Motion in Kickapoo lawsuit requests judge be recused from hearing case
The attorney for embattled Kickapoo tribal leaders beset with a lawsuit claiming they misused public money wants the Kickapoo district judge barred from hearing the case and an opinion from the tribe’s Supreme Court rejected.
Representing former tribal chairman Clifford “Steve” Cadue and former tribal treasurer Bobbi Darnell, Lawrence lawyer Napoleon Crews filed a motion last week in the tribe’s district court to recuse Kickapoo Tribal District Court Judge C. Steven Hager from deciding whether the pair purposefully doctored meeting minutes to hide a failing budget.
A second motion seeks to set aside a Kickapoo Supreme Court’s order to deny appeal because one justice, Judge Lisa Otipoby-Herbert, previously acted as attorney for current tribal chairman Lester Randall. Both motions claim the judges cannot act impartially.
New motions
Hager hasn’t been willing to rule against the tribe, Crews said, because his immediate supervisor is Randall, who filed the original lawsuit against the former Kickapoo leaders pro se, or on one’s own behalf. As chairman of the tribal council, Randall is Hager’s immediate supervisor, according to the motions.
Read more: http://cjonline.com/news/2016-08-22/motion-kickapoo-lawsuit-requests-judge-be-recused-hearing-case#
