Tadios sentenced to a year and a day

Fawn Patricia Ann Tadios, 52, of Box Elder, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison Tuesday.

Tadios, the former chief executive officer of the health clinic at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution and two years probation.

Tadios was convicted after she was discovered to have billed the tribe to pay for at least six trips to visit her husband, Raymond “Jake” Parker, in Yankton, South Dakota, in prison.

He was serving a 16-month sentence for embezzling from the tribe while he was the chair at the tribal council.

According to a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office, Tadios was allowed to voluntarily surrender to prison when a facility is designated.

Tadios was indicted on the charges June 5 of last year and July 24, a jury in the federal court in Great Falls convicted her of three embezzlement charges.

She was facing up to 10 years in prison for stealing federal grants from an Indian government and and five years for stealing from an Indian tribal organization. She also faced up to a $250,000 fine for convictions.

She was charged as part of the U.S. Attorney’s Guardians Project investigation into corruption at Rocky Boy, though there is no indication that she was involved in the net of corruption that has resulted in numerous other investigations at Rocky Boy.

Several members of the Chippewa Cree Tribe and people who are not part of the tribe, both on and off the reservation, have been charged as a result of the Guardians Project investigatios.

Numerous indictments have occurred on other Montana reservations as well, including the Blackfeet, Crow, Fort Peck and Fort Belknap reservations. Some cases, including involving Rocky Boy indictments, still are pending with change of plea hearings, sentencings and trials scheduled.