By Onell R. Soto, STAFF WRITER

Walter Rosales – who was evicted from his home on the Jamul Indian Village reservation – retreated after he was pepper sprayed by tribal police for the second time yesterday.

JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune

Tribal leaders yesterday evicted three people who had lived for years on the smallest Indian reservation in California to make way for a casino, leading to a standoff that lasted hours.

The evictions led to confrontations with neighbors opposed to the casino in which tribal police used pepper spray and metal batons. Sheriff’s deputies stepped in and paramedics treated some people.

Nobody was immediately hospitalized, although one man shot in the eyes with pepper spray went into a hospital later in the day.

Tribal leaders also announced that they plan to sidestep a 1999 agreement with the state and fill the casino with less profitable games so they can get around local opposition.

Under federal law, the so-called “Class 2″ games, based on bingo and poker, don’t require an agreement with state governments as do Las Vegas-style games.

“We’ve broken off negotiations with the state,” said tribal Chairman Leon Acebedo.

Class 2 machines look and play like slot machines, but players are gambling for a shared prize, instead of playing against the house.

“With the Class 2 (games) there is no compact and neither the state nor the county has any say,” said Bill Mesa, the 51-member tribe’s gaming commissioner and police chief.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said she was unaware of the tribe’s decision, but agreed the state has no power to prevent an Indian tribe from opening such a casino.

Acebedo said the tribe and its partner, Lakes Gaming of Minnesota, have not decided how the change in gaming strategy would affect plans for the casino about 20 miles from downtown San Diego on state Route 94.

The last plan called for a $200 million casino employing 1,800 people and offering 2,000 slot machines, with an adjacent fire station. A later addition would add a 400-room, 12-story hotel.

The Class 2 games can be profitable, said tribal gaming consultant Michael Lombardi, who is not involved with the Jamul project.

“They play the same games you would associate with slot machines,” he said, noting the success of a Bay Area tribe, the Lytton Rancheria, has had with such games in its San Pablo casino 20 miles from downtown San Francisco.

The Jamul Indian Village has faced loud and vehement opposition from neighbors, including county Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

Schwarzenegger has also opposed the project.

They say a gambling hall on the 6-acre reservation would lead to more crime and traffic.

Also opposing the casino plans are Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery, two of the reservation residents evicted yesterday. Toggery’s son, Louis Gomez, was also evicted.

They said they will challenge the evictions in court.

“We’re going to be back,” Rosales said.

Toggery and Rosales said they are the true leaders of the tribe, one of several claims they have pursued in court and with the federal government since the 1990s, so far unsuccessfully.

They said the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has recognized the wrong people as tribal leaders and members. They also said they own the land on which they lived and that the evictions are illegal.

“I’ve lived here since I was 10 years old,” Toggery said yesterday. “I’m part of the tribe, which they say I’m not.”

Toggery, 52, said she refused to answer knocks on her door about 7:20 a.m. and was trying to call her lawyer when people wearing jackets with the words “Jamul Tribal Police” kicked it in.

Rosales, 59, said the ashes of several family members have been spread on the reservation.

He also said that, following Kumeyaay Indian tradition, the belongings of his dead relatives have been burned and buried on the land, also rendering it sacred.

While they have lifelong blood ties to the tribe, they are not officially enrolled.

Acebedo, the tribal chairman, said they would qualify for membership.
But Rosales said he is the true tribal chairman, while Toggery said she is the judge in the true tribal court.

Both were served with eviction papers in January, and challenged the jurisdiction of a tribal court, which heard the eviction matter. The court found it had jurisdiction and issued an eviction order Feb. 17.

After they were evicted, Rosales and Toggery contacted casino opponents, and, within hours, about 50 of them congregated near the reservation.

Defying orders from sheriff’s deputies and tribal police, several of them walked around the reservation’s property line and entered Rosales’ backyard and home.

There, they were met by tribal police who ordered them out and then sprayed them with pepper spray.

“It’s not trespassing,” Rosales complained. “I own the house.”

Fighting could be heard inside the home, and several of the casino opponents said they were hit by metal batons.

Mesa later said officers acted appropriately and were defending themselves.

After sheriff’s deputies ordered Rosales and the casino opponents off the reservation, a four-hour standoff ensued.

During the standoff, tribal members and casino opponents, including several people who were disenrolled from the tribe in October, traded insults across a fence under construction on the reservation boundary.

The confrontation ended only after negotiations among Jacob, the Sheriff’s Department, the tribal chairman and Patrick Webb, a lawyer working with Rosales and Toggery who is also a Jamul resident.

Acebedo said he would pay for a nearby house in which Rosales and Toggery could stay and agreed that their homes would not be demolished for a week – giving state and federal courts a chance to consider the legality of the evictions.

Only one resident remains on the reservation, an 85-year-old tribal member who is waiting to be relocated into a house paid for by the tribe.

Onell Soto: (619) 293-1280; onell.soto@uniontrib.com
© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Posted on March 11th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Gaming, News