Copyright © 1998 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Cherokee Press Association
Copyright © 1998 CPA
All Rights Reserved

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Front Page:
Byrd Warrant Was Dismissed
In June By New Appointee

By Donna Hales
Muskogee Phoenix Staff Writer

Copyright © 1998 Muskogee Phoenix
All Rights Reserved

Published in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix
and Times-Journal, January 9, 1998

In his first official act after Chief Joe Byrd appointed him, Cherokee Judge J. Dewayne Littlejohn, dismissed a criminal arrest warrant against Byrd.

Littlejohn's June 27 court order wasn't made public until this week when Councilor Paula Holder made an inquiry about the arrest warrant. A tribal court clerk could not find a copy of the warrant Thursday.

"It sounds like that we're not in the Cherokee Nation, but in Haiti," said Dwight Birdwell, a Cherokee Nation Judicial Appeals Tribunal justice. He said the tribal district court is not a legal court because it was moved without permission from the courthouse to tribal headquarters.

Littlejohn and Byrd did not return calls Thursday.

Byrd appointed Littlejohn in June after claiming the term of Drew Wilcoxen, the judge who issued the arrest warrant, expired in April. But tribal records show Wilcoxen’s term doesn’t end until February 1999, Birdwell said.

Wilcoxen issued the arrest warrant after Byrd failed to make a May court appearance on two counts of diversion of tribal funds.

The arrest warrant is a key part of an 11 month-old constitutional crisis in the tribe that began Feb. 25, when tribal marshals acting on a warrant searched tribal headquarters. The evidence they seized led to the diversion of funds charges against Byrd.

Byrd later fired the marshals and a prosecutor and ignored tribal court orders. His supporters on the tribal council tried to impeach the justices on the Judicial Appeals Tribunal, the tribe's highest court. The impeachment was ruled illegal, and Byrd agreed Aug. 25 to restore the court and give the fired marshals other jobs.

The tribal council confirmed Littlejohn's appointment June 16. On June 20, Byrd dispatched a new security force before dawn to seize the tribal courthouse in downtown Tahlequah.

Seven days later, Littlejohn arraigned Byrd on the criminal charges in a courtroom set up at the tribal complex. Although Byrd had failed to go before a judge on the warrant earlier, Littlejohn’s order states the chief was released without bail because he acknowledge his obligation to appear in court. Littlejohn then withdrew the arrest warrant bud did not set a trial date.

Byrd pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial.

The former tribal prosecutor who filed the diversion charges, A.Dianne Blalock, was surprised to hear of the June proceeding.

Littlejohn's June 27 order states that Angie Barker acted as tribal prosecutor and advised the court that efforts to contact Blalock were unsuccessful.

"I was available," Blalock said Thursday.

Wilcoxen said Barker had never before acted as a tribal prosecutor.

William Bliss, who rents office space to Barker, served as Byrd's defense attorney at the June 27 arraignment.

Blalock described Bliss and Barker as "office partners" and said she finds it "incredible" that they teamed us as defense attorney and prosecutor.

Barker said she had done nothing wrong. She also said she is not Bliss' law partner, but just rents office space from him.

Barker said she is not a tribal employee but works under contract. She said she hasn't worked for the tribe in a while and doesn't plan to do any more tribal work.

Bliss was in trial in Tulsa and couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Blalock recalled that Bliss and Barker had represented two of Byrd's top administrators before the tribunal in March Secretary-treasurer Jennie Battles and Chief of Staff George Thomas. Each was cited for contempt of court for failing to reinstate the pay of the tribal marshals, whom the court ordered reinstated after Byrd fired them.

Blalock said Thursday that at the time of Byrd's hearing at the tribal complex before Littlejohn, the downtown tribal courthouse was occupied by "felons" - Byrd's new security force. She and the tribunal justices had been thrown out of their offices at the courthouse.

Tribal District Judge Tina Glory Jordan, a Byrd supporter, had left her office at the tribal courthouse in May, before the Byrd takeover, and set up court at the tribal complex a court the tribunal ruled illegal.

"It was an illegal court and an illegal prosecutor (who conducted Byrd's arraignment)," Blalock said Thursday. "I don't think it (Littlejohn’s order) is worth the paper it's written on. I think Judge Littlejohn was made a judge because he was favorable to the chief and he had represented the deputy chief in a criminal case for assault." Byrd fired Blalock July 3, six days after he appeared before Littlejohn.

Byrd's spokeswoman, Lynn Adair, said he was to busy Thursday to comment.

Muskogee attorney Bart Fite, who had been the assistant prosecutor under Blalock, said Thursday that he was assigned the Byrd criminal case after the June arraignment. He said his principal job as a prosecutor at the tribe has been handling juvenile cases.

Fite said not court date was set because Bliss planned to file a motion for dismissal. Bliss said he planned to argue the case should be dismissed because the tribal courthouse and the court at the tribal complex were not in Indian Country, Fite said. Jurisdiction would be in question if that were the case.

But Bliss never filed the motion, Fite said.

By Dec. 19, it appeared a peace agreement among Byrd, four tribal councilors and federal officials might be falling through, and the jurisdiction of the district court at the trial complex had been challenged by the tribunal. Fite said, so he resigned his position with the tribe.

"I didn't want to risk my liberty and reputation or being held in contempt," Fite said. "I had been there almost longer than anybody else. I had hoped my resignation would catch some attention and bring the sides back together."

In a separate case, a federal judge in Tulsa express amazement that a tribal attorney argued the tribal courthouse wasn't Indian Country.

In an August hearing, U.S. District Judge Thomas Brett asked the attorney to "pardon my colloquial statement on the subject, but if that's true, the Cherokee Nation ain't much of a sovereign."

When a tribal councilor questioned Byrd about the tribe's stance in a December council meeting, Byrd said he wasn't aware the tribal attorney was making that argument.