Tama County Magistrate Richard Vander Mey

By John Speer

Editor

jspeer@ttamatoledonews.com

Tama County Magistrate Richard Vander Mey is standing by his earlier ruling the State of Iowa does not have jurisdiction in criminal cases occurring on the Meskwaki Settlement. He also urged any court review to address law enforcement jurisdiction on the Settlement, as well.

In a decision filed on Jan. 14, Magistrate Vander Mey dismissed a trio of cases against a Cedar Rapids women who faced charges filed by Meskwaki Nation Tribal Police.

Court records show Rose Lee Beranek, 37, was accused of 2nd and 5th degree theft and a controlled substance violation. Meskwaki Police allege she was in possession of a stolen 2007 Chevy Tahoe, a stolen license plate and possession of what was identified as a white crystallized substance on Dec. 24 of last year. Beranek was arrested and taken to jail.

The ruling says assistant Iowa Attorney General Peter Grady presented testimony from arresting Meskwaki Police Officer Lee Simcox concerning the race of Beranek. Grady was recently appointed by Attorney General Tom Miller to prosecute Meskwaki Settlement cases in Iowa courts.

In a motion to dismiss the charges, Beranek’s public defender, Scott Hunter, argued the state had no evidence to prove the defendant is a non-Native American. He contends the prosecution must prove both the defendant and victim are non-Native American for the state to prosecute crimes which allegedly occur on the Settlement.

In his seven-page ruling, Magistrate Vander Mey agreed, dismissing the charges.

“He charges, “No guidance has been given to lower Courts as to who is an Indian and who is not an Indian under Iowa state laws.”

“…this is a rather lengthy decision for a low-level Magistrate to write but I wanted to set forth as completely as possible the facts and circumstances of the law which I considered in this case…” Vander Mey wrote as part of his conclusion to the decision.

Background

In 1948, the U.S. Congress had turned over all Settlement jurisdiction to the State of Iowa.

Federal legislation passed by Congress in November, 2018, and signed by President Trump in December of that year made the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in iowa (Meskwaki Tribe) responsible for law enforcement matters on their Settlement.

In September, 2019, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled on an earlier case involving a Marshalltown woman which Vander Mey also had dismissed. That case, involving Jessica Stanton, is now back in court.

Then, Vander Mey wrote “Federal legislation was recently enacted which removed state jurisdiction for crimes committed on the Settlement,” Vander Mey wrote in the order. “The understanding of the undersigned is that this lack of state jurisdiction prohibits tribal officers, as well as other Iowa peace officers, from initiating state criminal charges for conduct on the Settlement regardless of the race or ethnic background of any potential defendant.”

The Supreme Court said at that time the it “left undisturbed” state court criminal jurisdiction involving criminal acts involving non-Indians existing prior to the passage of the 1948 Act.” In 1948, the U.S. Congress had turned over all Settlement jurisdiction to the State of Iowa.

Just after passage, Meskwaki Attorney General Jay Finch wrote Tama County Sheriff Dennis Kucera on Dec. 13, 2018, requesting him to instruct his officers to not enter the Meskwaki Settlement without permission or unless invited by Meskwaki Tribal Police.

He wrote the sheriff’s office had no jurisdiction to serve state subpoenas on the Settlement “unless tribal code is followed” and the sheriff’s office can no longer arrest a native person on the Settlement who has an outstanding state or federal warrant.

He also wrote search warrants can only be served if drafted as a search warrant by a tribal prosecutor and, “In all cases, all future search warrants will be carried out by the Meskwaki Nation Police Department.” Similarly, only Meskwaki Police can make arrests on outstanding warrants.

Since then, any mutual aid agreements between Tribal Police and other local law enforcement including the sheriff’s office, Toledo and Tama police departments have not been executed.

As reported in the Jan. 10 issue of the Tama News-Herald, Sheriff Kucera, and Police Chiefs Nathan Shepard and Justin Bina have said their officers will certainly make response in the case of emergency assistance sought by Meskwaki Police, however.