint, Chase) are all aware of this situation as the Board then opted not to reappoint Tony based on this issue.
With regard to Lori Jump. Lori's issue is a little more straightforward. Lori's program is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Her job is to coordinate our various Victims' Services throughout the Tribe. Her job is as an advocate and as such she cannot be considered objective when it comes to hearing cases. She has a serious conflict of interest as she is involved in cases by providing services to victims in these cases. This would not be allowed in any other court system and warrants a written legal opinion of whether or not her employment role would constitute a conflict of interest. If she were an attorney, this would not be allowed as she would need a waiver on both sides to hear a case. Also, given the funds originate from the U.S. D.O.J., I believe a letter from them as the grantor is also necessary to to avoid any funding conflicts which may jeopardize funding.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I read of the two above appointments, I was surprised that they would place someone like Nertoli in such a role but, I should not have been. Not only does he not have the necessary education but his name was all over the local newspapers several years ago in reference to the above incidents of allegations of child sexual abuse.
Regarding Lori Jump, recently I have heard that she was not happy with certain decisions made by the Sault Tribe Board of Directors. Is this a 'Shut Up Position' as many of us know is common, especially when they have previous connections to sitting board members. This whole business stinks more and more like the corruption we have been fighting for too long. The BOD should be referred to as the Sault Tribe Anishnafia
No comments:
Post a Comment