PIERRE, S.D. (Austin Goss / The Dakota Scout) – Governor Kristi Noem has brought a tribal lawman with more than two decades of experience onto the state payroll and doubling down on allegations that some leaders within American Indian tribes aren’t being palms up about criminal activity happening on South Dakota’s reservations.
The Governor’s Office announced that a newly-created tribal law enforcement position will be filled by former Oglala Sioux Police Chief Algin Young, who will work as an intermediary between state and tribal law enforcement agencies.
The former Oglala Sioux police chief testified last year before Congress about drugs and crime on the reservation, which the Governor’s Office suggests led to Young finding himself “without a job.”
Oglala Sioux tribal officials did not respond to a request for comment.
“Algin Young is well respected within our tribal communities and at the federal level. His knowledge will help in our efforts to restore law and order in Indian Country,” Noem said.
Noem has been battling with tribal officials for months after she sparked push back from the tribes by claiming that foreign drug cartels were using reservations as places to traffic drugs, a claim substantiated by both the Attorney General’s Office and Department of Public Safety. That prompted the Oglala Sioux Tribe – Young’s tribe – to ban her.
Six other tribes have followed suit, citing remarks Noem later made alleging that tribal leaders are sometimes benefitting from cartel activity on their reservations. Noem is currently banned from more than 20 percent of South Dakota’s lands, although tribes are recognized as sovereign nations independent of South Dakota’s government.
The governor has stood by her allegations and took them a step further by calling for an audit of federal funds going to reservations. She’s also made attempts to reach out and settle differences between her and the state’s tribes – the Attorney General’s and Governor’s Offices have partnered up to host a training event for members of tribal law enforcement agencies this summer.
“The federal government is turning their backs on our tribal reservations. The lack of tribal law enforcement officers combined with the warzone at our southern border has created multiple crises on our reservations,” Noem said.
A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Young began his career with law enforcement on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation after being honorably discharged in 2001 from the military. Across his time as a police officer, he’s worked in a variety of agencies ranging from federal to tribal. Now, he’ll join the state under the Department of Tribal Relations, serving as a senior advisor on law enforcement and public safety in Indian Country to the state’s tribal relations and public safety departments, as well as the governor.
Young and his wife, Monica, have five children.
“I am passionate about improving law and order on our reservations and neighboring communities,” said Young. “I look forward to serving as an ambassador for the state of South Dakota at the federal level and with the state’s nine tribal nations to facilitate solutions for tribal law enforcement and understand and navigate jurisdictional challenges.”
PIERRE, S.D. – Top officials from the South Dakota Department of Corrections appeared before the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee on Tuesday and reported that they’re still working through the final design and the cost of a new men’s prison that is planned at a site near Harrisburg.
Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko and her budget director Brittni Skipper also testified along with two residents who are opposed to the prison site north of Harrisburg in Lincoln County.
A citizens opposition group, Neighbors Opposing Prison Expansion, has filed a lawsuit in state circuit court against the project. Republican Sen. Jim Bolin, whose legislative district includes much of Lincoln County, asked Wasko whether the department has a backup plan in the case that the lawsuit goes against the state. Wasko said there is not a Plan B.
Wasko and Skipper said the design is nearly complete and that will lead to delivery of a guaranteed maximum price from the contractor by early November. While that amount remains uncertain, discussions in the halls of the Capitol have pointed to a number higher than $700 million. Construction is scheduled to wrap up in January 2029, according to a presentation the department prepared for the committee.
The new prison will have a 1,500-bed capacity and Wasko said there’s already a need for 1,200 beds. She said completion of the new prison will also allow inmates to be shifted throughout South Dakota’s other men’s incarceration sites including Mike Durfee State Prison at Springfield and the Yankton unit.
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota state government could lose $42.7 million in taxes currently levied on tobacco products if voters approve IM 28 later this year, according to the chief budget analyst for the state Legislative Research Council.
Jeff Mehlhaff told the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee on Tuesday the total impact depends on the interpretation of a key phrase — “anything sold for human consumption”.
IM28, sponsored by Dakotans For Health’s Rick Weiland, proposes a new state law that says, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the state may not tax the sale of anything sold for human consumption, except alcoholic beverages and prepared food. Municipalities may continue to impose such taxes.”
Mehlhaff delivered a four-page memo and supplemented it with an eight-slide presentation to the 18-member panel that sets state government’s budget each year. The memo says IM28’s impact could range from a low of $133.6 million, if only non-prepared food items became exempt from the state 4.2% sales tax, to as much as $646.2 million if services, energy, tobacco, personal care items, paper and stationery, and various other consumables also become exempt.
Republican Rep. Tony Venhuizen, a former chief of staff during the Daugaard and Noem administrations, asked Mehlhaff whether tobacco fit under the definition of human consumption.
