Huston sentencings scheduled, rescheduled

A Havre businessman and former school board chair has pleaded guilty to more charges of fraud and embezzlement involving Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, and his sentencing has been set for early next year.

Shad James Huston pleaded guilty in federal District Court in Great Falls to charges in two cases opened this year. Huston's sentencing was set to go along with a rescheduled sentencing in another case opened in 2014.

At the request of Huston's attorney, Judge Brian Morris rescheduled the sentencing in the 2014 case from Dec. 16 to Feb. 17, the date set for sentencing in this year's cases.

Huston is the latest of a series of prominent people both on and off the reservation to have sentencing set in cases stemming from the U.S. Attorney for the District of

Montana's Guardians Project.

U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter spearheaded creation of the project, in which federal agencies cooperate during investigations of allegations of fraud, corruption and embezzlement

People who have pleaded guilty, with many already sentenced, to charges of fraud and embezzlement at the Rocky Boy reservation include Havre psychologist James Howard Eastlick Jr .; his father, sister and ex-brother-in-law, all of Laurel; former Rocky Boy tribal council chairs Bruce Sunchild Sr. and John "Chance" Houle; former council member, state representative and head of the Chippewa Cree Tribe's construction company Tony Belcourt and his wife, Hailey Belcourt; and Timothy Warren Rosette, the director of Rocky Boy Health Board's Environmental Health Unit and director of the tribe's Road Branch.

The most recent indictment was against Darin Lee Miller, 43, of Havre, who last month pleaded guilty to failing to report interest he earned on extensive tribal loans as a partner in Eastlick Jr.'s loan company, JE Loan Program, which Eastlick operated with the Chippewa Cree Tribe and in which he loaned money to both the tribe and individual tribal employees.

Eastlick, a Havre resident, was the psychologist at the tribal clinic at the time and a former CEO of the tribe's health board. Miller was a pharmacist at the clinic.

In the charges against Huston, he pleaded guilty in September to cashing checks of $10,000 or more for people from the reservation at a pawn shop without filing required federal transaction reports.

In one of the cases in which he entered his guilty pleas last week, Huston pleaded guilty to bribing a tribal official.

The prosecution said if the case went to trial it was prepared to prove that Huston submitted multiple claims for trucking contracts which he inflated in order to pay kickbacks to Rosette. In a document detailing proof the prosecution would have offered against Rosette, the government said most of the bribes were in cash, so the amount could not be quantified, but investigators estimated that in Huston's cases and others, Rosette may have received as much as $500,000 between October 2009 and July 2012.

In the other case, Huston pleaded guilty to making false claims, with the government saying it was prepared to prove that Huston submitted false claims of work by trucking companies - including a fictional company he created to submit claims - to Rosette.

Rosette is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 2 in the three cases in which he entered guilty pleas.