U.S. Is Penalized by Judge In Indian Trust Fund Case
 
Government Is Told to Pay for Using Delay Tactics 

By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, March 30, 2002 


A federal judge yesterday ordered the government to pay attorney fees and 
other expenses to Indian plaintiffs as sanctions for government legal 
tactics used in combating a six-year lawsuit over the management of an 
Indian trust fund.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered the Interior Department to 
pay 75 percent of the costs incurred by the Native American Rights Fund 
(NARF) and other plaintiffs for having to file court motions relating to 
two small parts of the sprawling lawsuit.

One part of the sanctions relates to a government request for a protective 
order that the court later held to be baseless. The second was for 
government requests for clarifications about what e-mails it was to 
produce to the court. The court held that those requests were intentional 
delays.

The total cost of the sanctions was not clear yesterday, as the Indian 
plaintiffs have 30 days to file their expenses and fees. But a lawyer for 
the plaintiffs said it would be less than the $600,000 in sanctions the 
judge imposed earlier in the case, after finding in February 1999 that the 
secretaries of the interior and the Treasury were in contempt of court. 

"This order is another demonstration that the court sees a pattern and 
practice of government obfuscation and problematic litigation tactics," 
said Keith Harper, an attorney with the NARF. "It's more evidence of why 
we can't trust government to tell the truth or follow court orders in this 
case."

Lamberth's orders were released late yesterday. John Wright, a spokesman 
for the Interior Department, said the department had not had a chance to 
review the papers.

"It would be premature for us to comment on orders we haven't seen," 
Wright said.

In another order issued yesterday, Lamberth absolved Interior Department 
officials from charges that they retaliated against a whistle-blower who 
had given depositions that an expensive new computer system that was 
designed to overhaul the troubled trust fund was failing. That employee, 
Mona Infield, was working at the Albuquerque branch of the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs. In 2000, she was ordered to stay home on paid administrative 
leave, after refusing to move to a new records branch being opened in 
Reston.

Lamberth ruled that the agency had adequately compensated Infield, but he 
cautioned that "the defendants should consider the prospect of future 
contempt proceedings before engaging in the type of behavior" that led to 
the charges.

The plaintiffs are suing the Interior Department for mismanaging a 
115-year-old trust fund for as many as 500,000 Native Americans. The trust 
fund distributes to shareholders as much as $500 million in annual revenue 
from the leasing of grazing, oil, mineral or timber rights on millions of 
acres of Indian-owned land.

More than a century of shoddy bookkeeping, lost files and complicated rules 
of ownership have left an unknown amount of money missing. The Indian 
plaintiffs estimate the amount to be as much as $10 billion; the government 
estimates it to be far less.

Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton and a top deputy in the department are 
facing contempt charges on allegations that they covered up or lied to the 
court about the failures of the new computer system.

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