St. Marks impeached again

Monday, after a little over a week of being sworn in as chairman, Ken Blatt St. Marks was handed legal papers Monday with a series of allegations the rest of the Chippewa Cree Business Committee are using to impeach him.

St. Marks has been impeached and removed from office multiple times since he was first elected in 2012. This is the third time they have removed him using the allegations, The first set contained eight allegations, the second set 10, and the most recent had 15.

A document sent to St. Marks reads that the Business Committee reached a decision to file charges against him for "neglect of duty and gross misconduct."

A meeting has been scheduled for March 2 at 10 a.m. at the Chippewa Cree Tribal Courts, and St. Marks has been ordered to call the meeting. As chairman, he must call any meeting.

"If you fail to call this meeting, the Business Committee will bring additional charges against you for your failure to follow constitutional procedures," the document reads.

The meeting will not be open to the public. If St. Marks attempts to bring in other people, the committee will call the meeting into executive session, the document said.

The last time he was involved in such a hearing a large group of St. Marks supporters showed up.

"This meeting shall provide you a full and fair opportunity to respond to all charges as required by the Constitution," the document reads.

St. Marks, during the last push to impeach him, said repeatedly that the impeachment efforts he is experiencing from the Business Committee are retaliation for his working with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office in the Guardians Project, which is investigating fraud and embezzlement in United States' tribal organizations. More than a dozen Rocky Boy residents and their off-reservation colleagues have been indicted.

St. Marks is being accused by the Business Committee of: violations of the constitution, hiring outside the rules of the committee bylaws, verbally assaulting numerous employees, making inappropriate sexual advances toward an employee, trading in two tribally-owned vehicle to purchase a $68,000 Cadillac Escalade, approving $2,000 payments to three people without going through the committee, using a tribally owned credit card for $890 in unauthorized purchases, falsely claiming that his construction company had completed their work on the North Central Pipeline, invoicing the tribe $490,800 for equipment rentals not authorized and then paying kickbacks to others, unlawfully terminating tribal judges, threatening and intimidating members of the Chippewa Cree judiciary system, harassing tribal employees, including those in the Finance Department to issue himself an unauthorized payment of $199,466.40, attempting to freeze the tribe's bank accounts and interfering in an ongoing bankruptcy proceeding of people who have defrauded the tribe.

"Each of your actions, individually and collectively, that resulted in these charges filed against you, may establish a knowing and willful violation of your legal duties to the Tribe, a lack of ethical responsibility, inappropriate professional conduct, and a callous disregard for the duties, responsibilities and obligations you assumed under oath upon your election," the legal document explaining the allegation reads.

The notice is signed by six of the seven active members of the committee. Committee member Dustin Whitford did not sign the notice.

Vice-chair Ricky Morsette, Ted Whitford, Ted Russette III, Gerald Small, Harlan Baker and Ted Demontiney signed it.

St. Marks, Ted Whitford, Morsette and Dustin Whitford did not return calls and messages this morning.

St. Marks said his lawyer is writing a press release for him that he will release today.