Tribal, Federal Prosecutors Ready To Handle Influx Of Criminal Cases

Tribal and federal prosecutors said they are ready to handle the thousands of criminal cases that will be coming their way, after a decision from the Oklahoma Court of Appeals that declared the Cherokee and Chickasaw nations are sovereign.

They now join the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in last summer’s Supreme Court decision on tribal jurisdiction.

Tulsa's acting U.S. Attorney Clinton Johnson said this week's decision by the appeals court will send thousands of cases to his office, but he said they're prepared.

"All that means is that my office is going to get a lot larger and we're going to be much more cases we normally do not handle right now," Johnson said. "So, what we've been doing for the last five to six months in anticipation, is working hand-in-hand with a Cherokee Nation with the local DAs and with the main justice to prepare for this new influx of cases."

District Attorney Jack Thorp oversees cases in Adair, Cherokee, Sequoya and Wagoner counties. He said he anticipates 70 to 80 percent of his cases will be dismissed. His office made a database of those cases to share with the tribal court and federal courts.

"Since July we've been building a database and, on the database, they are broken down by specific counties and we have the files already transferred to the federal government as well as files transferred to the Cherokee nation," Thorp said. 

Both Johnson and Thorp said they are also working on making the process as easy as possible for victims.

"Many of these victims will have to start at square one. We're going to contact all the victims, we're going to let them know what this case means to them," Thorp said. 

"It is not easy to go back through the criminal justice system a second time," Johnson said. "They're not going to go through this alone. We're going to be there with them, and my attorneys are going to see justice on their behalf."