Justices to Rule on Past Sex Crimes, Tribal Raids

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court took up a pair of California cases Monday, one to decide whether sex abuse charges can be brought for incidents that happened decades earlier and another to resolve whether state police can carry out raids on tribal reservations.

Marion Stogner was 70 years old in 1998 when he was charged with committing lewd acts with his children from 1955 to 1973. The alleged incidents took place in Contra Costa County.

At the time, California had a three-year statute of limitations for such crimes.

However, the Legislature created a one-year period during which people who were sexually abused when they were young can report the incidents to law enforcement.

Stogner was charged when relatives reported his crimes. Prosecutors say he did not deny the allegations, but said the criminal charges were improper so long after the fact.

His lawyer contended the repeal of the statute of limitations violates the Constitution’s ban on ex post facto laws. Generally, this ban has been interpreted as barring the government from imposing new laws on past crimes or increasing the punishment for past offenses.

State prosecutors said they had done neither in Stogner’s case, and the state Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal.

But the justices granted his appeal in Stogner vs. California to decide whether lifting the time period for filing charges has the effect of raising the punishment for past crimes.

Meanwhile, the court agreed to take up an Inyo County case that California prosecutors say threatens their ability to enforce the law.

In 1999, investigators were checking on evidence of welfare fraud by three employees of a tribal casino run by the Paiute-Shosone Indians.

They obtained a search warrant to check the casino’s payroll records.

But tribal officials barred the search and declared the reservation was a sovereign territory, off-limits to searches.

In May, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and upheld the tribe’s claim of sovereign immunity.

Inyo prosecutors appealed, saying the ruling makes the hundreds of reservations in the West into “sanctuaries for off-reservation criminal enterprises.”

Los Angeles County District Atty. Steve Cooley said the 9th Circuit ruling, if allowed to stand, could allow for criminal “enclaves” to operate freely just a 25-minute drive from downtown.

The court will hear the case of Inyo County vs. Paiute-Shoshone Indians in March and issue a ruling by July.