And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 19:16:21 EST forwarded for informational purposes only...contents have not been verified.. From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 16:24:00 EST Subject: Indians' Lawyers Will Seek Contempt Indians' Lawyers Will Seek Contempt .c The Associated Press By MATT KELLEY WASHINGTON (AP) - The discovery of records piled in a ``garbage heap'' on a North Dakota reservation prompted a lawyer for some American Indians to say Friday he would ask a federal judge to hold Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in contempt again. The lawyers for the Indians contended the Interior Department and its lawyers cannot be trusted to maintain and turn over documents. The Indians are suing over mismanagement of thousands of accounts that they say have cost them billions of dollars. Both sides agree the accounts were mismanaged. ``We seem to be in the same situation as before, where the orders of this court are not being complied with,'' Dennis Gingold told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth at a previously scheduled hearing in the lawsuit. ``They have a new team of lawyers, but nothing's changed.'' In February, Lamberth held Babbitt and two other officials in contempt for failing to turn over documents in the case. On Nov. 1, court-appointed watchdog Alan Balaran said he found piles of account documents ``in deplorable condition amidst gasoline canisters, tires, machinery and other debris'' in a shed on the Spirit Lake Sioux reservation in North Dakota. Balaran's Nov. 12 report to Lamberth condemned what he called the Bureau of Indian Affairs' ``callous disregard for these records'' and its ``duplicitous denial'' that the documents were in the shed near the reservation's BIA office. Balaran said a BIA supervisor had insisted all records were in the main office, but a secretary told the investigator about the shed. Justice Department lawyer Phillip Brooks, representing the Interior Department, bristled at Gingold's remarks, saying, ``I'm tired of being disparaged.... I don't know what to say, other than: Bring it on.'' Gingold later said he took that as a challenge and will ask Lamberth to hold Babbitt and BIA head Kevin Gover in contempt again ``as soon as possible.'' Brooks and fellow Justice Department lawyer Charles Findlay said BIA officials had ordered the records removed from the shed. They said no documents were lost. The lawsuit involves more than 300,000 accounts, worth more than $500 million, for individual Indians. AP-NY-11-19-99 1623EST Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<> Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>
