Federal Court Dismisses D.V. Offender’s Challenge to Revocation of Probation for Violation of Tribal Court Exclusion Order…With Concerns

Here are the materials in United States v. Nichols (D. S.D.):

44 Nichols Motion to Dismiss

45 US Response

49 DCT Order Denying Motion to Dismiss

An excerpt:

Steven Nichols, a non-Indian, was excluded from the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation. While his exclusion was in effect, he was seen driving on a public road within the reservation. Tribal officers stopped and detained him until an FBI agent arrived. The agent then arrested him for criminal trespass. Nichols claims that the tribe did not have the authority to ban him from using the road and that his federal trespass charge — built upon a tribal writ and order of exclusion — should be dismissed. Because (1) there exists latent factual issues that require an evidentiary foundation, (2)there has been no exhaustion of tribal remedies or any showing that some exception to the exhaustion prescription applies, and (3) there is no ambiguity in the language of the revocation petition as amended, Nichols’s dismissal motion must be denied, but without prejudice.