FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 21, 2002
www.indiantrust.com



COBELL PLAINTIFFS SEEK CONTEMPT SANCTIONS
FOR WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE

Norton, McCaleb and Seven Others Responsible for
"Rampant, Pervasive, Long-Standing" Practice


WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Cobell plaintiffs asked a federal judge today for 
additional contempt sanctions against Interior Secretary Gale Norton and 
senior Interior and Justice Department lawyers for destroying evidence 
in the Cobell case  and covering up the destruction.

Despite repeated court orders to preserve electronic records, including 
e-mails, Solicitor's Office lawyers at Interior "engaged in a pattern of 
overwriting (and thus destroying the data embedded in) e-mail back-up 
tapes" at Washington, D.C. headquarters as well as field and regional 
offices around the country, the plaintiffs charged in court papers filed 
late yesterday (3/20).

A court-appointed special master, Alan Balaran, concluded in a July 27, 
2001 report that the Interior officials had willfully and repeatedly 
destroyed the evidence and failed to inform U.S. District Judge Royce C. 
Lamberth, who is hearing the Cobell case. Government attorneys did not 
challenge Balaran's findings, which means the findings stand as admissions.

The contempt motion names Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian 
Affairs Neal McCaleb in their official capacity as named defendants in 
Cobell v. Norton, the class action aimed at cleaning up mismanagement of 
the individual Indian trust. It also names seven current and former 
Interior and DOJ lawyers: Lois Schiffer, James Simon, Phillip Brooks, 
Charles Findlay, Edith Blackwell, Ed Cohen and Willa Perlmutter.

Six of the seven also are part of a group of 39 officials and lawyers 
whom the plaintiffs moved to hold in contempt for obstructing trust 
reform and lying to the court. Judge Lamberth has asked that the 
plaintiffs move forward on those contempt charges.

Lamberth - angered by statements to Congress by Deputy Interior Secretary 
J. Steven Griles that the contempt charges are hindering trust reform - 
told the Indian plaintiffs last week to begin drawing up specific charges 
against the 39.

For more information, visit www.indiantrust.com

#####    


To subscribe to the Indian Trust mailing list, please 
paste the following link into your browser:
http://www.indiantrust.com/