by Clara NiiSka

On October 22, 1997, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe held a public meeting in a hotel meeting room at the Grand Casino complex in Mille Lacs.  Press/ON reporter Jeff Armstrong was assigned to cover the meeting, but he was arrested shortly before it was scheduled to begin.  He was escorted out of the meeting room by tribal police officer Marc Garbinger, who publicly frisked and handcuffed Armstrong in the hotel lobby, then drove him to the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Department thirty-four miles away in Milaca, Minnesota.  Armstrong was detained in the Mille Lacs County Jail until the meeting was over, then he was released from custody and charged with criminal trespass under Minnesota Statutes.  The trespass charges against Armstrong were dismissed six months later by an Order of the Mille Lacs County District Court.

Jeff Armstrong and Press/ON publisher Bill Lawrence then instituted a civil suit in Federal Court, for false arrest, false imprisonment, defamation, and deprivation of rights secured by the First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteen amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

On August 2, 2000, the U.S. Magistrate Judge hearing the case, Raymond L. Erickson, ordered federal court proceedings stayed until the Mille Lacs tribal court was given an opportunity to determine whether or not it had jurisdiction over the dispute.  Armstrong and Lawrence, representing themselves (“pro se”), are both arguing that the Mille Lacs tribal court does not have jurisdiction over the case.

Bill Lawrence’s “Motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction” and “Memorandum” in support of his motion are reproduced in this week’s issue of Press/ON, beginning on page 4.  Jeff Armstrong filed a separate Motion to Dismiss with the Mille Lacs tribal court on May 24.  Oral arguments on the Motions to Dismiss are scheduled for August 23, 2001, at 9:00 a.m., at the Mille Lacs tribal court, located at the Mille Lacs Tribal Headquarters on the Mille Lacs reservation.