Rocky Boy official pleads guilty

A Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation official pleaded guilty Tuesday to bribery and theft from the reservation.

Timothy Warren Rosette, 52, of Box Elder changed his plea Tuesday during a hearing in the Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls to guilty for two counts of bribery and one of theft from tribal lands.

Rosette was the director of the Rocky Boy Health Clinic's Environmental Health Unit and director of of the Roads Division for the tribe during the time listed in the indictments.

He is guilty of working with Shad James Huston and James Eastlick, who were also indicted in the scheme, to receive kickbacks from payments made to the Chippewa Cree Construction Corporation to improve water systems on the reservation. Rosette was on the board for the CCCC.

The maximum sentence for the bribery counts is 10 years imprisonment, with three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The maximum sentence for the theft count is five years with three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

“Rosette will also be responsible for restitution to repay the tribe for losses associated with his crimes,” a press release from the Justice Department reads.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 29.