The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux tribe, which owns Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, pays this man almost 80,000 per month. He owns multiple homes, arrives to court in a limousine with driver and yet he pleads “poverty” in court.
What was his crime? Instead of calling for rescue when a 16 year old girl was dying of a methamphetamine overdose, he decides to rape her and even keeps others from dialing 911so she died.
The girl died but he can not pay restitution to the family because “one of his homes is in foreclosure.” Hey, we all got problems. I suppose we should feel sorry for this “untouchable” career criminal. He almost went to jail, he owes everybody money, his terrible record of being an abuser and flouting the law now has another tarnish on it. Perhaps the family of the victim should just forget about it. I’m sure his conscience has suffered enough. [sarcasm]
Daniel Edwin Jones served four years in prison for having sex with a 16-year-old Coon Rapids girl 10 years ago as she lay dying from a methamphetamine overdose.
In 2008, he settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Brittany Powell’s mother for $2 million.
His debt to society has officially been paid. His financial debt to Brittany’s family remains outstanding.
“He did not abide by the agreement he signed,” said Brittany’s mother, Victoria Powell. “He’s shown up at certain legal events in his limousine, with his driver, and then in deposition pleads poverty.”
The settlement calls for Jones, 28, a member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux tribe, which owns Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, to pay the family $500,000 upfront, followed by monthly payments of $10,000 until the debt is paid.
“His income per year is over $900,000,” said Fred Soucie, an attorney for Victoria Powell.
Jones, who has never held a job but receives hefty checks twice monthly from his tribe, has made little progress toward paying the $2 million, Soucie said. Instead, he has claimed in court he is swimming in debt and unable to come up with more than $10,000 per month.
The unpaid legal judgment underscores any number of discussions about victims’ rights and a convicted felon’s obligations to the family of those he has harmed: How much is a human life worth, and when is it paid for in full?
The legal battle has also brought unwelcome attention
to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux, a small but prosperous tribe whose members have made millions from casino revenues. For the Powell family, it’s drawn salt into a gruesome wound they are still struggling to come to terms with.
Jones did not return phone calls seeking comment, but his attorney, Sam McCloud, said his client hopes to negotiate a new payment plan in light of his debts.
“The bottom line is he has very little spendable money,” McCloud said. “… He’s got problems like anyone else. He’s got a house in foreclosure.”
CONSERVATOR HANDLING CASE
In November 2000, as Brittany overdosed on more than twice a lethal dose of meth, Jones took sexual advantage of her at a Burnsville trailer home. At trial, prosecutors alleged that when his cousin and a friend stopped by and found her in obvious distress, Jones prevented them from calling 911.
Brittany, who had told her mother she planned to shake drugs by moving in with her older sister in Kentucky, was dead by the time the group arrived at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. Jones, who was 18 at the time of the assault, was acquitted of her murder but convicted of two counts of criminal sexual assault and one count each of child neglect and child endangerment.
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To date, Jones has paid the family roughly $150,000, McCloud said, and his complicated finances are now being handled by a conservator, a third party designated by the tribal council.
“I am very interested in what the tribal conservatorship does with this man’s debt to the family of his victim, and whether or not his debt is going to be honored,” said Soucie, Victoria Powell’s attorney. “It’s hard for me to envision a more heinous act than what this man did to this child.”
In a brief written statement, however, the tribal council denied any involvement in the civil case.
“The issue is a personal one to Mr. Jones. The tribal government is not a party in this matter,” they wrote. “The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community firmly believes that individual tribal members must be accountable for their personal acts; in this matter, Mr. Jones must satisfy his personal obligations to the plaintiffs as adjudicated by the courts.”
In August 2008, Dakota County District Judge Kathryn Messerich found that Jones had breached the settlement agreement reached in May that year by failing to give Powell’s family the $500,000 lump sum upfront. Messerich ordered him to pay by September 2008, which he did not do.
Soucie maintains that Jones has the resources to pay. In fact, he believes Jones has been flashing his deep pockets and disrespect for Brittany’s family by showing up to court in a black limousine and making snide remarks as he leaves the courtroom.
