Grand jury returns indictments against nine former members of Winnebago Tribal Council

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By David Hendee

A federal grand jury has returned an 11-count indictment against nine former members of the Winnebago Tribal Council.

Each was charged with conspiracy, theft and misapplication of funds belonging to an Indian gambling establishment and wire fraud.

U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg announced the indictments Wednesday. A court hearing is expected to be held in early August.

Charged were Charles Aldrich, 48; John Blackhawk, 61; Morgan Earth, 70; Louis Houghton, 69; Travis Mallory, 38; Lawrence Payer, 70; Thomas Snowball Jr., 55; Darwin Snyder, 49; and Ramona Wolfe, 76.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/grand-jury-returns-indictments-against-nine-former-members-of-winnebago/article_96e9a7a2-2eb2-55ca-ad0a-edb2fb98f43e.html

[Sanity Claws]

1. Jurisdiction?

I can see how the US Attorney could prosecute wire fraud but not the rest. How does the US Attorney have jurisdiction over what happens within a Tribal council?

[mopinko]

4. caught my eye, too.

[Sunlei]

2. Good thing the group of mostly woman, stood against the corruption & started a new council

Darla LaPointe, tribal chairwoman, said the scandal has been devastating to the community since surfacing in early 2015. That’s when a group predominately made up of women started to publicly voice concerns.


LaPointe said the new tribal council she leads has worked to improve communication and transparency and to implement internal policies to ensure that questionable activity does not occur again.


“Our membership expects and deserves nothing less,” she said.

[mopinko]

3. seems like there are a lot more female whistleblowers than males.

maybe that's why the boys never want to open up their little fiefdoms to girls. seems built in.