Litigation | Regulation

Court allows lawsuit for incident at Tonto Apache Tribe casino

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Mazatzal Hotel and Casino in Payson, Arizona. Photo from Katalyst Restaurant Concepts

Three gamblers can proceed with a lawsuit against employees of the Tonto Apache Tribe, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday.

Rahne Pistor, George Abel and Jacob Witherspoon were detained after winning large sums of money at the Mazatzal Hotel and Casino in October 2011. The accused the tribe's chief of police, the facility's general manager and a gaming inspector of stealing their earnings.

"While they were detained, the tribal defendants took significant sums of cash and other personal property from them, none of which has been returned," Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote in the unanimous decision.

The tribal defendants asserted sovereign immunity because they argued they were acting in their official capacities under tribal law. The 9th Circuit disagreed.

Indianz.Com SoundCloud: Pistor v. Garcia

"The gamblers have not sued the tribe," Berzon observed. "The district court correctly determined that the gamblers are seeking to hold the tribal defendants liable in their individual rather than in their official capacities."

Although the decision is a victory for the gamblers, the 9th Circuit cautioned that it wasn't ruling on the key issue in the case -- whether the tribal defendants violated federal civil rights law. If the defendants were indeed acting under tribal law, the gamblers will not be able to succeed with a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

"This case law merely confirms the well-established rule that a § 1983 claim cannot be maintained against defendants who act under color of tribal rather than state law," Brezon wrote, citing other cases in the 9th Circuit in which individual tribal defendants were not held liable.

"The tribal defendants can thus be held liable under § 1983 only if they were acting under color of state, not tribal, law at the time they seized the gamblers," the decision stated.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Pistor v. Garcia.

Get the Story:
Gambling-Shakedown Claims Advance in Ariz. (Courthouse News Service 6/30)
Gamblers’ abuse claims test sovereignty of US tribal casinos (AP 7/1)

9th Circuit Court of Appeals:
Pistor v. Garcia (June 30, 2015)