“Jones conveyed and continues to flaunt a ‘you can never touch me’ attitude with broken promises and ostentatious behavior,” Soucie wrote in a November 2009 court filing.
TWO DIFFERENT STORIES
Separate depositions of Jones and his wife, Fabiola Martinez, reveal the Mdewakanton tribe pays Jones roughly $38,000 every two weeks.
In addition to Mystic Lake, the tribe owns the smaller Little Six Casino, the Dakotah Meadows RV Park, several smaller business ventures and 2,800 acres of land in the Shakopee and Prior Lake area.
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Soucie said $2 million isn’t such a large sum relative to the $50 million Jones can expect to collect over the course of his lifetime. And he’s flouted legal rulings before.
Jones’ rap sheet includes convictions for fleeing police in a motor vehicle in 2004 and 2001, meth possession in 2003, drunken driving in 2004 and 2002 and underage alcohol consumption in 2004 and 2001.
In depositions, however, Jones has painted an entirely different picture of himself. He said he’s cash-strapped, overwhelmed by debt and demands from creditors and dependent on his wife’s family for basic necessities.
McCloud maintains the tribe plans to reduce his client’s income because the economic slowdown has taken a bite from its casino revenue.
He said the legal settlement has become a Catch-22 for Jones. The settlement, which was negotiated by a previous attorney, called for $500,000 upfront, which Jones had planned to borrow but said he was ultimately unable to do. When that money fell through, the Powell family began charging interest.
“He was making the monthly payments, but it turned out the monthly payments were doing him no good, because they were charging him interest,” McCloud said. “Every $10,000 payment that he made … wasn’t reducing the principal. That essentially means you pay $10,000 for the rest of your life.”
The conservator who now handles his money wants to renegotiate the terms of the settlement, McCloud said.
“(Daniel’s) not trying to run from it. He got bad legal advice that got him sucked into this. He’s not trying to avoid anything. He wants to pay them $2 million,” McCloud said. “If they would accept $10,000 a month until the $2 million is paid, we’d be done with it. The only reason we’re not in the position right now is because his prior lawyer made a deal to pay money upfront without having the money in place.”
TIME OFF FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR
Questioned before a Scott County District Court judge in Shakopee in March 2009, Jones said he was falling behind on mortgage and utility payments. His 20-year-old brother had died two months earlier, and he was paying for the funeral and shopping for a gravestone.
Among his creditors were the Internal Revenue Service, Dakota County, his mortgage lender, the tribe itself and Brittany Powell’s family. He was also paying child support and attorney’s fees related to a custody dispute.
“Lately, (I’m) borrowing money from family members and stuff, friends, when I can’t cover (my mortgage),” said Jones, who said he was having little success urging friends to buy one of his homes from him. “Right now, I’m just in a big slump.”
Jones, who said he had never held a job other than a brief stint with a youth-enrichment program as a kid, said he owned two homes, a Mercedes-Benz, a second car and a fishing boat, though one of the homes was in foreclosure. He planned to enroll in a chef’s school.
Jones has disputed aspects of the civil and criminal cases related to Brittany’s death.
In 2004, he maintained throughout his criminal trial in 2004 that he did, in fact, have sex with Brittany, but it was in the early afternoon, hours before she fell comatose from abusing meth. His attorney at the time said the reason he discouraged his cousin and another acquaintance from calling 911 after they noticed her in distress was because he felt it would be quicker to get her to a hospital by car.
A jury concluded he’d had sex with Powell when she was physically helpless but stopped short of agreeing he supplied the drugs that killed her.
Jones twice appealed his 8 1/2-year prison sentence, arguing it was two years longer than the term mandated by state guidelines. In February 2009, his term was reduced to six years and 10 months. He had already been released from prison in April 2008 after time off for good behavior.
Soucie hopes to convince Jones to pay Powell’s family at least $38,000 every two weeks. He said that if Jones does not increase his monthly payments, he could be held in contempt of court and jailed.
“At this point we have not had that order issued by the judge,” Soucie said.
