1 year for Eastlick, Sunchild to plead

One man accused of embezzling money in a Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation scandal was sentenced Thursday and another chair of its tribal council is scheduled to change his plea in charges filed against him.

James Howard Eastlick Sr. of Laurel, father of Rocky Boy psychologist and former head of the Chippewa Cree Tribe’s health care system James Howard Eastlick Jr. of Havre, pleaded guilty in a plea agreement to charges that he, and his daughter and then-son-in-law conspired with Chippewa Cree Construction Corp. head Tony Belcourt and his wife, Hailey Belcourt, to embezzle money the federal government put toward building a regional water system.

Thursday in Federal District Court in Great Falls, District Judge Brian Morris sentenced Eastlick Sr. to 12 months and one day in prison followed by one year of supervised release and ordered him to pay $311,000 in restitution, along with other defendants.

The sentence is the latest action in a string of indictments alleging corruption, fraud, bribery and embezzlement at the reservation, indictments coming from investigations of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana’s Guardians Project investigation corruption in Indian Country.

Other recent action is a change of plea hearing set for former Chippewa Cree Business Committee Chair Bruce Harold Sunchild, who took over the position in 2011 when then-Chair Raymond “Jake” Parker resigned one day before pleading guilty to a charge he embezzled from the tribe.

Sunchild is set to change his plea Oct. 1 in a case alleging he and Tony Belcourt approved a $300,000 check to a business owned by Havre resident and former school board chair Shad Huston, who paid kickbacks to Belcourt and a $24,997 check to Sunchild which Sunchild used to buy a vehicle he put in his daughter’s name.

Tony and Hailey Belcourt and Huston all have pleaded guilty in inter-related plea agreements on some charges from multiple indictments filed against them. Tony Belcourt was sentenced to 7½ years in prison followed by three years probation, and ordered him to pay $667,183 in restitution. Morris sentenced Hailey Belcourt to two months in prison followed by three years probation and ordered her to pay $156,183 in restitution.

Huston is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 24.

Eastlick Jr., a defendant, business partner or relative of defendants in many of the indictments filed about Rocky Boy embezzlement, also pleaded guilty in a complex agreement and is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 24.

Tammy Leischner of Laurel, his sister, who pleaded guilty in the same case in which her father pleaded guilty, is scheduled to plead guilty to charges in other cases along with her son Brenden Leischner next Tuesday. Her ex-husband, Mark Leischner, is scheduled for a change of plea Wednesday.

Eastlick Jr.’s former construction business partner Hunter Burns already pleaded guilty to embezzling and bribes and was sentenced to two months in prison followed by four months home detention and three years probation and ordered to pay $125,000 in fines.

Trials against tribal council member and former council chair John “Chance” Houle, also president of the Chippewa Cree Rodeo Association, and rodeo association vice president Wade Colliflower are set for Dec. 8 and Jan. 20 and Houle faces a trial Feb. 2 in a third indictment.

Fawn Tadios, former head of Rocky Boy’s health department, is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 9. A jury convicted Tadios of embezzling money she used to pay for trips to visit her husband, former Business Committee Chair “Jake” Parker, while he was serving his embezzlement sentence.