Court Rules Los Coyotes can Toss Eagle Rock from Reservation

Court denies training center's temporary restraining order

10.28.2011

By Edward Sifuentes

A federal judge ruled Friday that the Los Coyotes Band of Mission Indians can evict a military training center off its North County reservation.

The Eagle Rock Training Center is the site where a fire started July 21 and burned about 22 square miles.

The firm, which leased the land on the reservation for the training facility, filed a lawsuit in federal court Sept. 15 after the tribe attempted to evict the business from the reservation.

Attorneys for Eagle Rock asked the Judge William Q. Hayes to issue a temporary restraining order to keep the tribe from pushing them out.

On Friday, Hayes denied their request.

At issue is whether the tribe's then-chairwoman, Francine Kupsch, had the authority to agree to the lease on behalf of the tribe.

Hayes said she did not.

"ERTC has failed to present any evidence to show that the Los Coyotes General Council authorized any version of the lease," Hayes wrote.

Sean Roach, Eagle Rock's CEO, declined to comment Friday night.

After the tribe gave the training center an eviction notice in June, Eagle Rock officials said in court documents that they attempted to negotiate with the tribe to clarify the lease agreement, but that tribal officials "failed to negotiate in good faith," according to the lawsuit.

Earlier this month, Mark Radoff, an attorney for Los Coyotes, told the North County Times that the tribe can not be sued because of sovereign immunity and that there was no lease agreement because it was never approved by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Eagle Rock officials said in court documents that they were told the tribal council had voted and approved the lease and that the chairwoman signed a lease agreement that included a waiver of the tribe's sovereign immunity.

Hayes cited previous rulings that say "sovereign immunity cannot be implied but must be unequivocally expressed" and that there is a "strong presumption against waiver of tribal sovereign immunity."

The firm also alleged that the dispute over the lease agreement and the tensions it created between the tribe and the company may have led to the fire.

Two tribal members were arrested shortly after the fire and charged with arson for setting a guard shack belonging to Eagle Rock on fire. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"Members of Los Coyotes even threatened to take matters into their own hands if ERTC did not vacate the property," according to court documents. "Tragically, such threats came to fruition when the tribe allowed certain tribal members to take matters into their own hands by pouring gasoline on the ERTC's security booth and lighting it on fire."

On the Los Coyotes Reservation, There's a History of Dispute Resolution akin to the Wild West

Indians aim to drive family from tribe in vicious dispute

4.09.2000

By Chet Barfield

Staff Writer

LOS COYOTES INDIAN RESERVATION -- Cattleman Frank Taylor rips hay from a bale, tossing handfuls to a dozen cows & calves that came running like puppies at the toot of his pickup horn.

Cattle, he explains, "are very clannish." If one group strays into another's territory, "those cows will hook them & chase them out."

Taylor, 61, is learning about that firsthand. He & his extended family are the focus of a dispute that's tearing apart this remote reservation in the mountains above Warner Springs, 70 miles northeast of San Diego.

Tribal Chairwoman Catherine Saubel & her followers are trying to banish the Taylors from the tribe. They openly hate the family of 20, whose late patriarch, Banning Taylor, ran the reservation for almost 50 years before his death in 1998 at age 92.

The Taylors refuse to budge. They've hired a lawyer to plead their case to the Sheriff's Department, Congress & the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Tensions that have simmered for years are reaching the breaking point. A brawl erupted at the monthly tribal meeting in March when the Taylors defied an edict not to attend. Sheriff's deputies were called to break up the fight, which caused some cuts & bruises but prompted no arrests.

Many up here fear things could get worse. Hot-tempered foes of the Taylors are brandishing guns & making threats. Frank Taylor keeps a weapon of his own within reach -- "for shooting rattlesnakes," he says.

Each side points fingers at the other: "Two men in a white pickup (like Taylor's) tried to run over our kids." . . . "My dog was shot in the face." . . . "I've had two dogs poisoned in the past year. . . . "

And, from the Taylors: "Our cattle have been shot." . . . "My grandson was almost grabbed out of our car." . . . "My fences & corrals have been vandalized. . . . "

"When a dog gets shot, he (Taylor) gets blamed for it whether there's evidence or not," said sheriff's Deputy Scottie Dawson, who has been patrolling Los Coyotes & other North County reservations since 1991. "It's been going on since before I was a deputy out here."