Mehlhaff said tobacco products are defined in state law as “any item made of tobacco intended for human consumption, including cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and smokeless tobacco, and vapor products.” He said that’s why words matter when lawmakers consider legislation.
Venhuizen asked Mehlhaff if the drafting of the measure was not well thought out and Mehlhaff said it’s fair to say this wasn’t the language that was submitted or the language that LRC recommended. He read from the August 12, 2022, letter that LRC sent to Weiland. A follow-up letter from LRC to Weiland on December 2, 2022, made many of the same points, including the warning that the phrase about “human consumption” was “overly vague.”
That letter suggested, “A rewrite of the language using terms consistent with the statutory definition of ‘food and food ingredients’ may better clarify the intent of the proposed language. lf the language is left in its current form, the question remains as to what food and beverages would be subject to tax.”
Venhuizen called it “irresponsible” for someone to put such a measure on the ballot.
STORM LAKE, IA – An Iowa man is looking at over 20 years in prison after a 2023 stabbing in Storm Lake, Iowa.
Court documents show 31-year-old Oscar Ortiz of Laurens pleaded guilty to attempted murder. The plea was entered this past Monday, and because he waived his right to a delay in sentencing, Ortiz has already been sentenced to 25 years in prison. According to the Buena Vista County Attorney’s Office, Ortiz must serve 17.5 years before he is eligible for parole.
Ortiz was charged with attempted murder after the incident in September 2023. Storm Lake Police say at around 5 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18 Ortiz stabbed a man five times with a large hunting knife. Police say Ortiz also stole the victim’s phone before leaving the area in a vehicle.
The victim was able to get to a local hospital where he was treated for serious injuries before being flown to another hospital for further treatment.
By 5:15 p.m., police learned Ortiz had surrendered himself at the Storm Lake Police Department.
Originally, Ortiz was also facing three other charges: assault, willful injury and going armed with intent. Those charges were dismissed by the court as part of Ortiz’s guilty plea.
DAKOTA CITY, NE – The wife of the man accused of killing a Dakota Dunes woman last year had her first day in court Tuesday afternoon.
Reyna Castellanos is facing two felony murder charges of accessory to murder plus two misdemeanor charges. Castellanos is accused of helping her husband, Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales after he allegedly murdered Jordan Beardshear, who is the mother to his child, in her Dakota Dunes apartment in April 2023.
The South Dakota attorney general’s office, the prosecutors bringing the case against Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales, said in court filings that Reyna Castellanos met her husband behind Tyson Foods, agreed to sell one of their homes and withdrew money to aid in his escape. Authorities say this happened on April 26, 2023, one day after Beardshear was allegedly killed by Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales.
According to the court filing, Reyna Castellanos also drove her husband to Jackson, Nebraska, before returning there a second time to bring him some food. Prosecutors wrote that Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales admitted to the murders in a phone call with his wife on three separate occasions before she provided him aide.
Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales eventually fled to Mexico but was returned to the U.S. by Mexican authorities, and then extradited from Texas to Union County, South Dakota. He faces several felony charges including murder in Union County, but local prosecutors filed a notice they would not seek the death penalty.
She was arrested last week and officially arraigned on those charges in Dakota County court Tuesday afternoon. Her bond was set at $1 million.
MADISON COUNTY, NE – The Madison County Sheriff’s Office has released information on a death in rural Madison County.
On Sunday, July 28, just after 9:40 p.m., the Madison County deputies and Norfolk Fire and Rescue were dispatched to a report of an injured person who had jumped from a moving vehicle.
When Norfolk Fire and Rescue arrived on the scene, they began life-saving measures before taking the person to Faith Regional Health Services, in Norfolk.
That individual later died at the hospital. He has been identified as 22-year-old Jayden Sporleder of Pierce, Nebraska.
During their investigation, police say the driver reported that Sporleder jumped out of the front passenger door of the pickup truck while it was going nearly 60 mph. Sporleder fell under the vehicle and was struck by the pickup truck.
Police say alcohol is believed to be a contributing factor to the incident, however, the driver was not believed to be driving under the influence. There is no indication of foul play at this time.
This incident remains under investigation by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.
DAKOTA CITY, NE – A Fremont Nebraska man has been arrested and charged with felony failure to stop and render aid in a serious injury or death accident, motor vehicle homicide, and violating load content requirements…all related to the April 27th death of a rural Dakota City teenager.
Everett Bundy, age 50, is alleged to be the driver of a flat bed straight truck that was carrying an unsecured load. According to the Dakota County Sheriff’s Department a pipe from that unsecured load came off the truck and entered the vehicle driven by 17-year old Kassandra Claasen, causing a mortal injury which then caused an accident about 2 miles west of Dakota City on Highway 35. That accident resulted in Claasen’s death.
Bundy was taken into custody on Monday by the Hooper Nebraska Police Department and then transferred to the custody of the Dakota County Sheriff. He is being held in the Dakota County Jail on a $150,000 at 10% bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for August 21st.
