KETCHIKAN — A Seattle-based attorney will be allowed to represent two Metlakatla residents in their federal Civil Rights Act complaint in U.S. District Court.
Joseph James Wheeler Jr., on April 25, applied for permission to appear and participate as legal counsel for Jim Scudero and Michele Gunyah, who ran for Metlakatla Indian Community mayor and secretary, respectively, in the community’s Nov. 3, 2015, election.
Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess, on Tuesday, filed an order granting Wheeler permission to appear in court as counsel for the plaintiffs. Wheeler declined to comment on the case Thursday afternoon.
Scudero and Gunyah filed a complaint under the Civil Rights Act on April 1 in the U.S. District Court in Ketchikan. The complaint follows the March 18 dismissal in Metlakatla Tribal Court of a challenge to the election filed in that court. The federal complaint alleges several violations of the U.S. Constitution, Indian Civil Rights Act, the MIC Constitution and election ordinances before, during and after the 2015 election.
MIC Mayor Audrey Hudson was reelected in the 2015 election, receiving 392 votes to Scudero’s 351. Judith Eaton was elected MIC secretary, receiving 415 votes to Gunyah’s 333 votes, according to election information provided by MIC at the time.
Hudson, multiple MIC council members and MIC itself are named as defendants in the complaint. Christopher Lundberg, an attorney with the Portland-based law firm Haglund Kelley LLP, serves as MIC’s general counsel. He and his clients cannot comment on pending litigation.
A writ of prohibition filed by Scudero and Gunyah on April 8 asks the federal court to disqualify the Metlakatla Tribal Court from presiding over any further proceedings stemming from that case, and a motion for discovery submitted on April by the plaintiffs seeks for the court to order an election audit.
Burgess, on April 13, denied the two motions by the plaintiffs and ordered them to explain why a federal court should have jurisdiction in the matter.
The order also stated that the federal court “cannot discern the source of its jurisdiction” in this case from the complaint filed by Scudero and Gunyah.
No further action will be taken in this case until the plaintiffs comply with Burgess’s order. If they do not fully comply with the order, the case will be dismissed. Scudero and Gunyah must either respond to Burgess’s order and explain the source of the federal court’s jurisdiction over their complaint or voluntarily withdraw the complaint on or before May 13, according to the order.
