Mon August 27, 2001 20:04 EDT 
    
Plaintiffs press judge to hold Norton, other government officials in 
contempt 
 
ROBERT GEHRKE 
 
Associated Press Writer 
 
 
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A judge is being pressed to find Interior Secretary 
Gale Norton and other officials in contempt for allegedly misrepresenting 
their efforts to fix a trust fund that squandered royalties from American 
Indian lands. 

``Defendants have participated in a pattern and practice of deception and 
cover-up, repeatedly violated court orders, intimidated witnesses, 
destroyed ... trust documents and data, and have filed innumerable 
frivolous motions,'' the plaintiffs said Monday in the contempt request 
to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. 

Lamberth is presiding in the class-action lawsuit filed in 1996 on behalf 
of 300,000 American Indians claiming the government mismanaged at least 
$10 billion from the trust accounts. The fund was established in 1887 to 
manage royalties from grazing, logging, mining and oil drilling on Indian 
lands. 

``Since this case has been filed, tens of thousands of individual Indian 
beneficiaries have died,'' the motion said. ``They will never know a just 
resolution to this case.'' 

The plaintiffs cited two reports by court-appointed investigator Joseph 
S. Kieffer III that said Interior officials dragged their feet and misled 
the court into believing the department was making progress toward trust 
fund reform. 

``These actions constitute an unprecedented fraud on the district court 
and the court of appeals that plainly have undermined the integrity of 
this judicial proceeding,'' wrote the plaintiffs' attorney, Dennis Gingold. 

The motion seeks a contempt finding against Norton, Assistant Secretary 
for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb, their predecessors in the Clinton 
administration _ Bruce Babbitt and Kevin Gover _ and various government 
attorneys. 

Interior spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna had not seen the motion filed late 
Monday and could not comment. 

``We are looking to the future and are in the process of implementing a 
number of ways to make the trust fund reform effort more accountable and 
more streamlined,'' she said. 

The plaintiffs also asked Lamberth to order the Interior Department to 
complete by Oct. 19 a historical accounting of the trust fund to 
determine how much was lost. The plaintiffs want a trial on the amount 
owed by the government to begin early next year. 

In Kieffer's first report, he wrote that the Interior Department had not 
made any progress toward that historical accounting since Lamberth first 
ordered it more than 18 months ago. 

Monday's motion was the fourth time that the plaintiffs have asked the 
judge to hold Norton in contempt. Other motions have alleged retaliation 
against a whistle-blower and the failure to stop the destruction of 
documents relating to the case. 

Hearings on the motions have not been set. 

In 1999, Lamberth held Babbitt and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin 
in contempt and fined them more than $600,000 for failing to turn over 
documents related to the case. 

At a hearing in April, Lamberth said he was willing to take the same steps 
if the government doesn't cooperate with the court. 

``I don't want it to come to that again, but I am prepared to do what is 
necessary to get trust reform accomplished,'' said Lamberth.