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Lawyer may cruise to victory in Navajo Co. contest

SHOW LOW — The race for the Navajo County Attorney’s Office may not be much of a race at all, now that one of the two challengers is asking a judge to remove his competitor’s name from the ballot.

The complaint stems from petition signatures that challenger Christian Ackerley, a Democrat, collected to get his name printed on the ballot. He needed at least 478 valid signatures from registered voters in the county to enter the race. Ackerley collected 814.

But the other challenger in the race, Democrat Brad Carlyon, claims otherwise. He is contesting the validity of 571 signatures which, if election officials agree with Carlyon, would ultimately spoil Ackerley’s chances.

Carlyon is currently the deputy attorney for Apache County. He and Ackerley are competing for a seat that was opened after incumbent Navajo County Attorney, Mel Bowers, did not seek re-election.

Kingman gold mine garners $500K lawsuit

KINGMAN — Four Californians claim they poured money into a gold mine near Dolan Springs, only to have the mine sold out from under them without compensation, according to a recent lawsuit.

The 12-page complaint in federal court involves two groups: the Teter family, which lives outside Denver, and the outside investors that have allegedly fed money to the family’s gold mine since 1996.

Court papers indicate that Dolan Springs Mining & Development was originally owned by Fleck Mining & Investment Co. In 1997, Marvin Teter acquired it in a lease/purchase agreement with the intent of striking it rich outside Kingman.

Around that time, investors came along and bought equipment and made in-kind contributions to the mine. The four men — Bryan Brigham, Donald deBoer, Byron Kurosaki and Michael Vanderveur — eventually got a piece of the action under an agreement with Teter. None of their shares in stock exceeded 20 percent; Teter held a 40 percent stake.

After Teter died in April 2007, the operation changed, the investors claim. The company and its lawyers were unresponsive to questions about the mine and its financial condition, even though the investors noticed that the activity around the mine had increased significantly.

After their letters in March and April were rebuffed, the investors decided to sue, using a lawyer from Lewis & Roca, one of the most prominent law firms in Arizona.

Phoenix lawyers Randall Papetti and Emily Cates are representing the investors. They are seeking $503,996 in compensatory damages, punitive damages and an accounting of who owns what at Dolan Springs.

Hells Angels target NYC fashionistas

NORTHERN ARIZONA — The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is suing a New York-based clothing company and its distributor for allegedly misusing one of the club’s logos on products sold throughout Northern Arizona.

The squabble centers on the number 81. Twenty years ago, the gang adopted the “81” logo for things like hats, beanies, shirts, jackets, bikinis and other items that were sold to the public by club chapters. The logo stands for the Hells Angels because “H” and “A” are the eighth and first letters in the alphabet.

Clever, eh?

Less clever, the gang’s lawyer claims, was the alleged ripoff for unrelated apparel that Company 81 was making in New York and selling through Houston-based Stage Stores in Bullhead City and Show Low.

In its four-page complaint, the gang is claiming trademark infringement. It says the sale of these goods could “mislead and confuse the public” that the goods were approved by the gang or local chapters. It has asked both companies to cease, but neither obeyed.

Fritz Clapp, a California attorney based in Maui, is representing the Hells Angels.

SRP, Navajo square off over hiring practices

PAGE — Utility companies are battling the Navajo Nation in federal court over the tribe’s power to push for preferential hiring of Navajos at a key power plant in the Southwest.

The legal wrangling involves the Navajo Generating Station, which sits on native-owned lands near Page, Ariz. The plant burns coal mined nearby to produce 2,250 megawatts of electricity for customers in Arizona, Nevada and Los Angeles. It also powers the pumps that bring water to Phoenix through the Central Arizona Project canals.

In the 1960s, utility companies approached the Navajo Nation about building a regional power plant in the area. In 1969, a group of utility companies led by Tempe-based Salt River Project signed a lease that opened the $1.1 billion facility for business.

The lease specifically states that the tribe “will no directly or indirectly regulate or attempt to regulate [the utility companies] in the construction, maintenance or operation of the Navajo Generating Station,” according to the 16-page complaint SRP filed recently.

In 1985, tribal leaders passed a new law that required all employers doing business on or near their lands to give certain hiring preferences to Navajo employees and the spouses, plus prevailing wages. It also allowed the tribe’s own labor office to investigate labor disputes at the plant.

Then in September 2004, a plant employee who was Navajo filed a wrongful termination claim against SRP. In March 2005, another employee filed a claim over the same issue.

In both cases, the Navajo Nation’s labor office backed the employees, the tribe’s lower courts backed SRP, and the tribe’s supreme court backed the employees on appeal.

SRP sought help from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the liaison agency for Native American affairs, and asked Navajo judges to wait for its testimony. But judges refused, according to the complaint, and hearings for both cases are now set for the first week of April in Tucson.

SRP claims a Navajo victory could undermine the operation of the power plant. The company is seeking help from U.S. judges, and has hired lawyers from two of the Valley’s most prominent law firms to argue the case.

Phoenix lawyers John Egbert, Paul Johnson and Lisa Coulter are representing SRP.