Big Eagle and attorney split

FORT THOMPSON — If former Crow Creek Sioux tribal chairman Duane Big Eagle appeals his bribery conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, it will be without his attorney.

Dana Hanna, of Rapid City, filed a motion Jan. 11 to withdraw as attorney for Big Eagle, the day after the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal and affirmed Big Eagle’s conviction. An order granting the motion was filed Thursday.

Big Eagle’s conviction stemmed from a scheme in which Big Eagle and several other tribal officials solicited and accepted kickbacks from construction contractors the tribe hired to repair the Crow Creek Sioux Tribal School after it was damaged by fire in 2005.

Big Eagle was sentenced to three years in prison but appealed the conviction based on certain evidence he argued should not have been admitted during the trial.

In his motion to withdraw, Hanna states he has declined to petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a review, because he “concluded that there is no reasonable likelihood” the court would hear the case.

Hanna has advised Big Eagle of the procedure for filing a petition to the Supreme Court without an attorney, court documents say. Whether Big Eagle will file such a petition remains to be seen.

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