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Chief Billie is indefinitely suspended as chairman of the Seminoles and taken off the tribe's payroll.
By JEFF TESTERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 25, 2001
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- The reign of James E. Billie, the tough-talking alligator wrestler who led the Seminole Tribe of Florida to new heights for 21 years, came to a stunning and abrupt halt Thursday.
In an extraordinary move, the Seminole Tribal Council stripped Billie of his authority as tribal chairman, immediately removed him from the tribe's payroll and suspended him indefinitely.
Billie, 57, now in his sixth term as chairman, could be removed permanently or reinstated by the council at a later date.
The resolution approved by council members cited Seminole bylaws requiring tribal officials to refrain from conduct that constitutes "gross neglect of duty or misconduct."
The 4-0 vote, with Billie absent from the meeting, came less than a month after the St. Petersburg Times reported that Billie is the target of a federal investigation.
The suspension was the only business before the council Thursday and took less than 15 minutes. There was no discussion. The decision was met by the applause of a sparse gathering of tribal members in the Seminole auditorium in Hollywood.
Billie's unquestioned authority has eroded in recent weeks as a growing number of tribal members have publicly voiced their disenchantment with him. The federal inquiry into corruption involving the 2,800-member tribe fed the discontent.
The federal investigation has been under way for more than a year, but recently became a matter of public knowledge with FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents attending Tribal Council meetings.
"Billie has left a taint on our name, he's made us look bad," tribal member Erica Deitz said after Thursday's vote. "The way I see it, we could be a lot more prosperous if he hadn't been dipping into the treasury."
Billie and the council oversee a government and business empire that includes five gambling casinos, an airplane factory, cattle farm and other businesses that bring in a half-billion dollars a year. More than 95 percent of the tribe's income is derived from its casinos, and tribal members each get a $2,000 monthly dividend. Billie said four years ago that he made about $200,000 a year.
Billie has been the embodiment of the tribe for a generation. With a 12th-grade education, the Vietnam veteran, pilot and award-winning songwriter became a staunch advocate of Seminole culture and a savvy business negotiator.
The Seminoles pioneered Indian gambling in the United States under Billie's predecessor, Howard Tommie. Billie has battled Florida governors and the Justice Department in a relentless attempt to expand the tribe's gambling business into Las Vegas-style casinos.
But a recent sexual harassment lawsuit against Billie set the groundwork for his suspension.
The Tribal Council cited a federal suit filed against him May 10 by Christine O'Donnell, the former tribal director of administration. The suit says Billie regularly used his position as chairman "to coerce its female employees to engage in sexual relations with him."
The suit also alleges that Billie got O'Donnell pregnant, forced her to get an abortion, fired her, then paid her off with tribal funds: $100,000 in phony sick leave.
"I'm pleased to see the tribal leadership has taken the responsibility to review the conduct of its chief and remove him," said O'Donnell's attorney, Andrew Hall.
The Tribal Council, with Mitchell Cypress acting as chairman, declared that Billie's suspension would last at least until the O'Donnell lawsuit is resolved and until the results of a special audit of tribal finances are in. The other council members voting were David Cypress, Max Osceola and Jack Smith.
The council hired an outside auditor to conduct a special examination of tribal spending in March, a few weeks after Billie's hand-picked government operations manager, Tim Cox, tried to enact a spending freeze.
Cox's attempt to limit spending -- ignored by council members -- set off a series of events that slowly disassembled Billie's administration.
Tribal Council members were rankled by reports that Cox had taken a $500,000 consulting fee from the developers of the tribe's $410-million Hard Rock Cafe-Hotel Casino project in Tampa and Hollywood and by Billie's insistence that the tribe shell out $50-million for a new 19-seat Gulfstream V corporate jet.
In an unusual show of dissension in mid March, the council surprised observers by defying Billie with a 4-1 vote against the plane.
Tribal members began to call their own meetings to ask questions about tribal spending. Near the top of the list: What was the tribe doing in Nicaragua?
Billie talked of a cattle ranch that was making a modest profit. But then tribal members discovered that Cox had his own secret deal in Nicaragua: A company he controlled bought a hotel in Managua and secured a Hard Rock Live franchise.
Seminole general counsel Jim Shore called Cox's private Hard Rock consulting deal a "flat-out conflict of interest."
Billie's newspaper, which he once called one of his weapons, openly criticized his detractors. An editorial in the Seminole Tribune called the jet plane vote "unwise business."
On April 25, the Tribal Council began to disarm Billie.
First, his four council colleagues took over the Tribune and fired his top four assistants, all non-tribal members.
On May 3, the council voted to fire Robert Saunooke, a Cherokee lawyer hired late last year to represent Billie's office. Saunooke earned the enmity of the council by criticizing their votes and Shore's abilities in comments to the St. Petersburg Times.
On May 10, the council fired Cox. A sign of the contentious relationship between Cox and the council emerged several days later, when Cox's tribal car was returned to tribal headquarters. Seminole officials called the Broward County Sheriff's bomb squad to be sure no explosive device had been left in the car. None was found.
It is unclear where Billie's ouster leaves the tribe, which is still seeking Department of Interior permission to expand gambling.
The tribe's gambling operations sparked the current federal investigation.
Investigators looked into skimming allegations at the tribe's casinos, and last year charged Steve Weil, a Broward businessman who once worked for some of the Seminoles' casino partners, with money laundering.
Now, the investigation has expanded.
Last month, federal prosecutors filed a plea agreement with Charles Kirkpatrick, a former CIA employee and Billie's former pilot.
Kirkpatrick pleaded guilty to making a false statement on an income tax return while a tribal employee and agreed to testify before a grand jury about "theft, embezzlement and fraud" involving the Seminole Tribe and its related businesses.
About 2,800 members. Each receives monthly stipend of $2,000.
James E. Billie, 57, first elected chairman in 1979. Tribal Council includes the chairman and four representatives, each elected to four-year terms.
Opened the first Indian gambling halls in the United States. Gambling accounts for more than 95 percent of tribal revenue.
Other businesses include cattle ranching, aircraft manufacturing, eco-tourism, rope manufacturing and turtle farming.
Estimated annual revenues of $500-million.