Court orders protects documents, Balaran ends job: 'going fishing'
By Bill Donovan
Special to the Times
WINDOW ROCK, Oct. 10, 2011
It's an issue that seemingly didn't want to die even after Window Rock District Court Judge Carol Perry ruled in a hearing on Sept. 26 that no documents could be removed from the building.
Last Friday, Perry issued a formal order saying no documents could be taken out of the building or destroyed without the court's permission.
Tribal attorneys were still saying that Balaran was wasting the court's time since no one was making plans to destroy any of the documents, despite a president's office press release issued two weeks before saying that because of the closing of the building suspicions of mold, documents were going to be scanned and then destroyed.
The president's office issued a press release the day after the Sept. 26 hearing stating that information on the earlier press release was incorrect.
"All documents will be preserved according to Navajo Nation, federal or any other pertinent entities' record retention policies and procedures and any other applicable law," the release states.
Tribal officials at the Sept. 26 hearing had stated that because environmental officials were saying that it may be six months or more before the building could be re-opened, some employees wanted to get documents they would need to keep their offices running.
With Perry's order last Friday, tribal officials will now have to get the court's permission before any of these documents could be removed from the building.
As for Balaran, he said on Friday that he still feels his efforts to protect the records - some of which are needed in his civil prosecution of former and present tribal officials for misuse of discretionary funds - was justified.
He said he saw videos and has transcripts of meetings in which tribal officials responsible for investigating the possibility of mold in the building talked about the destruction of tribal documents after they were scanned.
He said he felt he had no recourse but to get the court order to make sure that whoever is appointed to replace him has the evidence they need to prosecute the case.
Balaran was still hoping for the court to appoint a special master to oversee the safety of the hundreds of thousands of financial records being stored in the building but Perry has not agreed to this request.
Assistant Attorney General Paul Spruhan, in a memo filed with the court last week, agreed that such a master was not needed and adding that the incident management team overseeing work in the building has the expertise to make sure that all of the documents are protected.
"The team demonstrated at the hearing (on Sept. 26) that it is acting with the utmost integrity and professionalism with no ulterior motive concerning the merits of the current civil case filed by the special prosecutor," he said.
Despite the fact that the tribe currently has no special prosecutor, the civil case against 77 members of the previous Council, former president Joe Shirley Jr., Controller Mark Grant, former attorney general Louis Denetsosie and current attorney general Harrison Tsosie continues.
It will be up to whoever is appointed the new special prosecutor to decide whether to proceed with the case, change the civil suit back to criminal cases or go in a different direction.
Officials for the attorney general's office have continued to hold meetings with the special district of the court set up to oversee the operations of the special prosecutor.
Perry noted that officials for the attorney general's office had indicated that a new special prosecutor may be appointed as early as this week. If that doesn't happen, she said she wanted a written report submitted to her by Oct. 7 to give a progress report.
As for Balaran, asked what his plans are now that he is no longer special prosecutor, a job he held for 18 months, he said, "I'm going fishing."