The Sault Tribe was asked to comply with a request to provide the court with a
complete list of tribal members so that they could be eliminated from the process of choosing a jury for the case against Bernard Bouschor and the 7 + 2 lawsuit.
Download Resolution PDF here
12 comments:
Two comments. One, why has it taken Malloy so long to provide a copy of the resolution ?
Two, I absolutely do not agree with the Tribe giving out my name so I can be eliminated from a potential pool of Jurors ! I believe this is completely discriminatory. I would love nothing better than to see Bernard in jail for the rest of his life. The court is making a lot of assumptions here and I believe exceeding their authority. We are being eliminated and that is not fair. We are his peers........why does one assume we would be biased.
I just got off the phone with Malloy and her answer confirms what i was told by tribal staff. They just got word of the court order from the chairman on thursday afternoon and a copy of the resoution in the soo mail on Saturday. In fact some of the board members may not have received it until today. I don't know about anyone else but Malloy is the only one I can get to answer her phone around here. The fact that she answers questions and gives information is a nice change of pace for a board member. Its no wonder we dont get very many good people interested in running for the board because everybody likes to take pot shots at em for everything real or imagined! Give these new people a chance. God they only been there a couple months.
If you can acquire the resolution and post it to a blog in less time than please, please do. Good luck finding a director who is willing to provide you with the information we are entitled to.
As far as your second comment, I would bet that the vast majority of tribal members feel exactly the same as you do. Some want to praise Bouschor for what he has accomplished but look at the results...failure! We should have schools, a college, why not a world class golf course. Look what Bay Mills has accomplished with a lot less. Disturbing what that man cost us. We should be suing him.
The membership wants that money back!
Every member has a vested interest and therefor biased.
But,........ as we all feel....Bouschor threw the tribe's money around to build his political clout
and gain influence locally.
Will that work in his favor?
It will be Benard who?
If these defendants believe that they have left a good feeling
with the people of this area...they are mistaken.
Besides being foolish with the tribe's purse..all of them have shamed their families.
The tribe has lost ,at least, a half a billion dollars,
during Bouschor's reign and all of them were his support.
The negative effect, on the local economy, is enough to run him out on a rail.
Now, might be a good time to get a picketing permit.
Let the public know how the tribal members really feel.
Picket during jury selection.
What moron on the board directed the Tribal Legal department to draft this resolution ? The Judge has no authority at all over the tribe or tribal records. So why are they bowing down and complying. Are they so stupid that they do not even realize that they have no legal obligation to comply. Are they going to sell us out, again ?
'Selling out' is a good choice of words when discussing the boards most recent actions. 'Selling out' seems to be the answer from the board for all our problems but it isn't the tribe as a whole who is benefitting although I believe that someone is.
I was weighing the pros and cons and have come to the conclusion that we should not be forced into another act of discrimination against ourselves as American Indians. When have we ever heard that all citizens of Detroit are not eligible to be on a jury because the defendant is from Detroit? How often do we hear that Italians cannot be on the jury because the defendant is an Italian? How often do we hear that Caucasians cannot serve on a jury because the defendant is white? It never happens!
I am not particularly interested in giving Bouschor a fair shake because what he did was wrong, but you need to stop and think about why we as tribal members should be eliminated from the jury.
We are not just his peers we are his victims no matter what color, size, shape or sex we are. I have never heard of a victim being allowed to be on the jury for the trial of their perpetrator.
My opinion is that perhaps a change of venue would be a better option due to the possible influence he may have with non-tribal members in Chippewa County. Just saying….
Every time a criminal is prosecuted, the jury is made up of victims. As taxpayers who foot the bill, we are all victims affected by crimes.
Bouschor left a trail of victims, many of whom are not Indian. Many Sault tribe members are married to non-Indians who were victimized by Bouschor's actions, but they would be allowed to serve on the jury even though their marital partner would not.
Citizens of the US serve on juries to determine the guilt or innocence of other U.S. citizens. Why are the citizens of the Sault Tribe any different? Why are we being discriminated against? If the board agrees to this, are they not violating the constitution of the Sault Tribe in some form?
I believe a good attorney could dissect the actions of the board to find the such actions a removable offense should they agree to discriminate against their own people.
It just seems to me that we have asked a county court outside our tribe to hold a trial within their jurisdiction. This means that we are playing with their rules not ours.
Now, somebody has made a motion to this court that certain people should not be on the jury because they would financially gain and therefore could possibly be biased. The court has ruled that any tribal member should not be on the jury.
I assume that this was the defense attorney that petitioned for this motion and the tribes attorney needs to come up with a counter action of some sort.
These are moves being made by the players to gain the best possible situation for winning a trial.
What will the tribes attorney do to counter this move. Claim discrimination? I'm ok with that if it works. I would also like to see Bouschor off the board and that is within our jurisdiction, but hasn't happed. Why?
If Benard Boosher is found guilty...he will be removed from the Board of Directors.
The next person with the most votes should be placed in the Unit 1 seat by the Board of Directors, immediately.
I can't help think that this is somehow a crafted move by Boosher advisers, that will allow him to squeak out of this.
The distrust I feel , I am sure, is felt by at least half of the members of this tribe.
The penalty for all that are found guilty should be the most allowed by law, based on the severity of their actions.
address these letters to the editor of your local paper.
it is not true that if Bouschor leaves he will be replaced person who gathered the next highest vote. the board should hold a new election.
Do you really believe that Bouschor won by six votes??????
The Board has the task of placing someone in that position or they can run an election.
Regardless.......
Nathan Wright deserves that position.
Had it not been for the questionable behaviors of certain people on the counting floor...he would have won.
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