In a setback for a local Indian tribe, a federal judge has determined her court is the proper venue to hear Temecula's lawsuit against the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. This ruling gives the first victory to the City of Temecula in its quest to make the tribe pay for the effect that the Pechanga Resort & Casino has on roads and other city services.
The city maintains that California's compact with the tribe, whose casino borders the city to the south, made federal court the proper forum for the lawsuit. But in November, Fischer wrote that the part of the compact cited by the city did not appear to give the court jurisdiction. This case could have statewide implications.
The city's lawyers wrote a response explaining their reasoning. And Fischer wrote that the jurisdiction was proper.
Tribal public affairs representative Jacob Mejia said the ruling was "a preliminary and technical procedural matter, of the kind we generally do not comment on publicly during the course of litigation."
The city's lawsuit came after the City Council approved a deal last April with the tribe that called for the PECHANGA tribe to pay Temecula at least $52 million over 21 years. The tribe also agreed to pay $10 million or secure the same amount in federal funding for improvements to the Interstate 15/Highway 79 South interchange, which is heavily used by casino-goers.
The city said the tribe missed a summer deadline to pay $2 million per the agreement. The tribe responded that the deal was not official until it wrapped up talks with Riverside County over casino impacts. We all know that the tribal chairman, Mark Macarro has lied to Congress and to KNBC news on land usage and membership issues. Money is tight at Pechanga, loss of business continues to be an issue. Of course, if Pechanga will cheat their own people, many realize they would cheat them too.
I wonder how much the attorneys will take from Pechanga for the defense of Macarro and team.
ReplyDeleteThey made a deal and now are trying to weasel out of it. Our Temecula law enforcement spends a lot of time there, with the criminal element (and no, not just the crime family of the rez.)
Time for new leadership.
The more money the tribe has to spend to defend itself the less money it has...
ReplyDeletePrecisely. They waste money on attorneys like...Holly Macarro.
ReplyDeleteOh, no, that's not a waste, that goes to Mark.
No wonder they got rid of Holland & Knight and went with Holly's company
They would be better of just paying the taxes, rather than paying for expensive lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteSo, when Pechanga loses this lawsuit, ordered to pay Temecula its $2 million, the cost of attorneys fees will add another 2or 3 %.
ReplyDeleteThis is not good management, especially with the bad publicity it generates.
The Corrupt Pechanga Leadership does stupid and illegal things, they create their own bad publicity, all we have to do bring it out in the open, which is easy to do.
ReplyDeleteThe tribe (or indian tribes)can,t be sued the case will be tossed out of court.It is a waste of time for the city to file it.
ReplyDeleteIt does not take much for the tribe to file a motion to dismiss,and perhaps not even show up in court!
(as seen in the past).