The tribes filed an amended complaint in February arguing that Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies carried out the raids to enforce county ordinances and local code provisions rather than California state criminal law. That distinction matters legally because federal law prohibits the enforcement of local regulations on tribal land.
Illman had earlier agreed with the county that the tribes’ original tribal sovereignty claims were legally insufficient, finding that California’s cannabis laws qualified as criminal statutes enforceable on reservations under Public Law 280. The new claims, he found, rest on different ground, turning on factual questions about the county’s motives, how search warrants were obtained, and how they were executed.
“Even though the new claims fall under the identical titles of PL 280 jurisdiction and tribal sovereignty, the legal and factual questions are completely different, and the new and old claims cannot be considered duplicates of each other,” Illman wrote.
Illman also denied the county’s separate motion to dismiss for failure to state a valid claim. “The court finds that plaintiffs have stated enough facts to sufficiently allege that the search warrants violated the Fourth Amendment,” he wrote. “In addition to their cannabis-specific elements, the warrants also authorize the investigation and seizure of property related to statutory violations that may not otherwise have been authorized in Indian country.”
The Round Valley Indian Tribes originally sued Humboldt and Mendocino counties, their sheriffs, and the California Highway Patrol in April of last year, alleging officers searched properties without valid warrants, plowed cannabis plants, destroyed vegetable gardens with a tractor, and dismantled cultivation equipment. The tribe says the cannabis was grown for personal medical use in compliance with tribal ordinances.
Source: Courthouse News Service
