Photos by
Hugh Carey
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Information
Name: Urban
Tribe: Various
American Indian
population:
67,991 (statewide)
Percent of MT
population: 6.2%
Percent living
off reservations: 35%
First, "the U.S. Attorney's office is extremely busy," Murphy explains. "They need something to really catch their attention."
Second, even if the crime warrants federal interest, meeting the burden of proof for violent crimes that involve multiple tribal members is often problematic. Getting witness statements from tribal members is also difficult, he says. And because of jurisdictional rules, tribal members on the reservation don't have to recognize state or county calls to court.
So arduous is the process and so rare are situations warranting it, Murphy has only heard of the federal request being acted on six times in his six-year tenure.
But the threat of it was all Sibley needed. Deputee says Sibley advised him by phone to turn himself in, unless he wanted federal marshals to "bust down his door."
It never came to that.
Sitting at the corner table of Crow Agency's Shake'n Burger, a Mexican-style restaurant decorated with sombreros and beads and resonating with the sounds of a widescreen television in the front room, and an overused furnace in the back, Deputee inspects his hands and tells what happened next.
"I couldn't sleep," he says. "I started losing it to the point where I was almost suicidal. They had me in the corner."
For two weeks in May 2008, Deputee weighed his options. He took a prescription sleeping aid, Ambien, and drank on and off to fall asleep. He became even more aware of tribal police. He'd peek out the window of his house to see passing cars and took special notice of strangers in town and unmarked cars—telltale signs, he says, of the FBI.
As the door to the restaurant opens, Deputee instinctively lowers his head. From under the brim of his worn Indianapolis Colts baseball cap, his eyes flick up to identify the person entering the small establishment. In recognition, he waves, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
"I still freak out," he says. "It still haunts me."
Nine months after that July night, Deputee decided to turn himself in.
He contacted a public defender in Billings and pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault. The Big Horn County's attorney's office then quashed the warrant against him.
Deputee was never jailed, but got five years of probation. He was also required to take treatment classes and pay $1,000 in restitution.
In hindsight, Deputee regrets his decision to run. He dragged out the consequences of his actions, imprisoning himself for nearly a year. His decision was as much a detriment to himself as it was to the justice system that pursued him. It's a decision Sibley sees far too many people make, sometimes inadvertently.
"When you have this kind of shield to hide behind, human beings can talk themselves into remarkable things," Sibley says.
The majority of the 50-plus active warrants in Sibley's office are not for violent crimes. They are less striking offenses: traffic violations, drunken driving or public drunkenness. Almost all require court appearances, fines or treatment classes.
Offenders routinely ignore, or simply forget, those court-ordered mandates. So, when they step off of the reservation, they are arrested— again and again, says Rondell Davis, Big Horn County's undersheriff.
Davis shudders at the word jurisdiction. Waving his hand toward the jail down the hall, he says, "Most of the people here are repeat offenders. It's like that movie Groundhog Day, it keeps repeating itself over and over."
Davis favors treatment programs over incarceration. That the lack of an extradition agreement limits such programs' effectiveness is a tragedy, he says.
Deputee has trouble keeping up with his treatment classes because of his full-time job and five kids, but the decision to turn himself in was "the smartest thing" he did, Deputee says. While he regrets the alcohol-induced assault and his decision to flee, he doesn't resent the loophole that allowed him to do so, only the "bad name" it gives his home and people.