Judge says Ute Tribal Court can't hear lawsuit

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A federal judge has prohibited the Ute Indian Tribal Court from hearing a lawsuit that was filed against Utah law enforcement officers involved in a high speed chase that ended with the death of a tribal member.

The lawsuit was brought in Tribal Court after U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell dismissed a 2009 suit in federal court, ruling the evidence showed that tribal member Todd R. Murray committed suicide following a 2007 high speed chase and was not killed by a police detective, as the lawsuit had claimed.

But the officers who were being sued as individuals in tribal court went to federal court again this year to ask for an injunction prohibiting Ute Tribal Court from proceeding with the lawsuit. They argued that Ute Tribal Court lacked jurisdiction over them to pursue a lawsuit in Tribal Court.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson agreed and issued a preliminary injunction this week. He cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the "inherent sovereign powers of an Indian tribe do not extend to the activities of non-members of the tribe."

Murray's parents are appealing Campbell's earlier decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which has scheduled oral arguments for later this year.