Name: Fort Peck
Tribes: Assiniboine
& Sioux
Population: 10,321
Native: 60%
Counties: Daniels,
Roosevelt, Sheridan,
Valley
Trottier says he can't talk about what occurred the night Sierra was hit since the case is still open. He wouldn't comment on suspects or about the facts of the case either.
"I really wish we could (talk) because we have this girl hit on the highway and somebody knows who did it. And the family needs closure," Trottier says. "It will be open till it's closed."
Trottier says it's normal procedure for tribal investigators to keep a case open even when the FBI has closed it.
U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer, whose office prosecutes major crimes on Indian reservations in the state, won't comment as to whether the case is open or closed.
"It's our policy that we don't deny or confirm the existence of the investigation," Mercer says.
Mercer also declined to comment specifically as to whether any suspects were identified or interrogated in the case. A thorough investigation was conducted, he says.
"I can't decline a case if I don't have a suspect," he says. "We haven't been able to find that person who was driving that car."
Mercer says he has to look at all the facts surrounding Sierra's death to size up the viability of the case, to see if 12 jurors would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant is guilty of a crime. And even if a suspect had been identified, he says, the facts in Sierra's case would make hard to prove a crime had been committed.
Mercer also says he has to consider the perspective of the driver and the circumstances of when and where Sierra was hit. He can't assume the driver did something reckless or had malicious intent, he says. Plus, Four Star and Wise Spirit aren't creditable witnesses, he adds.
"I don't view this as something that would be readably provable," Mercer says.
"If I were a family member and I'd had someone die I'd be concerned," he says. "But because there's a loss doesn't mean there's been a crime."
But the Follettes are not satisfied.
Mary and Verle filed a $1.5 million wrongful death claim with the BIA. They allege negligent behavior from Trottier and the three tribal police officers who gave the girls alcohol. The BIA denied the claim so the family has secured an attorney to pursue a civil lawsuit.
The Follettes insist the three tribal police officers should have been charged with contributing to minors, but they were not. The officers claimed they didn't know the girls were under-age and said they'd often seen Sierra drinking in Baracker's Bar, which was near her trailer home. After Sierra's death, Verle says, the tribal chairman told them that the officers would likely be fired. They weren't. The officers were suspended, Verle says, with pay.
The Follettes' lawyer, Stephen Mackey from Billings, is pursing their civil case against the BIA. Mackey says for the last year he has been filing Freedom of Information requests with the FBI to get the facts of the case.
One FBI report Mackey obtained in the fall of 2008 shows that tests found it was human blood on the front bumper of a car owned by the man the Follettes say bragged about hitting Sierra. However, Mackey said in an interview in May that the FBI has yet to respond to his inquiry as to whether that blood was Sierra's. He doesn't understand the long delay.