Ethics office ramping up enforcement

The most frustrating part of working for the Navajo Nation Ethics and Rules Office has to be trying to get people to make restitution when they are found guilty of stealing money from the tribe or their local chapter.

That's the verdict of Lawrence John, director of the office, and Lynn White, the office's lead prosecutor and investigator, who have been bringing cases against corrupt elected officials for the past two years.

Almost all of the cases they have handled deal with corruption within the chapter governments.

Figures supplied by the office show that a total of $364,883.76 is currently owed to the tribe by 26 people. Only a couple of them are actually making payments, White said.

The office gives people who plead guilty, or are convicted after a hearing by the tribe's Ethics and Rules Committee, reasonable terms to make good on their debt to fellow tribal members.

Tribal and chapter officials who steal money don't go to jail, and usually they aren't permanently barred from employment with the tribal government. They have the opportunity to pay off their debt over time. They can even do it through a payroll deduction.

Nevertheless, many do not make even one payment, John said. Others make the first couple of payments, and then stop.

Offenders who get another job with the tribe or somewhere else with a regular salary, can be pursued through wage garnishment proceedings.

But over the years, dozens of people have just refused to pay, hoping the tribe won't push the issue.

That hope may be short-lived, however.

White said her office is planning to go after offenders who have not been paying their debt despite having assets and income. She will file "show cause" motions before the Ethics and Rules Committee, requiring them to explain why they have not been repaying the money they stole, as they promised.

White said the committee could issue another sanction increasing the amount of money to be paid, and if that doesn't work, the Ethics and Rules office could file a different "show cause" motion in tribal court.

John said that in some cases, the amounts stolen were substantial.

"There's a case in Tuba City where a school board official paid himself $55,000," John said.

That person is Keith Barlow, who was on the school board for Grey Hills Academy.

Another case in Ramah involved $63,000 that was embezzled by a chapter official, Shirley Adakai.

The Ethics and Rules Office gets between 300 and 400 inquiries a year, John said. He reviews each one and makes a decision within 10 days whether it merits a closer look.

The great majority - 80 to 90 percent - are referred to other agencies for investigation, John said. The ethics office takes about 40 cases a year for investigation with about 10 resulting in prosecution.

While the cases that get the most attention in the media are those accusing chapter or tribal officials of embezzlement, the office looks at a wide variety of ethical violations, including nepotism and misuse of influence.

One upcoming case, scheduled to go before the Ethics and Rules Committee Sept. 10, involves Peter Deswood Jr., community service coordinator for Shiprock Chapter.

The charges stem from a June 16, 2008, letter Deswood sent to chapter officials notifying them that he planned to use his own tractor for a chapter project. The letter made no mention of payment.

On Dec. 18, he issued himself a Shiprock Chapter check for $2,000 and then four days later submitted an invoice to the chapter to cover the payment.

Deswood is also accused of issuing a check for $1,284 on the chapter account to his son, Kevin Deswood, for painting the interior of the chapter house, a job that was never put out for bid or advertised to the public, ethics officials say.

As a penalty, the ethics office wants Peter Deswood to reimburse the chapter for both payments and to be banned from running for public office and tribal employment for five years.

Another case that was just filed by the office involves Carolyn Calvin, public information officer for the Navajo Nation Program for Self-Reliance, who is accused of downloading video processing software - which enables a person to make bootleg copies of movies, concerts, etc., on DVD.

This is a first for the ethics office. White said normally misuse of a tribal computer would be handled by the personnel office as a violation of personnel policy.

The distinction here is that Calvin had been caught once and was warned not to do it, but continued, which brought the violation up to a level that needed to be addressed by the ethics office, John said.

The ethics investigator obtained a search warrant from tribal court and confiscated her NNPSR computer. The tribal auditor general's office conducted a forensic analysis of the computer and found 368 files and folders related to movie videos, as well as six folders containing movie videos.

Calvin is also accused of using program funds to purchase some of the software that she used to download the movies.

Most of the movies were mainstream features from Hollywood but the titles found by tribal investigators included several independent films made by or about Navajos, such as "Mile Post 398" and "Blue Gap Boyz."

Bootleg copies of the Navajo films can always be found at local flea markets, prompting the filmmakers to press for a tribal law outlawing the practice as theft of intellectual property. They point out that their films are all or largely self-financed, were shot on a shoestring budget, and the proceeds from one film are needed to finance their next projects.

People who download the films illegally, or worse, make and sell bootleg copies, prevent the filmmakers from recovering their costs and starting new films, note filmmakers such as Shonie De La Rosa, producer of "Mile Post 398."

The complaint against Calvin is the first hinting at movie bootlegging by a tribal official, but the practice is rumored to be occurring in many tribal programs.

The ethics office is not seeking monetary reimbursement in Calvin's case but is asking that she be terminated, banned from tribal employment for five years, and required to write an apology to the Program for Self-Reliance.

Both John and White said they view their job as deterring officials who want to take advantage of their position for personal gain. By doing their job effectively, John hopes to cause some people second thoughts about ripping off the tribe or their chapter.

"I think a lot of people just don't think they will be caught," White said.

Back to top ^