Spokane Tribal Leader Arrested Complained Earlier About Dui Enforcement

Spokane tribal Chairman Bruce Wynne, who complained to federal officials about state enforcement of traffic laws on the Spokane Indian Reservation, has been arrested on a drunken-driving charge for the second time in nearly four years.

Wynne, 53, faces arraignment Feb. 5 in Lincoln County District Court on a charge that he was driving drunk on state Highway 231 shortly after midnight on Jan. 17. Wynne was arrested four miles north of Reardan, outside the reservation.

He refused to take a breath test and spent the night in the Lincoln County Jail before posting $500 bond the next morning.

Washington State Patrol trooper Rich Jaeger reported seeing Wynne’s northbound 1989 Mazda pickup weave across the center line. Jaeger said Wynne had red, watery eyes and slurred speech and failed field sobriety tests.

Wynne admitted “he had quite a bit to drink,” Jaeger reported.

The tribal chairman did not respond to requests for comment.

He was outspoken, though, in a December 1996 letter asking U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate “a pattern and practice of repeated civil rights violations perpetrated against Spokane tribal members by the Washington State Patrol.”

The letter complained in particular that trooper David Fenn improperly was writing tickets for non-criminal traffic offenses on state highways within the reservation.

Troopers aren’t allowed to write tickets within Indian reservations for traffic infractions such as speeding or defective equipment, but they may enforce drunken-driving and other criminal laws on state highways.

WSP administrators gave Fenn a disciplinary transfer from Colville, Wash., to Spokane and temporarily moved his supervisor, Sgt. David McMillan, from Colville to Bremerton. Previously, Fenn had been honored twice for an exemplary record of getting drunken drivers off the roads.

An investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Spokane found no civil rights violations, prompting tribal leaders to call for another investigation. Meanwhile, records show the WSP has virtually abandoned drunken-driving enforcement on the reservation.

WSP Lt. Bruce Clark said Jaeger is in a different detachment from Fenn and didn’t know Wynne when he arrested the tribal chairman.

Another trooper arrested Wynne for drunken driving and speeding at almost the same spot at 2 a.m. on June 4, 1994. Prosecution was deferred and eventually dropped after Wynne completed an alcohol-treatment program.

, DataTimes