How did it come to this? Much of the answer dates back to the 1930s, when Banning Taylor was adopted into the tribe.

Born in Warner Springs, Taylor, a cattleman, moved in the early 1900s onto a 157-acre homestead that juts into the southwestern border of the 25,000-acre reservation. He raised his two sons there. (One died in 1986.)

In 1934, Taylor was adopted by tribal vote into the Los Coyotes band, which consisted of a Cahuilla Indian village in the mountains overlooking the Anza-Borrego Desert, & some Cupeños occupying the foothills near Warner Springs.

The tribe now has 290 members, only about 40 of whom live on the reservation. Half of those residents are Taylors.

The late patriarch's Indian blood -- or lack of it -- has been an ongoing issue of contention.

"He's a white man," said the chairwoman's brother, Cahuilla elder Alvino Siva. "And all of his children, if you check their birth certificates, are all white."

Banning Taylor publicly claimed to be of mixed ancestry, Irish & Cupeño. Yet stories persist, passed down for generations, that he tricked his way into the tribe.

Some say he was a bootlegger who got the Indians drunk or did them other favors. Others say tribal members who spoke no English were told the adoption vote was only to grant Taylor a work permit.

"Banning Taylor has lied & lied & lied. He was a smart man, smart crook-wise," said Cupeño elder Ruth Cassell, 73, who left the reservation in her childhood but returned in the 1960s. "He was a white man. He could get jobs for the Indians. He got liquor for the Indians, too.

"He was the only one who had a truck. He used to go someplace & get fresh vegetables -- bananas, celery, sometimes lettuce & tomatoes. . . . He used to bring it, & we'd be glad to see him."

Frank Taylor says he has records proving his Cupeño lineage back to Juan Antonio Garra, leader of a notorious 1851 Indian uprising. He said he brought the documents to a tribal meeting last year, but Saubel wouldn't accept them.

Taylor also has copies of a 1978 U.S. Interior Department administrative ruling in which critics, including Saubel, tried & failed to have Banning Taylor's adoption declared invalid.

The department's Indian affairs bureau sent a letter March 30 to Rep. Ron Packard -- with a copy to Saubel -- stating it still stands by that ruling, & it would be "inappropriate (for the tribe) to raise the issue of the validity of the adoption of Banning Taylor Sr. or to attempt to disenroll his family upon these grounds his long tenure as chairman from the mid-1940s until 1996, when old age & ill health forced his retirement.

Critics say Taylor took care of his own & ignored the tribe's needs. One example was the power & phone lines, which until two years ago stopped at the Taylor ranch. His family lived in comfort while Indians on the other side of the hill lived in trailers & shacks with wood stoves & kerosene lamps.

Power lines were brought to the poor side in 1998; seven months after Saubel took office. But the project was started by Frank Taylor, who had been chairman the previous two years.

Frank Taylor says -- as his father did -- that tribal members themselves voted down the power extension in the 1970s because they distrusted government grants. He says his family members work & bought what they have with their own money.

Throughout Banning Taylor's years as chairman, Saubel & others accused him of taking government funds without putting them to use for the tribe. Now the Taylors are saying the same about Saubel.

The 80-year-old chairwoman dismisses these as white man's lies. She issued an edict -- backed by a vote at the March meeting -- giving the Taylors 60 days to document their enrollment or get out.

"We want them out, out of the reservation, because that reservation is for Indians, not blondes, blue-eyes & redheads," said Saubel, who left Los Coyotes as a youth & lives on the Morongo reservation near Palm Springs. "If I was white like them, I wouldn't want to be stuck in there with the Indians."

Tribal secretary Francine Kupsch said she & many others believe the Taylors are not legally enrolled & should have no rights in the tribe.

"It's all B.S.," she said of the 1978 ruling on Banning Taylor's adoption, "because nobody can decide our membership up here. Only we can."

Barstow Beware: Under Shane Chapparosa's Leadership, Los Coyotes' Approach to Dispute Resolution?

