Begay argues that slush money that went to family was not a crime

Posted by Bill Donovan | Mar 24, 2016 | Politics |

WINDOW ROCK

Mel Begay

The case against Mel Begay went to the jury late Wednesday with special prosecutors for the tribe arguing that Begay was guilty of fraud when he gave his children some 60 checks totaling $33,000 from the tribal discretionary fund.

Begay’s attorney Jeffrey Rasmussen, however, continued to argue that what Begay did was not a crime and that the tribe’s case was based on assumptions and not evidence.

During the four and a half days of testimony, the lead prosecutor Mark Lowry, portrayed Begay, who is currently a member of the Navajo Nation Council representing Coyote Canyon, Mexican Springs, Naschitti, Tohatchi and Bahasti’a’a’, as taking advantage of a tribal financial program that really had no oversight.

In doing this, Lowry said, Begay took money that was “set aside for the poor and the elderly and gave it to his children.”

Begay’s family lived well, he said, sending three of their six children to private schools. They lived in a comfortable home.

One of the prosecution witnesses testified that Begay’s income in 2010 was about $63,000 and Lowry pointed out that Begay’s wife, Mitzie, also owned her own business.

Compare this, he said, to the per capita income of a Navajo family at that time, which one witness said was about $7,000 a year.

Lowry also concentrated on the falsehoods that took place in granting the money to his children.