From Mountain Echo Newspaper, Fall River Mills, 7-17-07
http://www.mountainecho.com/index.html
July 17th, 2007
Latest Developments:
Editor: This message is to inform you of some of the latest developments in the leadership controversy currently surrounding the Pit River Tribal Council. You may reproduce our statement(s) in any manner you deem appropriate. If you do, all we ask in return is that you credit the source of your information -namely us.
SHASTA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: the Shasta County District Attorney is scheduled to meet with the corrupt Pit River Tribal Council on Tuesday July 17th.
ASSAULT AND BATTERY CHARGES AGAINST TRIBAL ADMINISTRATOR: This meeting is being held (supposedly) to determine if enough evidence exists to file charges of assault and battery against the tribe's administrator, Mr. Robert Boyce, for hitting Ms. Marena Martinez (the tribe's representative of the Hamawi Band of Pit River Indians.) in the face at a protest a few weeks ago. The incident of which we speak took place on the sidewalk in front of the Pit River tribal headquarters building on Main Street.
A PRO-TRIBAL COUNCIL LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMUNITY: The Burney police have refused to allow Ms. Martinez and eyewitnesses to the incident to file formal complaints against Boyce. The police told the protesters that the cops in Burney are "tired of you protesters coming up here from Sacramento all the time and causing trouble in our town." In addition, the District attorney has let it be known that he has a supremely low opinion of the dissident tribal members and all the commotion they are causing in Burney in their quest to hold the Pit River Tribal Council accountable for the massive waste, fraud, intimidation, and mismanagement that it is committing upon its own people.
TWIN MEETINGS TO TAKE PLACE AROUND THE ISSUE: Marina Martinez has called for a meeting of the assembled Hamawi Band of Pit River people to take place simultaneously with the conference between the tribal council and the district attorney. This gathering is being sponsored to let the members know what's happening at Pit River, and why. It will also give tribal members a chance to ask tribal "leaders" why the council is going to such extraordinary lengths to shield Robert Boyce from assault-and-battery charges in open court.
WHO GETS BARRED –AND WHO DOESN’T: It is not known at this time if the tribal council intends to bar Ms. Martinez (as the true and legitimate representative of the Hamawi Band and as the complainant against administrator Robert Boyce) and the Hamawi Band: and the Shadley Family: and the Silent No More protesters: and the representatives of the area print/broadcast media: and observers from the Affiliated Obsidian Nation from the meeting next Tuesday.
COVERING EACH OTHERS’ ASSES: The tribal council could claim that the meeting needs to take place in "closed session," and that -as such, only the council and the D.A. get to take part in it. The council could do this -legally, and get away with it. But doing so would be a supremely dumb move on the council's part. Why? Because it would give observers the impression that the council was conducting its’ business (once again) behind closed doors and in secret.
LETTING BOYCE OFF THE HOOK: After the meeting was over, the D.A. could declare that not enough evidence exists to charge Boyce with anything. (The people in our circle are going to be surprised, if he doesn't.) If he does, it would only make a total mockery of this entire, mixed-up mess. He would be basing his determination to do so on (what technically qualifies as) a falsified government document –this document being the very highly controversial videotape described in the paragraphs below.
THEIR EVIDENCE IS RIDDLED WITH LIES: The tribal council (in the form of council member Matt Elmore) is in possession of a videotape taken of the assault-and-battery incident outside tribal headquarters. It is footage from this same videotape that the council intends to present to the district attorney for review, next Tuesday. This meeting, and the viewing of the videotape that's going to go along with it, is going to generate a LOT of fireworks in the near future; legally as well as politically. Why is this so? Because both the Pit River Tribal Council and the Shasta County District Attorney are ignoring Silent No Mores’ very strenuous assertion that the videotape in question is nothing but a fraud.
THE WIZARD OF ELMORE TAPE: The tape is a blatant fraud because it was altered from its original form before it ever made it into the hands of the Burney police. Who altered it? Matt Elmore did. He did this in the moments immediately prior to the cops' arrival at tribal headquarters, on the day of the incident. Protesters on the scene watched Elmore through the buildings' plate-glass windows as he tampered with the video-surveillance equipment attached to the mini-camera that covers the buildings’ front entrance. The cops showed up soon afterward, at which time they were then treated to a fraudulent cut-and-paste video production courtesy of one of the principal "leaders" of the Pit River Tribal Council.
YOU GUYS HAVE GOT THE STORY BACKWARD: In the days following the incident on Main Street, the tribal council and the cops told representatives of the Silent No More People's Protest that -according to what they'd both seen on the tape, it was actually a woman from the protesters' own circle (identified as Mrs. Rosa Martinez, -Marena Martinezs' sister) who committed an assault-and-battery upon Administrator Robert Boyce, -not the other way around!
NO BLOOD, NO STAIN; -NOW GO HOME: The cops went on to say that there was nothing on the tape to indicate that Boyce had committed an "assault" or a "battery" upon anyone. For this reason, -they said, they would not be filing any charges against him.
YES, WE HAVE CLOSED OUR EYES: The tribal council responded in kind soon afterward by passing an (illegal) resolution to remove Marena Martinez from her position as a member of the Pit River Tribal Council In taking this retaliatory action, they overlooked the very serious fact that an employee of a tribal government of a Federally Recognized Indian Tribe had physically attacked a fellow tribal council member -a woman, on Main Street, in broad daylight, in an assault witnessed by at least a half dozen people.
TAKING IT TO A HIGHER LEVEL: If -in the wake of the July 17th meeting with the tribal council, the Shasta County District Attorney refuses to bring assault-and-battery charges against Robert Boyce, Silent No More says it will take it's complaint against Boyce and the Pit River Tribal Council to the California Attorney General's office. We of the Affiliated Obsidian Nation stand in total solidarity with our brothers and sisters of Silent No More. We consider it an honor to support them in their protest against the Pit River Tribal Council. If Silent No More files a complaint with the attorney generals office, we will support them with every means at our disposal.
MARTINEZ SAYS 'NO, IT'S NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL': Instead, the tribal council took the coward's way out of the mess: in an appalling example of Groupthink Gone Wild, it's members voted to strip Marena Martinez of her position as the official representative of the Hamawi Band of Pit River people. In the days following the council's action, Ms. Martinez told the council that it has no legal authority to remove her as the representative of the Hamawi Band. She told the council in an open meeting that until the band itself asks her to step down as its' representative, she will continue to attend all tribal Pit River Tribal Council meetings -and to speak out when
necessary, on the Hamawi peoples’ behalf.
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