Documents courtesy of Indianz.com:
From The Shawano Leader:
A former Menominee chief justice and tribal prosecutor is scheduled for sentencing in federal court in May on a child pornography charge.
Joseph H. Martin, 54, pleaded guilty last month to one count of receiving child pornography as part of a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Green Bay. …
Authorities executed a search warrant at his residence Oct. 14, [2014,] seizing three laptops, five thumb drives and one tablet containing about 100 child pornography videos, the records state. …
Martin is scheduled for sentencing May 11.
Martin served as chief justice for the tribe in the early 2000s and later as tribal prosecutor. …
Martin also served as chief legislative counsel for the Little River Band of the Ottawa Indians in Michigan before becoming Menominee tribal prosecutor.
According to information in the search warrant request, Martin was employed with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections at the time the warrant was executed.
Joseph Martin was also President of the Native American Bar Association from 2005–2007 yet did not properly maintain his licensure with the State of Illinois while continuing to claim to be an attorney working for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Mr. Martin was discharged as the Tribe’s attorney in October 2009 for failing (over a period of two years) to obtain a license to practice as an attorney in the State of Michigan. The Tribe’s insistence that Mr. Martin be licensed in Michigan was consistent with the express terms of his employment contract and with prohibitions on the unauthorized practice of law imposed by Michigan law, the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct and the Tribe’s Code of Ethics for Tribal Lawyers.
As set forth in more detail below, Mr. Martin’s response to his discharge has been a campaign of resistance involving numerous instances of highly improper attorney conduct, culminating a letter sent recently by Mr. Martin to the Tribe in which he threatened to publicly disclose “EVERYTHING I learned and/or advised the Tribe during my tenure [as the Tribe’s attorney]” unless the Tribe pays him $225,000.
18. Upon learning that the discussions pertained to who had authority to terminate [Joseph Martin]’s employment contract, [Joseph Martin] told the Tribal Council that he would sue them if his employment contract was terminated.
19. When Norbert Kelsey, one of the Tribal Council members, expressed concern to [Joseph Martin] regarding [Joseph Martin]’s threat to file suit against LRBOI, [Joseph Martin] referred to Councilman Kelsey as a “joke.”
20. After Councilman Kelsey left the room, [Joseph Martin] made the following statements to the remaining Tribal Council Members about Councilman Kelsey: “I will fu¢king kill that god damn pervert. If he thinks I won’t take that fu¢king cane of his and shove it right up his ass. Make him into a popsicle. I’m sick of his sh¡t. Questioning me saying I was a token at Northwestern…. I’ll kill his ass….”
Joseph Martin is the brother of Mercedes Martin-Swimmer, a former Asst. Prosecuting Attorney for the Menominee Tribe who was caught on tape attempting to defend threats she made against Oneida Eye Editors during an employment hearing and later committed perjury many times over while under oath in Menominee Tribal Court during questioning by Oneida Eye’s Publisher. [Ironically, Mercedes Martin is currently listed as a Menominee Tribal Domestic Violence / Sexual Assault Probation Officer.]
Here are the Complaint, Recommendations and Decision rendered against Joseph Martin by the Illinois ARDC:
It was in the fifth month of the six-month suspension of his law license when child porn was discovered at Joseph Martin’s residence on the Menominee Reservation.
Oneida Eye believes this is just another example of why the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin should require that anyone hired by the Oneida Law Office as an attorney actually be an attorney who is licensed to practice law by the Wisconsin State Bar Association, unlike Lati Hill who was hired as an ‘Attorney’ and illegally advertised himself as such and is now a judge on the Oneida Judiciary like other Oneida ‘judges’ who have also never demonstrated competency as attorneys, such as Diane House who actually lied to the Oneida Tribe about graduating from law school in order to be hired as an attorney.
By requiring the all Tribal attorneys and judicial officers be licensed by the State of Wisconsin Tribe members have the basic assurance that they can report unethical actions and unjust misdeeds to a professional organization rather than be forced to rely on some nebulous ‘Disciplinary Committee’ farce which is actually designed to exonerate those in power.
For example, would the Oneida Judiciary ‘Disciplinary Committee’ hold the nine Judiciary officers accountable for violating their own Judiciary Canons of Judicial Conduct by illegally attending General Tribal Council’s Annual Meeting? Of course not. Laws are for other people, not for those who are supposed to uphold the laws, right?
Oneida Eye also maintains that no Oneida Tribal judges should be allowed to co-habitate or even associate with known felons, especially not with a sex offender who assaulted a minor and in another case used force in a sexual assault against a victim in her fifties, as is the case with the husband of Trial Court Chief Justice Denice Beans.
Isn’t sexually assaulting girls and women using force just as bad – if not worse – than possessing child pornography?
Multiple-state sex offender Raymond Beans, husband of Oneida Judiciary Trial Court Chief Judge Denice Beans
- Click here for more info about Denice Beans’ husband Raymond Beans’ sex offense conviction in Wisconsin when he was 53-years-old and in which he was also found guilty of ‘Use of Force,’ and click here for info about Raymond Beans’ sex offense conviction in Alaska where the age of consent is 16 (Beans was 38)
With those reputations and associations, why would anyone endorse the Oneida Tribal Judiciary or trust them in any legal matters?
Especially cases regarding the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)?
Would Chief Justice / Tribal Prosecutor Joseph Martin have used his authority to dismiss charges against an abuser of a female if Martin was able to receive a video of the crime as a bribe?
No wonder the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to consider a Petition filed by Oneida Tribe members requesting the State to stop transferring any court cases to tribal courts.
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