U.S. Attorney for Montana Jesse Laslovich gives opening remarks and an introduction to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (left), in Billings on March 5, 2024 (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan).
An attorney who represents a Northern Cheyenne woman raped by a Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer has spent nearly a decade pursuing the officer and the federal government in hopes of some kind of justice for his client.
On Tuesday, Billings attorney John Heenan sent a letter to both U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Secretary of the Interior asking that they come to the negotiating table to end the lawsuit with a settlement for his client, who bore the officer’s child and is raising it without support.
The case began nearly a decade ago when then BIA officer Dana Bullcoming was called to the victim’s house. She had been drinking, a violation of the reservation’s “dry laws,” and Bullcoming had threatened to take away the woman’s children unless she had sex with him. He coerced her into sex, and she became pregnant.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office started to prosecute him criminally while they also hammered out a civil plea agreement in which Bullcoming admitted to the incident and agreed to more than $1 million of child support. Since then, Heenan said his client hasn’t seen a dime from Bullcoming nor a penny from the federal government.
A lawsuit alleges the federal government, as Bullcoming’s employer, should bear some responsibility for the behavior and supervision of its officer. That court case remains protracted and ongoing, as the government continues to insist it should have nothing to do with the case.
The Daily Montanan sent questions the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in Washington, D.C.
It never responded to the inquiry.
The same set of questions were sent to the U.S. Attorney for Montana Jesse Laslovich, whose office is defending the case. It told the Daily Montanan that it does not comment on currently pending cases.
Heenan explained that since the original judgment against Bullcoming is in excess of $1 million, all negotiations above that have to go through the Attorney General’s Office in Washington, D.C.
“There have been multiple mediations over the past several years. I think this obviously would have been better for all parties to resolve,” Heenan said.
Heenan has represented his client, suing the federal government, namely the Department of the Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its law enforcement efforts. At first, the federal government said that it was immune from prosecution because of the conduct of its employees.
However, after several years of legal wrangling through the state and federal courts, the Montana Supreme Court finally clarified that, as in other states, the federal government could be held in part liable for the conduct of its Montana employees.
Most recently, the Bullcoming case has wound its way through the federal courts, after a hearing earlier this summer at the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals.
There, a three-judge panel said that the federal government can be held responsible for the actions of its employees and granted Heenan’s request to remove federal judge Susan Watters from the case because she presided over Bullcoming’s civil arraignment as well as the criminal proceedings. The three-panel appellate court said that Watters cannot be put in the position of evaluating Bullcoming’s statements when he has given conflicting statements as to whether he was acting purely out of self-interest, or whether he was at the victim’s house doing his job on the night of the rape.
The case now faces another round of court hearings, this time with a new as-of-yet unassigned judge, as well briefings. Instead, Heenan sent a letter to both U.S. Attorney for Montana Laslovich as well as Garland asking to negotiate a settlement, and end the protracted legal fight.
In a letter this week, Heenan said:
“Over the last several years, the United States Attorney’s Office has vigorously resisted paying L.B. what the federal judge determined she was owed. It has staked out extreme and offensive positions, including victim-shaming, to avoid paying the judgment. The United States Attorney’s Office has expended countless time and resources fighting L.B. over the past several years, which has included two trips to the Ninth Circuit and one to the Montana Supreme Court. Last month, a unanimous Ninth Circuit panel including a Clinton, a Trump and a Biden appointee again rejected the United States’ position.”
Heenan said that even though the case has spanned two presidential administrations from different political parties, the approach to this case has remained unchanged.
But earlier this year, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland came to Montana especially to talk about and tout his office’s work with local tribal leaders and law enforcement, and pledged to do more to help curb crime on the reservations. Even as Garland visited, some members of Montana’s Indian Country saw the nation’s top law enforcement officer’s position undercut by the Bullcoming case. To make matters worse, Heenan said, the BIA, which falls under the authority of the Department of the Interior, is led by Secretary Deb Haaland, herself a Native American woman from a New Mexican pueblo community.
“I know that you have each been to Montana recently and visited Native communities. I know that you, Attorney General Garland, came to Billings last year to discuss issues involving crime on Montana reservations. I know that you, Secretary Haaland, were in Bozeman last year to meet with survivors of government-backed Native boarding schools,” Heenan wrote. “You have both publicly stated your concern and support for Native people. But words, I would submit, are hollow unless bolstered by action. L.B.’s child turned 8 years old last month. Every day that this case drags on, L.B. doesn’t have the money she needs to raise the child that was conceived the night of her encounter with Officer Bullcoming.”
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