More than 12,500 cartons of cigarettes seized in 2008 are returned.
View full sizeCigarettes seized from LakeSide Trading in Seneca Falls over a tax dispute with the state have been returned. Seneca County today complied with a court order and turned over 12,628 cartons of cigarettes that it seized in a 2008 tax raid from the Cayuga Indian Nation’s LakeSide Trading store in Seneca Falls.
“The inventory matched what was seized,’’ said Lee Alcott, a Syracuse lawyer representing the Cayugas.
Clint Halftown, the nation’s federally recognized leader, and two other nation representatives loaded the cigarettes onto a truck at the county jail in Romulus. Later in the day, sheriff’s deputies delivered business computers and other records the county confiscated in the tax raid to the Cayugas, Alcott said.
In June, county Judge Dennis Bender ordered the county to return the cigarettes and business records to the Cayugas. He also dismissed an unsealed indictment against nation leaders.
Bender’s action followed a May ruling by the state Court of Appeals in which the state’s highest court said Cayuga and Seneca counties could not prosecute the nation on cigarette tax evasion-related charges. The Cayugas do not remit state sales tax on cigarettes sold to non-Indians – a bone of contention for the state and non-Indian retailers.
A companion case heads on Thursday to Cayuga County Court where the Cayugas – drawing on the Court of Appeals ruling -- will ask county Judge Mark Fandrich to dismiss a separate unsealed indictment handed up in the tax-evasion case two years ago. The nation also will ask for the return of 7,627 cartons of cigarettes and business records that were seized from its Union Springs store in late 2008.
“The nation is hopeful that Cayuga County Court will rule in identical fashion (as Judge Bender) since the arguments we present there are essentially the same,’’ Alcott said.
However, Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann opposes dismissing the indictment without opening it first and arraigning the defendant(s) charged in the indictment. He also is seeking court approval to continue with the prosecution.
The court of appeals ruling does not affect his case, the prosecutor recently said, because the decision only applied to the Cayugas failing to remit state sales tax on cigarette sales to non-Indians. Budelmann said he is trying to prosecute the nation for possessing unstamped cigarettes that are sold to non-Indians.
The Cayugas plan to send samples from the returned cigarettes to a tobacco expert to determine whether the smokes are spoiled and cannot be sold. The nation has threatened to sue the counties for $500,000 in damages because they said the cigarettes have passed their expiration date.
You can reach Scott Rapp at srapp@syracuse.com or 289-4839