A petition to the Supreme Court filed Tuesday is questioning a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to allow exhaustion by Tribal Court on the trespassing claim in the Todd Murray case. Todd Murray was a passenger in a high speed chase in 2007 that ended within the Ute reservation. After the car crashed, the car’s occupants ran including Murray who fired a gun at the pursuing officer before trying to hide and died from what the medical examiner concluded was a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. In the years since, Murray’s parents and the tribe have filed multiple lawsuits and appeals alleging the officers illegally pursued Murray onto the reservation, that an officer killed him, and then made it took like a suicide. When before the United States District Court it was ruled that Murray had committed suicide and there had been no spoliation of evidence as was alleged. The matter was then brought before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals which again affirmed that decision. Appealed yet again, the judge last July held that the officers cannot be tried in Ute Tribal Court for wrongful death, maintaining that the Tribe does not have tribal civil jurisdiction over the officers. The judge did, however, make one exception from a previous ruling, allowing exhaustion by Tribal Court on the trespassing claim. Law enforcement officers Vance Norton, Gary Jensen, Keith Campbell, Anthoney Byron, Bevan Watkins, and Troy Slaugh are listed as the Petitioners seeking the Supreme Court’s review of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to allow the Tribal Court to hear the trespassing claim. The Respondents include the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, as well as the Tribal Business Committee, Ute Tribal Court, and the Honorable Thelma Stiffarm as Chief Judge of the Ute Tribal Court.
