Court Cases | Felon re-arrested for escape from halfway house

LOS ANGELES

A Tuba City man convicted in 2020 for being a felon in possession of a firearm is now back in federal custody after escaping from a halfway house.

Ricky Attakai was convicted in November 2020 of being in possession of a firearm he had purchased by mail knowing that he had already been convicted of first-degree burglary.

He had been released under supervised probation in February 2020 and was still on probation when he was arrested on the new charge.

He entered a plea agreement and on Feb. 11, 2021, was ordered to serve an additional two years followed by three years of supervised release.

In November of 2021, he was released from prison and ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence at a Flagstaff re-entry center.

On Jan. 5, 2022, he received his daily work release to go to his job at the UACI Automotive Whitehall Industries. He did not show up for work that day and failed to report back to the center and escape procedures were put in place.

Attakai was arrested on Feb. 18 in Tuba City by Navajo Police who were responding to a domestic violence call. He is currently being held at the Coconino County Detention Center.

Navajo Nation removed from lawsuit

A federal judge has removed the Navajo Nation in a lawsuit involving a tribal corrections officer that ended with a driver being killed and a former jail inmate receiving serious injuries.

Plaintiffs in the suit are Roland Blackgoat Sr., Angeline Oshley and Ramona Hatalie. Besides the Navajo Nation, other defendants were the U.S. and Savannah Salabye, who later was dismissed from the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Arizona federal district court in September 2021, Salabye was transporting Blackgoat from the Kayenta jail to the Window Rock jail on February 2019 when she struck the rear end of a Pontiac Grand Am.

As a result of the accident, Blackgoat was injured and Melissa Mustache, a passenger in the Grand Am, was killed.

Oshley and Hatalie are the surviving children of Mustache.

The lawsuit claims that Salabye was traveling a high rate of speed when the accident occurred. The Grande Am had stopped in the eastbound lane on Navajo Route 59 near Rough Rock, Arizona.

Blackgoat received a number of injuries in the accident, including a left tibia fracture, a separate proximal tibia fracture that extended to the tibial spring spine, lacerations to his eyebrow, forehead and mouth, back neck pain and a frontal cephalohematoma. He also lost consciousness.

The federal government was listed as a defendant since it provides funding for the tribe’s correction department.

In the court order dismissing the Navajo Nation as a defendant, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich said the two sides stipulated to the dismissal.

This leaves the federal government as the only defendant and federal attorneys have filed a motion asking for a dismissal based on a claim of lack of jurisdiction.

Man arrested at Glen Canyon Overlook

Ezekiel Begay, 40, of Page, Arizona, was arrested on a federal warrant last week after he got involved in an altercation at the Glen Canyon Overlook.

According to court records, rangers were dispatched to the overlook on Feb. 22 because of a report that a man dressed all in black was causing a disturbance.

They found Begay, who was reported to be highly intoxicated.

As they were headed to the overlook, the rangers were told that there was a felony warrant out for Begay’s arrest.

When they arrived at the scene, they were told that Begay had been wandering around the area for some time yelling and screaming.

The rangers had no problem finding Begay who began to walk toward one of the rangers, saying, “Let’s go, baby.”

When he refused to stop, the ranger pulled out his taser and threatened to use it. Begay then complied with the ranger’s command.

When he was asked why he punched the mirror off his mother’s car, he replied, “Look, look at my chest.”

Since his eyes were red and he was slurring his words, he was given a breathalizer test and posted a .336, more than four times the legal limit.

A check of his records showed he had a pending case with the Arizona Department of Corrections.

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