REGION: Military training firm sues Los Coyotes tribe over lease

10.09.2011

By EDWARD SIFUENTES

esifuentes@nctimes.com

A bitter dispute between the Los Coyotes Band of Mission Indians in Warner Springs and a company that operates a military training facility on the North County reservation has spilled into court.

The Eagle Rock Training Center, which leased land on the reservation for the training facility that also serves as a set for Hollywood film crews, filed a lawsuit Sept. 15 after the tribe attempted to evict the business, according to documents filed in federal court.

The training center operators claim the tribe is trying to renege on their 25-year lease agreement.

Officials with the training center also allege that the dispute contributed to a hostile environment that led to the burning of a guard shack on July 21. The fire burned about 22 square miles of wildland before firefighters were able to stop it. [Eagle Fire]

Two tribal members, Jeremy Ortiz, 23, and Jesse Durbin, 23, were charged in August with setting the fire. Both men pleaded not guilty.

After the tribe gave the training center an eviction notice June 16, Eagle Rock officials said in court documents that they attempted to negotiate with the tribe to clarify the lease agreement. But tribal officials "failed to negotiate in good faith," according to the lawsuit.

"Members of Los Coyotes even threatened to take matters into their own hands if ERTC did not vacate the property -- tragically, such threats came to fruition when the tribe allowed certain tribal members to take matters into their own hands by pouring gasoline on ERTC's security booth and lighting it on fire, and destroying new surveillance cameras that were installed after the fire," according to court documents... (Complete Story)

For nearly a decade, Detroit casino syndicators (Michael Malik & Marian Ilitch) have been using the Los Coyotes tribe, and others, to front an opportunity that could allow the Detroiters to build and manage a $160 million casino in Barstow (CA).  In part, approvals for such a venture hinge on the ability of the tribe to prove the Los Coyotes Reservation in Warner Springs (CA) is unsuitable for business purposes.

When the Detroiters woke up to realize Francine Kupsch had signed the deal with Eagle Rock which agreed to pay the tribe 10 percent of its profits, plus build a new tribal hall and a children's playground, among other things, they could not have been too happy. After all, they claim to have spent millions already attempting to protect their exclusive rights to a Barstow casino franchise.

According to court documents, Eagle Rock had spent about $450,000 paying Los Coyotes rent payments and improvements to the children's park and training facilities, according to court documents. Adding value to the deal between Los Coyotes and Eagle Rock was the fact that  ERTC was also being used as a set for Hollywood film crews.

The last time these tribal leaders had a major dispute and were attempting to evict people from their Reservation (2000), they took up firearms and the San Diego County Sheriff had to get involved. (Indians aim to drive family from tribe in vicious dispute; San Diego Union-Tribune; April 9, 2000)

And did we mention that once again, Detroit was named the #1 Most Dangerous City in America?

You might also want to see: Los Coyotes tribal leader calls Barwest's Mike Malik "devil;" says he has "seduced" younger tribal leaders.

Another Detroit Sanctioned Los Coyotes Leadership Coup; plus Lawsuits, Arson, Blackwater and "Bonfiglio?"

The Eagle Fire started when a Los Coyotes member torched an
Eagle Rock guard shack. - Photo courtesy of Cal Fire San Diego

Clearly the Detroiters using the Los Coyotes Tribe as a tool to achieve their dreams of developing and running  a casino in Barstow (CA) are catalysts, if not wholly responsible for, this upheaval  (updated in the excerpts below from SDCityBeat.com) at the Los Coyotes Reservation.

As you read this, consider that the character mentioned in the article as Shane Chapparosa is a tool of the Detroit casino interests.  Whenever they fear trouble, they trot him out, prop him up – and reward him – to act as the new Chair of the tribe.  At least twice before the Detroiters have had to “arrange” for his leadership of the tribe when the then-true-leader attempts to take the tribe in a direction that might not be in the Detroiters’ best interest.

SDCityBeat.com

But since June, Los Coyotes—a tribe of about 300 members—has been trying to boot the company off its land, claiming the lease was never valid. The conflict has since escalated to a series of showdowns, which ERTC alleges led to the arson [allegedly STARTED BY TWO TRIBAL MEMBERS] that caused the 14,000-acre Eagle fire in July...

