BANISHED UNITED AUBURN Members FILE CLAIM AGAINST TRIBE: HOWARD DICKSTEIN ALERT

A challenge based on the ICRA (Indian Civil Rights ACT) which has negligible enforcement action in it.  It needs to be amended.


A former tribal chairwoman and three other members filed legal challenges Thursday charging that they were illegally banished from United Auburn Indian Community and denied a share of millions of dollars from the lucrative Thunder Valley tribal casino in Lincoln.

In an unusual legal action unearthing bitter divisions in one of California’s wealthiest casino tribes, plantiffs headed by former chairwoman Jessica Tavares charged that the United Auburn tribe imposed “unlawful restraints on their liberty” by cutting off their income and banning them from tribal property.

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, attorneys for Tavares claimed she was personally denied up to $2 million of her share of casino revenues as political retaliation for criticizing the tribal council over some $25 million in legal fees paid to the firm of tribal attorney Howard Dickstein.

Tavares’ legal action, filed as a writ of habeas corpus, said the tribal council imposed a four-year ban on payments to Tavares, beginning in November 2011, a denial of $40,000 a month in benefits, plus bonuses based on casino profits. It claimed the tribal action dealt a “severe and devastating penalty” that resulted in Tavares losing her house through foreclosure.

Tavares and the other plaintiffs – Dolly Suehead, Barbara Suehead and Donna Caesar – were part of an unsuccessful recall effort against five tribal council members in 2011 that focused on a contract, later revised, that had paid a percentage of casino revenues to Dickstein. The tribal attorney, who couldn’t be reached Thursday, said in an inteview with The Bee in early 2012 that the financial arrangement was proper and that his relationship with United Auburn resulted in “a phenomenal net benefit to the tribe.”