FYI - We need to be informed. Kalyn Free shared Choctaws Risings post. 10 mins . Choctaws Rising Batton will take the stand at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning. We had more than 30 Choctaws in court today and several more will be joining us tomorrow. Former federal Judge Mike Burrage testified today and here are the highlights: (1) He graduated from law school in 1974 and, with the exception of the 7 years he served on the federal bench from 1994 – 2001, he has represented the Choctaw Nation from 1974 to the present; (2) Bob Rabon, Non Indian attorney who has represented the tribe for nearly 40 years called Burrage and asked him to look into all this; (3) Burrage wrote a letter to the U.S. Attorney, Defendant’s Ex 1, on May 9, 2013, and said that on 10-18-12 Pyle had donated $234,825 to charities and Batton had donated $27,500 to charities. The $234,825 donations represented the amount of donations to Pyle’s campaign account from Builders Steel and Flintco during a two year period of time and the $27,500 was what “Batton thought was the value of the gifts he had received” during that time. Note: The FBI first interviewed Merida on September 13, 2012, one month before these “donations” were made. Chief Pyle of Money took the stand at 2:15 and testified for about 2.5 hours. Pyle gave the following testimony: (1) He doesn’t know how much money he made at the trail rides, auctions or golf tournaments and had two events each year, one trail ride and one golf tournament; (2) there is no voter registration list; (3) Doesn’t know how much was in the campaign war chest when he resigned, but whatever it was he gave to Batton; (4) Merida didn’t have the authority to purchase the steel – Batton and Pyle approved the purchase; (5) He thought that the $50,000 dinner looked “odd” but he didn’t offer to give Builders Steel their money back because they “never asked for it back.”; (6) He never received gifts from the auction like TVs, radios, lawnmowers etc.’ (7) he “scattered” his campaign accounts around different banks; (8) Judy Allen, editor of the Biskinik, knows all about the accounts, she writes the checks; (9) there are no tribal laws that make the chief report his donations and expenditures; (10) other contractors and vendors wrote campaign donations to Pyle besides BS and Flintco. Comments: Pyle and Burrage testified about the money that BS and Flintco gave in donations during a two-year period of time, no questions were asked about their donations during the other 15 years of Pyle’s reign. Why didn’t Pyle pay that money “back” as well? Janie Dillard testified that the trail ride alone raised at least $100,000 each year, multiplied by 15 that is $1.5 million – where’s the money? Did Batton get all of that? Was any of this money converted to Pyle’s personal use? Many more questions left unanswered. Looking forward to Batton clearing all of this misunderstanding up for us tomorrow!
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 05:08:05 +0000
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