Keep track of this scourge of society by visiting his personal page at the Minnesota Department Of Corrections HERE
Interesting to note that he was admitted to jail 2/24/2009 and was released 3/5/2009
Must be nice to have so much money. He’s been buying himself out of trouble his whole life, when will it stop, when he finally kills someone? oh wait…. too late.
COMMENTS:
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SeaShark Eden Prairie, MN
DANIEL EDWIN JONES: A Career Criminal With No Conscience
Daniel Jones clearly has no intention of honoring the wrongful death civil lawsuit settlement he signed with advice of legal counsel, agreeing to pay Brittany Powell’s mother Victoria $2 million via a mutually agreed upon payment schedule.
Jones’ caustic, sneering, sarcastic comments deliberately uttered within earshot of Victoria during court appearances are designed to demean and hurt her; a snide and outrageous attempt to increase the pain and sorrow that Victoria endures as she grieves the tragic loss of her daughter.
Jones’ enthusiastic ally is criminal defense lawyer Sam McCloud, famous for admiring and defending drunk drivers but always willing to make excuses for any criminal who tries to avoid the consequences of his criminal conduct.
Jones should be found in contempt of court and sent to prison, and the court should order his conservator to immediately pay Victoria the $500,000 lump sum required by the settlement plus a minimum of $35,000 per month until the entire $2 million financial obligation is paid in full.
Career criminals like David Edwin Jones have no credibility and don’t deserve any favors from the criminal justice system. Jones’ excuses for failing to pay his debt to Brittany’s family are transparently false and ludicrous. Cry me a river, Mr. Jones.
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Bob the Bilderberg Saint Paul, MN
While there is some legal evidence that those who claim to be the rightful tribal owners of that land are frauds (their surname of Crooks is a delicious irony), it’s also true that the tribes in the dakotas are insanely jealous of the Shakopee Sioux who lucked into their obscene wealth while the Indians in the Dakotas still don’t have a pot to piss in.
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RACINO Dodge Center, MN
Share the wealth! RACINO… This guy is a loser.He gets paid $1,000,000 and what does he do for society? I’d rather have that money go to schools, roads, natural resources or with, a stadium!
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East German Pride Inver Grove Heights, MN
I say Hang him, confiscate his non earned money, revoke tribal rights, as half these clowns have German last names or English last names, aka fakers. Thanks for helping the real natives in South and North Dakota you White Indians
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Tim Burr Prior Lake, MN
This is the first generation from this tribe. The next one is even worse.
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neocon junta Minneapolis, MN
“Your casino wrote:Your casino dollars hard at work. Anyone gambling there is supporting people like this”
So are the people who bought cars from Denny just like him, what about the people who shopped at Petters. Gambling is never a good ideal but your statement is wacko.
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Not a dime Savage, MN
I can only suggest that NO ONE set foot in that Casino until the band causes this member of the tribe to honor the agreement that he made with the family of the girl that he assaulted and allowed to die.
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neocon junta Minneapolis, MN
Affula wrote: “if the tribe is actually that rich that they can not care about paying its felon tribal members $80,000 a month to blow however they feel, then I got one thing to say: LEGALIZE GAMBLING IN THIS STATE! NOW!”
Your comment is crazy. Well Petters is rich and Enron was run by white males so should all white men over 5O have to pay people back who lost money? Those that won court judgments.
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merks Saint Paul, MN
they are a sovereign nation which mean our laws do not apply to them and our rights are forfeited the second we put one foot on their soil. which begs the question. why isn’t a passport required for them to either leave the reservation or for us to go there?
Cut off all federal aid and state aid and charge a fee every time they leave the reservation.
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Its Fair Minneapolis, MN
He should not have to pay to money to a white victim. This is how we will make up for injustices committed hundreds of years ago on the ancestors of Mr. Jones. Leave Mr. Jones alone. GoBama!
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Mn resident Minneapolis, MN
The tribe members do pay federal taxes on there income which is like 35% of what they get. Maybe instead of racino, mn should get what they pay into federal taxes. just a thought. Again this is a individual matter so we cant blame the parents or a tribe for mistakes made by people.
