Indians Again Ask Federal Judge to Cite Interior Secretary Babbitt for Contempt
The Wall Street Journal
By: John Fialka
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
August 17, 2000
WASHINGTON — Indians suing the government in a class action alleging mishandling of tribal trust funds asked a federal judge to again cite Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials for contempt of court.
In a motion filed in U.S. District Court here, Elouise Cobell, a Blackfoot Indian, and other plaintiffs said BIA officials retaliated against Mona Infield, a computer specialist for the agency’s Albuquerque, N.M., office, by removing her from her job. The removal came after Ms. Infield provided plaintiffs with an affidavit asserting agency officials had made misleading statements about work with the trust funds and that confidential trust-fund data were in danger of being compromised.
Stephanie Hanna, an Interior Department spokeswoman, said “we don’t feel there was any retaliation involved.” She said Ms. Infield’s office, which handles trust-fund matters, was relocated this year to Herndon, Va., and she refused to make the move or to take alternative jobs offered her in Albuquerque.
In February 1999, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is handling the complex trust-fund case, found Mr. Babbitt and then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt of court for repeatedly missing court-ordered deadlines to produce documents in the case, which began in 1996. As a result, the U.S. was fined $625,000 to pay the plaintiffs’ lawyers and accountants for the resulting delays. Judge Lamberth warned then that any further misconduct could result in criminal penalties against Mr. Babbitt.
The motion to hold Mr. Babbitt and other officials in contempt for the alleged retaliation will be argued before Alan Balaran, a Washington lawyer appointed by Judge Lamberth to be a special master in the case. The case involves more than 500,000 accounts in a banking system that has been run by the Interior Department for individual Indians since the 19th century. Alleging mishandling of funds, the plaintiffs have asked for a full accounting of the money, which involves billions of dollars. Department officials have admitted that the job of finding an exact amount is complicated by some of the records being missing or having been destroyed.
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