4 Crow Creek tribal leaders arrested on federal embezzlement charges

FORT THOMPSON – Roxanne Sazue spoke at Tribal Relations Day at the state Capitol in the Rotunda in February 2015 while she was chairwoman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe’s council. Sazue was arrested Thursday, July 11, with three other tribal leaders, on federal charges of embezzling money from the tribe. The four were in the Hughes County Jail on Thursday awaiting an initial appearance on Friday, July 12, in court in Pierre. This photo is from a social media video of the 2015 event.

Four former or current leaders of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe southeast of Pierre, including former tribal Chairwoman Roxanne Sazue, were arrested Thursday on federal charges of embezzling tribal funds.

The four — Roland Robert Hawk, Sr., Francine Maria Middletent, Jacquelyn Ernestine Pease, and Sazue — were in the Hughes County Jail in Pierre Thursday night.

According to federal court documents filed Wednesday July 9, U.S. Attorney Ronald Parsons says a grand jury charged that since at least March 2014 (but possibly earlier) until about February 2019, Sazue, Hawk, Middletent and Pease “did embezzle, steal, willfully misapply, willfully permit to be misapplied, and convert to their own use more than $1,000 in monies, funds, credits, goods, assets and other property belonging to the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe . . . and did aid and abet each other in committing the offense. . .”

If convicted, they each face a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine; and three years of supervised probation.

The four are slated to appeared  at 10 a.m., Friday, July 12, in federal court in Pierre.

Roxanne Sazue was elected chairwoman of the Crow Creek Tribal Council in April 2014 and served two years and did not seek re-election, according to news reports.

She remains a noted Indian leader in the state.

In August, 2018, U.S. Attorney Parsons, in a news release about the 13th annual conference on Violence Against Women Tribal Consultation in the Sioux Falls Convention Center, mentioned Roxanne Sazue as one of several tribal leaders who made comments and provided testimony.

Middletent, according to her social media posts, tribal online documents and news stories, has been human resources officer for the tribe and finished a two-year term on the seven-member Crow Creek tribal council in April 2018.

She also was convicted 25 years ago of embezzling from the tribe.

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