Keeswood v. Navajo Tribe & the Navajo Division of Public Safety

1 Navajo Rptr. 362
CourtNavajo Nation Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 9, 1978
StatusPublished

This text of 1 Navajo Rptr. 362 (Keeswood v. Navajo Tribe & the Navajo Division of Public Safety) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Navajo Nation Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keeswood v. Navajo Tribe & the Navajo Division of Public Safety, 1 Navajo Rptr. 362 (navajo 1978).

Opinion

JOHN, District Judge

This is a case of first impression in which the plaintiffs seek damages for false arrest and imprisonment, excessive force, and malicious prosecution. Named as defendants are various employees of the Navajo Division of Public Safety and the Chief Prosecutor of the Navajo Nation, and the Navajo Tribe.

On August 25, 1976, plaintiffs and several others were gathered at the vicinity of the Navajo Tribal Council Chambers during the debate of the Council on the highly controversial Coal Gasification Resolution. Their purpose was to express, to the governing body [363]*363of the Navajo Tribal Government, opposition to the gasification measure. According to testimony, a day prior several persons had occupied the seats of tribal councilmen and prevented the Council from convening; however, it was not established if the named plaintiffs were among those involved and none were arrested.

Plaintiffs had arrived in Window Rock from Shiprock and other areas during the morning and continued to gather in large numbers around the vicinity of the Tribal Council Chambers. During the afternoon the number of people began to decline until there were only a small number of people left, and the remainder of the demonstrators were peaceful.

Sometime during the afternoon Navajo police assigned to the Tribal Chambers were reinforced and formed a cordon line in front of the Chamber to prevent the demonstrators from entering if an attempt to enter should be made; it was during this time plaintiff, Mary Joe Wallace, taunted the officers with a "cane". The Council was in session during this episode. The time is not specific but according to testimony sometime between 5:00 and 6:00 the sound of shattering glass and the uproar of the crowd was heard in front of the Tribal Council Chambers which resulted in the abrupt adjournment of the Council.

After the adjournment of the Council, police were summoned to the rear of the Council Chambers and they assembled into two squads. One squad was instructed to open the rear doors to the police panel wagons and the other squad instructed to arrest those demon[364]*364strators not obeying the order to disperse.

After the formation of the two squads, an order to disperse was given in Navajo and English languages through a voice amplifier known as a "voice box". When the demonstrators did not obey the command to disperse (the demonstrators were given five minutes to disperse) the police moved in and proceeded to make arrests of anyone remaining in the vicinity of the Council Chambers including those leaving.

The named plaintiffs were arrested at various locations in the vicinity of the Council Chambers without warrants. All of the plaintiffs except Edward Smith were arrested and detained in excess of twenty-four (24) hours. Edward Smith, a juvenile, was taken to Hogan Hozhoni.

After the arrests were made, plaintiffs were booked, fingerprinted and "mugged". Criminal charges were later filed by the arresting officers and at a subsequent hearing on these criminal charges a disposition was made by the Window Rock District Court in favor of the plaintiffs. As a result, plaintiffs are suing for damages for false arrest, false imprisonment, and use of unnecessary force by police in affecting the arrests. Defendants answered denying various allegations made by plaintiffs but admitted to the fact that criminal charges were brought against plaintiffs but were not successful as they were adjudicated in favor of plaintiffs. Defendants affirmatively plead that the Indian Civil Rights Act and 1 N.T.C. §§ 1,4,6, and 8 provide [365]*365for a cause of action only against the Tribe and not employees of the Tribe in individual capacities; the Navajo Tribal Prosecutor is immune from liability in that he acted within the scope of his duties; the officers reasonably believed that a crime had been committed and were privileged to arrest plaintiffs. Additionally, defendants filed a counterclaim but this was later waived by defendants and need not be considered in this opinion.

During the preliminary hearing, defendant, Navajo Tribe, moved to be dismissed raising the defense of sovereign immunity and argued it cannot be sued without its permission and, in the instant case, did not grant permission to be sued. This Court granted defendant's motion. However, the Court in reviewing its dismissal order and after hearing the facts in this case, has to correct its error in granting defendant's motion to dismiss for the following reason. The doctrine of sovereign immunity has been modified from its absoluteness by the Navajo Nation Court of Appeals. Whether this was a wise move is not the question here, but the issue of absolute immunity is a recurring issue when the Navajo Nation becomes a defendant. The move of other sovereigns from absolute immunity to a qualified immunity or complete abrogation of immunity is weli noted by this Court. Many sovereigns took the legislative process to initiate changes in the doctrine of sovereign immunity and others were judicially imposed.

In our great nation, the doctrine of sovereign immunity has been vastly modified by the Court of Appeals in Halderman Dennison et al. vs. Tucson Gas & Electric Co. et al. at 63-64. The Navajo [366]*366Tribe was considered the "only real defendant..." In this case, the Court of Appeals remanded the case with instructions/1 by then Chief Justice of the Navajo Nation, Virgil Kirk, Sr. In the TG & E case, the Court of Appeals on the one hand recognized and upheld the Tribe's sovereign immunity but it also chose to ignore it by holding the Tribe liable by going beyond the legal fiction and holding the real party liable.

The next issue confronting this court is the unlawful assembly statute of the Navajo Nation—a specific intent statute. The Tribal Council on February 17, 1976 passed and adopted but did not publish Resolution CF-4-76 intended to revise and update the criminal code of the Tribe. Thus certain portions of the criminal code (Title 17 Navajo Tribal Code) were amended; however these amendments were never published and are not now inserted in a pocket supplement of the three volume code. It is undisputed that these newly created crimes are not readily available to the general public. Moreover, the District Courts experienced many obstacles in obtaining a copy of Resolution CF-4-76.

It is equally undisputed that the standards judicially imposed mandate "legislative acts creating crimes must be clear and certain. They must provide reasonable and adequate guidance to a person who would be law abiding so that he can comprehend what activity is to be avoided" ./2

Our unlawful assembly statute is constructed as follows:

[367]*36717 Navajo Tribal Code § 355. Unlawful Assembly.
"Any person who assembles with others for the purpose of instructing or training in guerilla warefare (sic) or sabotage, to engage in rioting or the violent disruption of, or the violent interference with any educational, religious, social, political, recreational, scientific, or an offense punishable by a fine of not more than Five Hundred Dollars, by imprisonment for not more than six months, or both."/3

This Court has exhausted efforts to ellicit legislative history and intent in order to give the phrase "Any person who assembles with others..." adequate interpretation.

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Bluebook (online)
1 Navajo Rptr. 362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keeswood-v-navajo-tribe-the-navajo-division-of-public-safety-navajo-1978.