An eviction deadline was extended until July 29 as the parties continued to negotiate. The tribe asked to review upcoming training plans, which it would evaluate before allowing them to proceed. Meanwhile, ERTC began to threaten legal action if the Notice to Vacate was not rescinded. It was against this backdrop that tribal member and former ERTC employee Jeremy Ortiz and Jesse Durbin allegedly stole ERTC surveillance cameras, then poured gasoline on an ERTC guard shack and set it alight, kicking off the Eagle fire. Ortiz admitted to the crime, according to an arrest warrant in the criminal case file.

...During the last two weeks, the dispute has come to a head, with tribal police informing ERTC that its employees, customers and equipment would be ejected from the reservation. In response, ERTC filed a federal lawsuit on Sept. 16, asking for a temporary restraining order. The request was withdrawn when the tribe temporarily agreed to allow a military training event scheduled for Sept. 21 to go ahead. The overall dispute has not been resolved.

In filing the suit, ERTC released dozens of pages of records, including contracts, plans and correspondence that shine a light on how the military contractor attempted to bypass state and county regulations by building on Indian land.

As early as 2006, former Blackwater Vice President Brian Bonfiglio wanted to build a training facility in San Diego County. The initial plans were abandoned in 2008, following significant community outcry (though Bonfiglio asserted the activism had no impact on the decision). Around the same time, he approached the Los Coyotes tribe, an impoverished community that had long struggled to find a way to capitalize on land that was otherwise unsuitable for commercial development...

Brian “Bonfiglio?”  Interesting, because the Detroiters (Michael Malik/MJM Enterprises) at one time employed Barbara Bonfiglio, a rather connected GOP lobbyist in Washington, D.C.  Ms. Bonfiglio was so well connected that she got caught up in the political scandals that brought down House Speaker Tom DeLay, Senator Rick Santorum, and Reps. Richard Pombo and Don Young.  Then one day, without notice, she packed up her desk at Williams & Jensen, and went under the radar.  The firm was tight-lipped about her departure.  She’s since surfaced as an executive at Pfizer.

...In March 2010, Bonfiglio struck a six-year deal with the tribe’s chairperson, Francine Kupsch, under which the facility would be built on the reservation and the tribe would receive a 10-percent slice of the profits. In November 2010, Kupsch authorized an extension of the lease until 2035, with the added requirement that ERTC build a children’s playground and a 1,250-square-foot tribal office and hall. Two tribal members who owned part of the land that would become an asphalt driving track would receive $500 in monthly rent. The agreement also included a waiver of the tribe’s right to sovereign immunity from the U.S. court system.

What the document does not contain was the tribe’s official seal of approval, even though there’s a place for it on the agreement.

Kupsch was replaced as chairperson on Jan. 1 by Shane Chapparosa, under whose watch the tribe developed concerns with the 25-year agreement.... (Complete Story at SDCityBeat.com)

Poor Francine Kupsch, when she was of use to the Malik & his Detroiters, they trotted her out in Sacramento, exploited her personal circumstances with photos and stories they sent out over PR wires and had her stage a hunger-strike/sit-in on the grounds of the State Capitol.  Now, they’ve had her tossed out as Chair!  [Note to Tribal Chairs:  whenever the Detroiters, aka the bully Mike Malik, fear they’re losing their grip on your Tribe, they arrange a coup and toss out the Chair.  Take a look at the case of Los Coyotes respected elder Katherine Siva Saubel; or one-time Bay Mills Indian Community leader John Lufkins.]

Worth Consideration:  Los Coyotes, Barwest, Michael Malik ↔ Barbara Bonfiglio ↔ DeLay, Santorum, etc. ↔ GOP  ↔ Bush ↔ Texas ↔ Blackwater ↔ ERTC ↔ Brian Bonfiglio ↔ Los Coyotes

Is there any doubt that Detroiters Marian Ilitch and Mike Malik are behind this latest courtroom drama?

REGION: Military training firm sues Los Coyotes tribe over lease

10.09.2011

By EDWARD SIFUENTES

esifuentes@nctimes.com

...The lawsuit comes amid renewed efforts by the tribe to build a $160 million casino in Barstow, halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The project, which has been in the works for nearly a decade, appeared to be dead three years ago. That is when the federal government denied an application to take a plot of land in Barstow into trust, which would make it part of the tribe's reservation, in order to build the casino.

