Former Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd answers questions for media members after being found not guilty of Illegally using contents fof intercepted phone conversations. Byrd was leaving federal court Wed. Nov. 3,1999.
Mike Simons / Tulsa World

Former Cherokee Chief Joe Byrd and two others are cleared in a federal wiretapping suit.

Byrd said the unanimous verdict by the U.S. District Court jury in Tulsa should put an end to the controversy that engulfed his administration during his last 2-1/2 years in office.

He said the case should have never been tried in federal court. Any differences between tribal members, he said, ``could have been worked out by coming to the table'' inside the Cherokee Nation.

Saying that he was very relieved, Byrd noted that the civil case against him and the others was ``political from the very beginning.''

The other two defendants cleared by the jury verdict were Jennie Battles, who was Byrd's secretary-treasurer at the tribe, and Mark McCullough, a part-owner of a Pryor smokeshop.

Charges against a fourth defendant in the case, former Cherokee Nation General Counsel Rex Earl Starr, were dismissed by U.S. District Judge Thomas Brett before the case was given to the jury early Wednesday afternoon.

The plaintiffs were former Cherokee Observer publisher Marvin Summerfield and editor David Cornsilk, who were seeking at least $1 million in damages because their telephone conversations had been intercepted.

Summerfield left the courthouse immediately after the verdict.

Cornsilk blamed the verdict in part on presiding U.S. District Judge Thomas Brett. Brett, Cornsilk said, displayed a bias against Charles Shipley, the plaintiffs' attorney, in the courtroom.

Cornsilk said he didn't believe the jury was given all the evidence necessary to return a fair verdict.

The judge said that during the trial there was insufficient evidence to support contentions that the defendants were involved in a conspiracy or were involved in the actual wiretapping.

The jurors returned their verdicts on issues alleging that the three defendants used and illegally disclosed unlawful taped telephone conversations.

The court was told that Joel Thompson, former Cherokee Nation Housing Authority executive director, was behind the wiretapping scheme. Thompson is serving time in prison on a conviction of embezzling federal funds.

According to trial evidence, Thompson gave McCullough one tape of seven telephone conversations and McCullough gave the tape to the Byrd administration, which subsequently turned it over to the FBI.

The plaintiffs charged that McCullough and the Byrd administration had the tape in their possession for several days before federal officials were notified.

They attorney for the plaintiffs charged that Byrd used contents of the tape in an effort to show in February 1997 that there was a conspiracy to overthrow his administration.

On Feb. 25, 1997, a raid on Byrd's headquarters was conducted by tribal marshals using a search warrant signed by a justice on the tribe's supreme court.

At a press conference three days later, Byrd said he had evidence that a justice, a small group on the tribal council and some Cherokees were trying to undermine his administration. He didn't name the justice and didn't mention having had access to a tape of telephone conversations.

Voices on the tape, according to testimony, included those of Summerfield, Cornsilk and Dwight Birdwell, then a supreme court justice, and tribal council member Barbara Starr-Scott.

The tape was played in open court, but it was largely inaudible. Jurors were given a transcript of the tape.

Summerfield and Cornsilk conceded that their newspaper had been critical of the Byrd administration, but they said there was nothing on the tape to show that they were part of a movement to remove the chief from office.

Byrd became chief in 1995. He was defeated this year in his bid for a second term.

After the verdict, Starr said he, Byrd and the others had ``finally been vindicated. The truth finally came out.''

McCullough said that ``justice has been served and now the world knows of our innocence.''

Shipley said he was disappointed in the verdict. However, he said, a tight scrutiny of the Byrd administration had led to the opening of records in the Cherokee Nation.

The controversy in the tribe, he said, ``wasn't about kitchen politics. It was about who gets to give out the goodies.''

Rob Martindale, World senior writer, can be reached at 581-8367 or via e- mail at rob.martindale@tulsaworld.com.

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