Pechanga Tribal Council Honors Man Who Commited Lewd, Lascivious Acts With A Child Under 14

Yes, that's correct readers, honors. That is, they took the word of a convicted, imprisoned child molestor who provided hearsay testimony, in a letter from prison.

Our cousin Aamokat provides the details as to how the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians honors the words of a child molestor.


When we the Hunter family were disenrolled from the Pechanga tribe I wondered what the evidence was against us because all we were given by the enrollment committee were some statements from some tribal elders, all from the CPP faction of the tribe, who claimed we had never been recognized as being Pechanga.

By the way, the CPP had its orgins with the Splinter Group who tried unsuccessfully to take over the tribe in the early 1980's.

And since those statements were directly contradicted by other Pechanga elders not from the CPP faction as well testimony from elders from the late 1800’s during probate for our land allotment and other testimony that showed that we are indeed Pechanga, I wondered and still wonder when any evidence was ever presented against us. OP: The depositions of 1915 were taken in the Luiseno language via a translator.

And since The Enrollment Committee had the responsibility according to tribal law to tell us specifically why the documents that were used to enroll us years ago was lacking in proving tribal membership we, for this and other reasons, were unlawfully disenrolled from our tribe in March 2006.

One of the statements against us was from former Pechanga chairman Vincent Ibanez who wrote a letter from prison, where he was finishing up a sentence for child molestation, in which he says, “I praise you for all your hard work and wish you all success in beating these imposters and all of the others too. I only wish I could be there to sense the real Pechangas coming forward.” Read more HERE

So not only did the Enrollment committee and the tribal council ignore the statements of credible Pechanga elders alive now such as Norman Pico Sr, Marie Russell, Benjamin and Paul Vasquez, among others, as well as the elders from the historical period of when the reservation was created, they also ignored their own hired expert, Dr. John Johnson, curator of the Museum Natural History in San Barbara, Ca who said that according to surviving documents we are who we say we are, Pechanga Indians.

So they believed people like Mr. Ibanez, who couldn’t be at Pechanga during our disenrollment proceedings because of the offenses he committed, which are specified below as taken directly from the Megan’s Law Website:

Vincent Belasco Ibanez

Offense Code Description

288(a) Lewd or Lascivious Acts With a Child Under 14 years

288.5 Continuous Sexual Abuse of Child

In addition to this, reportedly. while a member of the Enrollment Committee, Mr. Ibanez signed the enrollment cards and official date stamped letters welcoming Hunter family members to the tribe.

So if Mr. Ibanez never believed we the Hunters are Pechanga, then why would he sign cards and official documents saying that we are Pechanga and then turn around and say the opposite years later? OP: Was he lying then, or lying now? What were his motivations, to get more young people on the reservation?

So was he lying when he gave a statement against our tribal membership or was he lying years earlier by signing cards and documents affirming that we are Pechanga?

Either way Vincent Ibanez is quite “a piece of work” and he is not a credible source of information. OP: What would drive an enrollment committee (Frances Miranda, Ihrene Scearse and the elder of the Masiel Crime Family, Ruth Masiel) to believe this type of individual versus one of the most respected authorities of Native American history. One the Pechanga Enrollment Committee HIRED to find the truth.

Dr. John R. Johnson:

"They ignored whatever I did in their decision-making," said John Johnson, who was hired by Pechanga to determine whether Paulina Hunter was one of the tribe's ancestors. "It's too bad economics and politics have been injected into (tribal lineage rulings)."

Johnson has worked as curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History since 1986. He earned his doctorate in anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and teaches a course called "California Indians" at the campus.

For more than three decades, he has worked on detailed studies and recordings of California Indians' archaeology, archival records, cultures and history. OP: Dr. Johnson works with Las Padrones, the HISTORICAL records of the Spanish missionaries begun before Abraham Lincoln was BORN.

Who had a GREATER incentive to LIE? Vince Ibanez or Dr. John R. Johnson? The child molestor or the educator? Can the city council of Temecula answer that?

The Pechanga Tribal Council had the responsibility to instruct the enrollment committee that hearsay evidence was not allowed, especially since all evidence from Hunters and Miranda family had to be certified.

That's what happens when the Pechanga Council allowed no attorneys, no writing implements and limited appeals to groups, not individuals.