The U.S. Department of Justice is suing two Green Country district attorneys for improperly charging Native Americans with crimes on Indian land.
“On Monday, I learned that I was being sued by the United States of America,” said District Attorney Matt Ballard. “They filed a lawsuit trying to prevent me from doing what Oklahoma’s highest criminal court said I could do.”
Ballard is the district attorney for Rogers, Mayes and Craig counties, which include parts of the Cherokee Nation and Muscogee Nation.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against him, claiming he was improperly prosecuting Native Americans on tribal land and creating what they call “jurisdictional chaos.”
“I don’t know why they believe we don’t have jurisdiction,” said Ballard. “We believe we have concurrent jurisdiction, which means we’re not saying the feds don’t have the ability to come in, but we’re saying we do too. And we should be there alongside them prosecuting these cases too. I don’t know why they believe it’s in anybody’s interest to push the state of Oklahoma out of doing our jobs.”
In the DOJ’s complaint, they lay out the history of tribal jurisdiction over Native Americans in Indian Country, which they say was reinforced by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma and again by the 2022 Castro-Huerta ruling.
The DOJ said Ballard filed state charges in at least three cases involving Native American defendants, citing Navajo Nation member Brayden Bull who was charged with manufacturing and distributing child pornography, Chickasaw Nation member Tony Williams who was charged with aggravated drug trafficking and Choctaw Nation member Eric Ashley who was charged with child neglect and drug possession.
“Yeah, I mean these are the most egregious cases in my career. These are some of the worst cases I’ve seen. This is producing child pornography. This is trafficking fentanyl, brining poison into our communities. This is a person neglecting children. These are egregious cases that local law enforcement did a phenomenal job investigating and now we’re hearing from DOJ. They’re trying to push local law enforcement out of that.”
In all three cases, the defendant is also charged in federal or tribal court. Two of them are already sentenced for their crimes and the third is scheduled to go to trial next year.
The DOJ believes Ballard is interpreting the law too broadly by charging Native Americans on Indian land, but Ballard thinks this is a case of federal overreach.
“They’re not set up to prosecute cases like we are. We’ve stood in the gap. We’ve stood up against criminals. We’ve put people behind bars that need to be there and to have the federal government come in and tell us to stop doing that is frustrating.”
Ballard said despite the lawsuit, he will continue prosecuting these types of cases.
The DOJ is also suing District Attorney Carol Iski, the district attorney for McIntosh and Okmulgee Counties, for similar prosecutions.