National Roundup

Mississippi Native American tribe sues over raid TUPELO, Miss. (AP) -- A Washington state Native American tribe is suing several Mississippi municipalities over allegations that their law enforcement officials illegally invaded tribal lands during an FBI-led raid earlier this year. The target of the Feb. 16 search was property that belongs to King Mountain Tobacco, which was under federal investigation in a black-market cigarette conspiracy. The city of Tupelo and Marshall County in Mississippi are among targets in the lawsuit. The Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakama Nation claim police barged onto tribal land without prior notice and invaded their peace. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Washington, seeks a court order compelling the defendants to notify the tribe of any entry onto reservation lands. News of the lawsuit came Friday in a city of Tupelo memo obtained by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. In it, the city's attorney, John Hill, asked City Clerk Glenda Muse to put on the City Council's July 19 agenda a proposal to hire a Washington State law firm to represent Tupelo. In Hill's memo, he explains that a Tupelo police officer has been assisting federal authorities with the cigarette investigation and participated "in an action" on the Yakama reservation in Washington. Other Mississippi entities are named for similar reasons. The tribe says the raid, which it calls an invasion, was a violation of the Yakama Treaty of 1855 and other federal laws. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said in a memo written June 22 that the warrant to search the eastern Washington state reservation "was to seek evidence of a crime, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed" or used in the commission of a crime. In this case, the allegations claim King Mountain Tobacco, housed on the Yakama reservation, engaged in efforts to avoid federal and state taxes on their cigarette sales. Documents obtained by the Daily Journal earlier this year claim King Mountain Tobacco officials repeatedly met with Lee County, Miss., cigarette warehousers and illegally shipped their products through Mississippi to avoid the taxes. No criminal charges have been made public against any King Mountain Tobacco officials, although the federal documents claim they have been shown substantial evidence against them. Recently the U.S. Attorney's Office in North Mississippi filed court papers to seize nearly $1 million and some 22 vintage vehicles reportedly purchased with the proceeds of King Mountain's alleged illegal activity. Tupelo wholesaler Jerry Burke has gone to prison for his parts in the conspiracy, and others have been sentenced or await sentencing for their guilty pleas. Arkansas Suspect in soldier slaying wants no lawyers LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A man charged with killing a soldier outside an Arkansas military recruiting center two years ago is trying to fire his lawyers. Abdulhakim Muhammad sat in the courtroom Monday morning while Judge Herbert Wright and defense lawyers discussed whether the suspect can represent himself. Wright said he did not believe Muhammad is competent to serve as his own lawyer. Muhammad could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Pvt. William Andrew Long. Muhammad told The Associated Press a week after the killing he killed Long and injured another soldier in retaliation for the U.S. military action in the Middle East. Long's mother is to testify, as is the injured soldier and Muhammad's father. Jury selection has been held up while the lawyers and the judge discuss Muhammad's mental state. North Carolina Man charged after woman's body found in trunk CLIFTON FORGE, Va. (AP) -- A North Carolina man faces homicide and fugitive from justice charges after police in western Virginia discovered a woman's body in his car's trunk. Clifton Forge, Va., police arrested 19-year-old Enrico Luciano Mascaro, of Nags Head, on Friday after he returned to his parked 1996 Mustang. Chief Barry Balser said police found the body when they searched the trunk. The victim's name hasn't been released. A Monday arraignment on the fugitive charge was postponed until 2 p.m. Tuesday in Alleghany County General District Court. Mascaro was expected to be extradited to Kitty Hawk, N.C. Kitty Hawk police had issued a nationwide alert for Mascaro and 18-year-old Danielle Dennis-Towne of Steger, Ill., after finding a crime scene. Police used cell phone towers to track the Mustang to Clifton Forge. Louisiana Juror excused from Katrina shootings trial NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- One of the jurors hearing the case against five current or former police officers charged in the deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina was excused Monday, more than three weeks into the trial, because she is related to the wife of one of the defendants. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt granted a request by federal prosecutors to excuse the woman from the 12-person jury. She was replaced by one of four alternates when the trial resumed. Prosecutors said the woman, "due to no wrongdoing on her part or by any party," learned during the trial that she was related to a defendant's wife. A court filing Monday by prosecutors doesn't name the defendant or specify how the juror is "closely related" to the officer's wife. It wasn't immediately clear when -- or how -- Engelhardt and the attorneys learned the woman was related by marriage to the defendant. The trial entered its fourth week with testimony from an FBI agent who investigated the Danziger Bridge shootings, which killed two people and wounded four others less than a week after the 2005 storm. Police are accused of shooting unarmed, wounded residents on the bridge as they responded to an officer's distress call. Officers also allegedly plotted to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports to make the shootings appear justified. Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case this week, possibly as early as Monday, before defense attorneys start calling witnesses. Published: Tue, Jul 19, 2011