Court found that prosecutors proved Julian Bear Runner had intent to defraud tribe
PINE RIDGE – A federal appeals court Thursday rejected an appeal from the former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who had been convicted of embezzling from the tribe, wire fraud and larceny.
The three-judge panel on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals District of South Dakota upheld the nearly two-year sentence given to Julian Bear Runner, as well as a restitution order that he repay what he stole from the tribe. The opinion, written by Judge Duane Benton, was unanimous.
Bear Runner, 39, is currently serving his 22-month sentence at a minimum-security facility in Texarkana, Texas, according to federal inmate records. He is scheduled to be released on July 18.
Bear Runner served as the tribal president from December 2018 to December 2020. During his tenure, he made headlines over his clashes with former Gov. Kristi Noem over her Covid-19 pandemic policies, and the tribe issued multiple lockdowns in 2020. In September of that year, the Tribal Council unsuccessfully attempted to impeach him after a young man claimed he’s had a sexual relationship with Bear Runner starting when he was 17. Bear Runner failed to win a second term in that year’s tribal election.
Before taking office, he learned about the tribe’s travel policy. A travel request required a person seeking advance funding to state the destination, dates and purpose for the trip before funding would be available. The policy included a stipulation requiring travelers who took advance funds for a trip to reimburse those funds if the travel didn’t occur.
Bear Runner requested authorizations from tribal travel specialists for trips to New Mexico, Montana, Ohio, North Carolina, California, New York and Arizona, claiming he was acting on tribal business. On at least two of those trips, he presented during Tribal Council meetings while purportedly visiting an out-of-state reservation.
In reality, he took more than $80,000 in travel advances and gambled at the Prairie Wind Casino in Pine Ridge while staying in area hotels.
A grand jury indicted him in 2022 and a jury found him guilty on all counts.
In his appeal, Bear Runner argued that the government failed to prove requisite criminal intent for the crimes. He also argued the district judge committed procedural and substantive errors in his sentencing.
He argued that his intent to defraud the tribe was negated because he expected any travel overpayments to be deducted from his tribal pay. His expectation of a payroll deduction disproved intent to defraud the tribe.
But during the trial, a travel specialist testified that it was Bear Runner’s responsibility to return unused advances.
The evidence, Benton wrote, showed he used the procedures to “manipulate the approval process in his favor” by pressuring staff.
“He visited the travel office after hours, and ‘hover[ed] over’ specialists, rushing them to approve his requests,” Benton wrote. “The Tribe’s accounts-payable supervisor, for example, testified that Bear Runner arrived afterhours ‘wanting to push [travel authorizations] through’ in a way that made her feel ‘not too well.’ Multiple employees testified they felt pressured to sign his forms, or risk losing their jobs. Bear Runner’s administrative assistant further testified that she was asked to close out travel reports without the required receipts and that Bear Runner directed her to draft memos justifying his travel.”
The court further rejected his appeal that errors were committed in his sentencing, with Benton writing, “This argument fails.”
