Four men charged in the case of the missing Pawhuska Indian Village money were back in Osage Nation Trial Court April 3.
The March court dates for the four men – all former Pawhuska Five-Man Board members – were postponed, rescheduled and their cases will be heard by a different presiding judge, according to filed court notices. Coverage of the April 3 court date will be in the May issue of the Osage News and posted online at osagenews.org.
Defendants Kenneth “KC” Bills, Theodore Brunt and Frank Redcorn appeared for status conferences and fourth defendant Joe Don Mashunkashey appeared for a no issue deposition, all on April 3.
ON Trial Court Associate Judge Lee Stout will hear the cases instead of Trial Court Chief Judge Marvin Stepson who presided at the initial court appearances on Feb. 13.
Each of the four men face several charges filed by the ON Attorney General’s Office alleging the men misused public funds. The Pawhuska village receives its revenue through a lease agreement with the Osage Casino located just inside the southeast corner of the village jurisdiction.
The AG’s office started investigating the issue of unaccounted village money after an ON Office of Fiscal Performance and Review audit report stated that $806,000 in village revenue was unaccounted for. According to the September 2012 OFPR audit report, the Pawhuska village received just over $857,000 from its rental lease with Osage Casino and its predecessor Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino for the period between November 2008 and July 2012.
The OFPR auditing staff attempted to audit the village finances earlier that year, but Mashunkashey, who was the Five-Man Board chairman at the time, declined to participate. In its report, the OFPR said Mashunkashey was the sole board member responsible for the village’s bank account at the time; that about $50,000 of village money was spent on residential electric bills (with over $12,244 for Mashunkashey’s own residence) and board meetings were not held regularly. Mashunkashey resigned less than a week after the OFPR report was released, apologized to the community and said that he repaid the money used for his electric bills back to the bank.
In wake of the OFPR report, the AG’s office launched an investigation to determine whether tribal charges are warranted. On Jan. 30, Attorney General Jeff Jones filed several counts of misuse of public funds charges in tribal court against each of the four men.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI also investigated the issue last year, but declined to file federal charges of embezzlement in the case.
On Feb. 13, all four men pled not guilty to the charges during their initial court appearances in front of Stepson.
Also in recent developments, two of the defendants have retained legal counsel to represent them.
On Feb. 28, Pawhuska attorney Bransford Shoemake, who is representing Brunt, filed a motion for discovery asking the court to require that Jones provide Shoemake with items including witness statements, statements made by the accused or co-defendants, documents, photos, papers and other tangible objects that Jones intends to use for the trial.
On March 14, Tulsa attorney Gene Dennison filed an entry of appearance notifying the court he is representing Bills in his case.
Mashunkashey appeared in court in February accompanied by his attorney Trevor Reynolds of Tulsa.
According to Osage law, one charge of misusing public funds is punishable by a fine not to exceed $1,000, or by a jail term not to exceed one year, or by banishment for a period of 5-10 years – or any combination of the authorized punishments.
By
Benny Polacca
Original Publish Date: 2014-04-03 00:00:00