Last year, the project got a second wind when the U.S. Department of Interior allowed an appeal to proceed.

To get the land transfer, Los Coyotes must prove, in part, that its reservation is unsuitable for business purposes. Critics of the casino project say the Eagle Rock lease agreement makes that argument less believable.

According to the lawsuit, Eagle Rock agreed to pay the tribe 10 percent of its profits, and build a new tribal hall and a children's playground, among other things.

Overall, the company has spent about $450,000 on rent payments and improvements to the children's park and training facilities, according to court documents.

Eagle Rock is asking the court to declare the lease agreement valid and to award the company compensatory damages, but does not give a specific amount.

In January, the tribe's leadership changed. Kupsch was replaced by Chairman Shane Chapparosa.

Radoff said there may have been a change in the tribe's plans when the new chairman came into office, but he declined to discuss "internal tribal deliberations."

Eagle Rock officials say they believed the tribe had approved the lease because the company had not been told otherwise, according to the lawsuit. Representatives of the company attended a tribal council meeting in January to discuss the children's park and gave members of the tribal council tours of the leased property in March... (Complete Story)

In August, two members of the Los Coyotes Tribe, Jeremy Ortiz and Jesse Durbin, were arrested on arson charges alleging they started what California authorities call the "Eagle Fire." That incident ended up burning 14,100 acres (22 square miles) in northern San Diego County this past July. Eighteen injuries occurred during the fire which cost California taxpayers  $15.5 million to battle.

It is alleged the Los Coyotes pair, Ortiz and Durbin, broke into the Eagle Rock Training Center (ERTC), disassembled surveillance cameras and then torched the guard shack at ERTC.

Torching 22 square miles... that's one way to validate claims that your reservation is uninhabitable or otherwise offers no natural resources of any value.  On the other hand, Barstow officials ought to be concerned about Los Coyotes' approach to dispute resolution!

Leaders of tribes that have pursued Barstow casinos meet for first time

3.18.09

Tribal leaders meet to clear the air over Barstow casino projects

By ABBY SEWELL, staff writer

BARSTOW • The leaders of two Indian tribes that have proposed to build two separate off-reservation casinos in Barstow sat down together for the first time in Barstow last week.

At the urging of Barstow’s Mayor Joe Gomez, Chemehuevi tribal Chairman Charles Wood and Spokeswoman Francine Kupsch with the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno met March 10 at Quigley’s Restaurant in an attempt to clear the air between their tribes.

In the past, there had been tension between the proponents of the two casino projects, particularly over Measure H, a ballot measure voted down by Barstow voters in 2006, which would have created a casino zone encompassing the area where the Chemehuevi planned to build their casino but not the site of the Los Coyotes project.

The March 10 meeting was the first formal meeting that had ever taken place between the leaders of the tribes.

“I think the meeting went very well, and it was long overdue,” Wood said.

He said he would anticipate future meetings between the tribes. Although he and Kupsch agreed to work cooperatively in the future, Wood said he does not anticipate the tribes forming a joint venture on the casino project.

Kupsch said that after discussing the histories of their respective tribes and the struggles they had faced in the past, the leaders had a better understanding of each other’s situations. The possibility of forming a joint venture did not come up during the meeting, she said.

Gomez said he asked the tribal leaders about a month ago if they would be willing to meet, in hopes that they could find ways to support — or at least not interfere with — each other.

“I think it should have been done a long time ago,” he said. “I think we would have had a better opportunity to get a casino if they had met from the very beginning and got their input from the very beginning.”

Gomez said that he and the two leaders took part on their own time and at their own expense and that after introducing the tribal leaders and making sure they felt comfortable together, he left the meeting.

Both tribes previously applied to the U.S. Department of the Interior to have land in Barstow held in federal trust to be used for off-reservation gaming. The Department of the Interior rejected both applications in January 2008 because of new federal standards requiring off-reservation Indian casinos to be within commuting distance of the reservation. Only the Los Coyotes have so far filed an amended application.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or asewell@desertdispatch.com