LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An investigation initiated more than two years ago and carried out by federal officials has led to the arrest of Robinson Rancheria's tribal chair on a charge of felony grand theft for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from another Lake County tribe.
Tracey Isabelle Avila, 50, of Nice was arrested on a felony bench warrant on Friday, Sept. 9, according to jail records. She posted bail, set at $20,000, and was released later that same day.
Avila is alleged to have taken more than $60,000 from Elem Indian Colony of Clearlake Oaks between February 2006 and September 2008, during which time she worked as the tribe's fiscal officer and also was Robinson's tribal chair, according to Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson, who is prosecuting the case.
Abelson said Avila is due to appear in for arraignment in Lake County Superior Court's Clearlake division before Judge Stephen Hedstrom on Oct. 31.
According to the case file, the Berkeley firm Karshmer & Associates, Elem Colony's general legal counsel, sent a letter dated June 1, 2009, to Laura Yoshii, acting regional director for the US Environmental Protection Agency's Pacific Southwest Region 9, requesting an investigation into the alleged embezzlement.
The letter, written by attorney Sarah Dutschke, said that after Avila's termination as bookkeeper the tribe uncovered evidence which they alleged showed that during her 30 months of employment Avila had taken funds from the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act grant as well as from grants the tribe had received from the US EPA and US House and Urban Development.
Elem's own investigation led to the conclusion that Avila had allegedly taken the funds through three principal methods – increasing her hourly pay rate without authorization, giving herself unapproved pay advances and signing several of her family members up for health care coverage but not having the required premiums deducted from her paycheck, Dutschke's letter stated.
On June 15, 2009, the US EPA's Grants Management Office opened the investigation, which later was taken over by special agents with the EPA Office of the Inspector General and HUD's Office of the Inspector General, the documents state.
A review of Avila's pay records conducted as part of the investigation revealed that Avila is alleged to have given herself just over $44,000 in unauthorized pay raises, as well as more than $16,000 in additional paychecks and annual leave.
During the same time a check for more than $14,000 was stolen from the tribe and cashed by a Hispanic male suspect in the Chico area, where Avila is reported to have family, according to case file.
According to the investigation, Elem alleged that Avila hired auditors from Robinson Rancheria to conduct an audit of Elem's financial records. The audit reportedly came back clean.
Avila's work records showed she was frequently late or ill, and rarely worked entire weeks, yet still drew full wages, the report said.
The special agents interviewed Avila on June 9, 2010, at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula.
During the interview Avila said that Elem's system for receiving the grant funds was a “mess,” and that others were writing checks on tribal accounts without her knowledge. She said that she eventually quit her job after becoming increasingly frustrated with the situation.
Avila also told the agents that she paid back the pay advances, insisted that the tribal council had authorized her pay raises and accused another tribal leader of taking the missing funds.
Elem tribal members the agents interviewed stated that Avila had threatened to implicate others if she got in trouble, and that over time her work hours dropped from eight hours a day to four. She also allegedly got a better car and started wearing more expensive clothes.
Abelson said Avila could face a maximum of three years in state prison if convicted. Due to the state's realignment, Avila's time could be served in the county jail, which is where prisoners convicted of certain felonies will be housed.
Court records show that Avila has previous convictions for assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm in 2000 and driving on a suspended license.
Over the last several years she's been at the center of a disenrollment controversy at Robinson Rancheria, where dozens of members of the Quitiquit family and others who opposed Avila as tribal chair were removed from the tribe's membership rolls, as Lake County News has reported.
In 2008 Avila lost the election for tribal chair to Eddie Crandell and followed up by having members of her family on the tribe's election committee invalidate the election.
She has managed to hold onto the tribal chair seat through postponing or delay elections, but in July Bureau of Indian Affairs Central California Agency Superintendent Troy Burdick sent Avila a letter notifying her that she must go forward with holding a new tribal election.
The agency has received a request for a secretarial election – a special federal election overseen by the BIA to revise a tribe's constitution – to ensure a fair election process, Burdick's letter said.
While the tribal citizens business committee and legal counsel had assured the BIA that they would respond with information about how they were ensuring a fair election process, Burdick said BIA had not received the information.
In addition Burdick pointed out that several committee members were on expired terms.
“In order to maintain a government-to-government relationship with the Tribe, the Agency is responsible to ensure we are working with duly elected Tribal officials that were property voted into office in accordance with tribal law,” Burdick wrote. “Failure to hold tribal elections can be viewed as failure to accord Tribal members due process and equal protection as mandated by the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968.”
Burdick went on to state that the BIA is concerned that the tribe may be violating the Indian Civil Rights Act by not holding tribal elections.
Those elections still have not taken place. Tribal members have reported that they have been unable to get the required candidacy papers from Avila and that the election has once again been delayed.
This week, in the wake of her embezzlement arrest, there also were calls for Avila to step down from her position as tribal chair, which she has reportedly refused to do.
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072711 BIA Letter to Tracey Avila