The attorneys for a non-Indian couple that adopted a Cherokee girl are seeking $1 million in fees from the biological father and the Cherokee Nation.

The attorneys want to be paid for fighting Dusten Brown and the Cherokee Nation in the courts of Oklahoma and before the U.S. Supreme Court. They say Brown should have complied with an order to hand over his daughter to the couple even though it was the couple that initiated the Supreme Court case.

“This is pure greed in the most offensive form,” Shannon Jones, Brown's attorney in South Carolina, told The Charleston Post and Courier. “I think it reveals a lot about the character of the people behind these attempts to financially benefit from sad and unfortunate events.”

Lisa Blatt, a Washington, D.C., attorney who argued the case before the Supreme Court, is seeking $322,431, the paper said.

Lori Alvino McGill, a Washington, D.C., attorney who acted as a spokesperson for the non-Indian couple, is seeking $441,931.

Get the Story:
Attorneys for Cherokee girl’s adoptive parents seek $1 million in legal fees (AP 11/6)
Oklahoma, Washington attorneys for Capobiancos ask birth father, tribe to pay $1 million in Veronica legal fees (The Charleston Post and Courier 11/6)
'Baby Veronica' case attorneys seek payment (The Tulsa World 11/6)

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