Indian Teens Banished To Islands May Go To Prison Judge Cites Conflict Among Tribe, Inadequate Supervision Of 2 Youths
The banishment of two teenage Indian robbers to remote Alaska islands could end in prison due to conflict among tribal judges and inadequate supervision, the judge who allowed the judicial experiment said Tuesday.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer ordered the teens and their attorneys to appear in his courtroom on Oct. 3 “to show cause why the sentencing hearing should not be accelerated and held immediately in the interest of justice.” The banishment had been scheduled to end in March.
Adrian Guthrie and Simon Roberts, 18-year-old Tlingit natives of Klawock, Alaska, pleaded guilty last year to robbing and beating a pizza delivery driver here in August 1993.
Allendoerfer postponed sentencing for 18 months at the urging of Tlingit tribal judge Rudy James, and a combined tribal court banished the teens a year ago this month - a “cross-cultural judicial experiment” that was to offer restitution for victim Tim Whittlesey and a chance at rehabilitation for the teens.
The judge stepped in again in August, after months of infighting among tribal court members and reports of unauthorized travel by Roberts and Guthrie, and asked the tribal judges for an evaluation.
In Tuesday’s order, Allendoerfer said that in the past five days, he had received five separate reports from tribal authorities, including two factions of the Combined Tribal Court of Tlingit Law.
The reports “dispute the authority and good faith of other involved persons … present conflicting evaluations of the defendants’ physical and mental health, the status of the defendants’ rehabilitation, and the defendants’ attitudes toward continued banishment” and offer different plans for the future, he wrote.
“This confused, unstable and potentially insecure status of tribal supervision requires immediate intervention by this court.”
In Alaska, Roberts’ mother, Pamela Weiss, said her son wanted to continue the banishment “and I stand behind him.”
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