Some members of the Oneida Tribe may remember that for a while Diane Danforth House portrayed herself as being a Wisconsin Bar-licensed attorney and was hired by the Tribe and had her name on the letterhead of the Oneida Law Office and probably a business card and an attorney’s salary to boot, but it all turned out to be untrue because Diane lied about graduating from law shcool.
In other words, a run-of-the-mill lawyer liar.
But instead of being fired and charged, she was allowed to resign and her crime was swept under the rug.
This is to advise you that [Diane Danforth] was relieved of all duties and responsibilities as an attorney employed by the Oneida Tribe on December 7, 1995. Ms. Danforth submitted a resignation which was accepted by this office. Ms. Danforth is not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Wisconsin.
This is to be added to the Memo dated January 11, 1996, from Francis Skenandore and me regarding [Diane Danforth].
Any letterhead, circulatory materials, indexes, card files, flow charts or otherwise that indicate that Diane Danforth is an attorney should be corrected or deleted.
In accordance with direction from General Counsel, Francis R. Skenandore, and Chief Counsel, Gerald L. Hill, this office is to advise all staff of the following announcement:
A resignation was received and accepted by the Oneida Law Office from Ms. Diane Danforth. Ms. Diane Danforth was relieved of all duties and responsibilities as an attorney employed by the Oneida Tribe on December 7, 1995. Further, be advised that Ms. Danforth is not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Wisconsin. Any letterhead, circulatory materials, indexes, card files, flow charts, or otherwise that indicate that Diane Danforth is an attorney should be corrected or deleted.
Documents from two different Oneida Appeals Commission cases from the Oneida Tribe’s website still show “Attorney Diane Danforth” acting as counsel for the Oneida Police Department:
So Diane Danforth House not only lied about graduating from law school as well as lied about passing the Wisconsin State Bar (which should have been verified by the Tribe’s HR Dept., duh), but she even went before the Tribe’s Judicial System acting as the attorney for the Oneida Police Department to defend OPD against Tribe members.
If she falsely represented herself to the Court as an attorney, doesn’t that constitute ‘perjury’ as well?
Misrepresenting oneself as an attorney happens to be a crime in Wisconsin that can result in fines and jail time or both and the law says (WI Statute Section 757.30, 3):
Every person who uses the words attorney at law, lawyer, solicitor, counselor, attorney and counselor, proctor, law, law office, or other equivalent words in connection with his or her name on any…business card, letterhead…or other writing…, the evident purpose of which is to induce others to believe or understand the person to be authorized to practice law or who in any other manner represents himself or herself either verbally or in writing, directly or indirectly, as authorized to practice law in this state, shall be deemed to be purporting to be licensed to practice law as an attorney within the meaning of this section.
To Oneida Eye’s knowledge Diane House was never charged by the State of Wisconsin and Tribe leaders at that time forgave her when she cried about getting caught.
Clearly, she sholdn’t be trusted to work for the Tribe again, right?
The fact that she now works in the Office of the Tribal Chairperson as a Senior Policy Advisor shows that Chairperson Delgado is a foolish pushover given that Diane has continued to do things that suggest that she’s still not trustworthy.
Diane interfered with external investigations of Casino General Manager Louise King Cornelius which resulted in some OBC members rallying behind Louise to prevent her from being fired no matter what the facts and findings were. Maybe Louise cried, too.
Despite Diane’s unethical interference in personnel matters and her breach of confidentiality, Chairperson Delgado did not fire Diane. Perhaps she cried again.
Yet now Diane’s unethical May 6, 2013 email to the Business Committee is being circulated by chuckleheaded enemies of Chairperson Delgado as somehow being ‘evidence’ for the absurd petition to remove him from office.
In her email Diane House admits that she falsely accused Council member Vince DelaRosa of sending without authorization a memo regarding the Chairperson’s attempt to have a fair bidding process for a Southeastern Oneida Tribal Services facility.
Diane acknowledges that she wasn’t fully informed of all of the facts of the situation and apologizes to Council member DelaRosa in her email which is all well and good, but here’s a piece of free advice (though we are not lawyers):
Next time, Diane, consider the possibility that the reason you’re not told everything all the time is because your past and recent actions cause people to doubt whether or not you can be fully trusted.
If someone is willing to lie to the Tribe about being a lawyer, what – or who – wouldn’t they be willing to lie about?
As said above, lying about being a Wisconsin Bar-licensed attorney is a serious matter and Diane’s very fortunate that she didn’t face jail time, but her luck is plainly amazing when you consider that she went from that utterly disgraceful situation to being named to the Corporate Board of the Tribally-owned Bay Bancorporation.
Let’s be honest: Isn’t the level of ‘integrity’ and ‘trustworthiness’ that Diane has displayed exactly what you’d expect from a bank board member?
All joking aside: What will Bay Bank customers think when – not if – they find out the truth about Diane House?
Bay Bancorporation’s Corporate Charter is missing from their page on the Tribe’s website but the bank’s By-Laws are posted (whether or not they are up-to-date is another matter; this version is dated September 29, 2004).
Oneida Eye has previously noted how there are discrepancies between the articles of indemnification in OSGC’s Charter and its By-Laws, but since access to the Bay Bancorporation Charter isn’t provided, let’s look at part of the bank’s By-Laws, ‘Article IX. Indemnity of Officers and Directors’:
This indemnity shall include reimbursement of amounts and expenses incurred and paid in settling any such claim, action, suit or proceeding, a conviction or judgment (whether based on a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or its equivalent, or after trial) shall not be be deemed an adjudication that such director or officer is guilty of fraud in the performance of his/her duties, if such director or officer was acting in good faith in what he/she considered to be the best interests of the corporation and with no reasonable cause to believe that the action was illegal.
Maybe Diane House believed in ‘good faith’ that it was in the ‘best interests’ of the Tribe for her to fraudulently claim to be an attorney and she just happened to skip class the day the law school taught everyone it was illegal to do so.
In any case, one would think that, given her lying about having legal credentials and interfering with casino personnel investigations into wrongdoing, Diane House should watch her step when it comes to falsely accusing anyone of wrongdoing lest she lose her job and her Bay Bancorporation Board membership and be sent crying ‘Wee, wee, wee!’ all the way home.
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