The Cayuga Indian Nation will ask a judge on Wednesday to dismiss an indictment against its leaders and return some $200,000 worth of cigarettes and business records seized from the nation’s Union Springs store in a November 2008 tax raid. Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann opposes the nation’s motions and will argue against them before county Judge Mark...
View full sizeCayuga County sheriff's deputies raided the Cayuga Indian Nation's Lake Side Trading store outside Union Springs on Nov. 25, 2008, seizing untaxed cigarettes.The Cayuga Indian Nation will ask a judge on Wednesday to dismiss an indictment against its leaders and return some $200,000 worth of cigarettes and business records seized from the nation’s Union Springs store in a November 2008 tax raid.
Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann opposes the nation’s motions and will argue against them before county Judge Mark Fandrich. The hearing is to start at 9 a.m.
Budelmann faces an uphill fight at the hearing because of recent unfavorable court decisions in the case.
Last month Seneca County Judge Dennis Bender sided with the nation in a companion case. In his ruling, Bender dismissed a similar unsealed indictment against the Cayugas and ordered the return of some $375,000 worth of unstamped cigarettes confiscated from the nation’s Seneca Falls store in the 2008 raid. They were being held as evidence in that county’s cigarette tax-evasion case against the Cayugas.
Bender’s decision came on the heels of a May ruling by the state Court of Appeals. The state’s highest court ruled 4-3 that the counties could not prosecute the Cayugas for failing to remit sales tax on cigarettes sold to non-Indians at their LakeSide Trading stores in the two counties.
Syracuse lawyer Daniel French, who represents the Cayugas, said the indictments should be dismissed based on the May ruling by the state’s highest court.
“The Court of Appeals ruled the prosecution can’t go forward,’’ French said.
The Court of Appeals’ ruling does not apply to his case, Budelmann said, because he is trying to prosecute the nation for possessing unstamped cigarettes that are sold to non-Indians. The appeals court decision only applied to the Cayugas failing to remit state sales tax on cigarette sales to non-Indians, Budelmann said.
“I’m only trying to get them to pay taxes like everybody else,’’ he said.
The prosecutor also said he will argue on Wednesday that criminal procedure law requires the indictments to be opened and the accused defendants be arraigned before the indictments can be possibly dismissed.
French said Budelmann is only trying to save his political reputation and embarrass the Cayugas by forcing their leaders to be arraigned in open court.
“The only reason he is fighting this is to score political points in an attempt to provide cover for having brought such nonsensical prosecutions,’’ French said.
You can reach Scott Rapp at srapp@syracuse.com or 289-4839