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Telling it like it is Minneapolis, MN
Not one living indian today had ANYTHING stolen from them by a the white man. Why do the indians continue to recieve special treatment today? The only thing preventing them from being productive citizens of this country is the fact that they all seek refuge on their reservation and chose not to go forward and be fruitful. Anyone spending any money in the indian casinoes is just further enabling these people to be the lazy people that stereotypes (somewhat accurately) portray.
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East German Pride Inver Grove Heights, MN
Take away the Tribe’s casino rights ASAP, then place this lazy person in prison to do hard labor until his debt is paid!!!! Prison should be hard labor no TVs and murder inside should be punishable by mandatory hanging. MN should have non-Indian casinos as competition, also why aren’t they giving a good majority of their earnings to South and North Dakota tribes, ones that actually resisted the US Army for them? Answer that Shakopee!
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taxpayer too Detroit Lakes, MN
perhaps they should have taught thier daughter not to take or use drugs in the first place. How much did she contribute to society before her death? did she have job? Perhaps the united states should be sued for all the Indians that have died due to the army of the u.s. attacking them, man wouldn’t they owe the tribes and families a lot of money. get real greed greed and more greed
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your casino San Francisco, CA
Your casino dollars hard at work. Anyone gambling there is supporting people like this.
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what an idiot Forest Lake, MN
seriously? this just goes to show that if you are handed everything on a silver platter and never made to work for anything in your life you just aren’t functional. One more reason why the state of MN should get their hands in on the abundant revenues apparently being paid out to the Indians. See no reason why they should have the monopoly on something just because of what was done to their great ancestors who most of them probably can’t even trace back. If that is the case, why aren’t the ancestors of slaves being given $900,000 a year too. Jeesh- He makes more in one month than I do in a year and he can’t pay his bills? maybe they should garnish it from the tribe. Oh wait – they have their own tribal laws and council so they can’t. stupid!
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Affula Saint Paul, MN
oh you don’t like paying interest? tell that to the millions of Americans crippled by credit card debt… not to mention what you are in debt for!!! what a scumbag! why is this guy not in jail?
i guess i don’t know how Indian tribes work but: a) why do they seem to have this guy’s back, and b) who decides to keep paying a felon $80,000 a month to do nothing simply because he’s a member of the tribe?
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ForReal Saint Paul, MN
$2,000,000 judgment
-$500,000 upfront
-$120,00 (12 payments @$10,000 each)
Balance =$1,380,000
That is 69 payments of $20,000. I’m thinking monthly. He would seem to have the income to support that.
Affula Saint Paul, MN
if the tribe is actually that rich that they can not care about paying its felon tribal members $80,000 a month to blow however they feel, then I got one thing to say: LEGALIZE GAMBLING IN THIS STATE! NOW!
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Quinn Saint Paul, MN
Another reason to vote for racino. If this tribe can give 38,000 every two weeks to noncontributing members then the tribe has made more than enough and the monopoly should end.
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Indian Tears Saint Paul, MN
Unfortunately this is one area where stereotypes do fit. The problem of young people with huge incomes from casino profits getting into trouble with drugs, the law, etc. is repeated at every Indian casino. Tribes do nothing to alleviate the problem. The general attitude among tribes and their members seems to be, “Give me the money and f*%$ you! You can’t touch me. The laws of society do no apply to us.”
This behavior is enabled by all tribe members.
The Last Straw Saint Paul, MN
I was aware that tribe members received “a lot” from the casinos, but no idea it was this much. The fact that these casinos contribute next to nothing back to the state is the last piece of info I needed … I’ll never again step foot into a MN casino. Too many restaurants, etc. in the cities that need our support …
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Get a Grip Saint Paul, MN
What short sighted moron ever thought up the idea of Indian Gaming. It didn’t empower them, it created garbage like this.
We pay our debt to Indian Tribes by showering them with money and keeping them completely incapable of surviving a modern day existence.
No offense intended, but I’m thinking that in 2010 Indians would not now be following the great herds of buffalo in a peaceful existence the way they had done for centuries whether the white man showed up or not?
Eventually they would have had to modernize like all other native peoples all over earth have done.
You’re better than that folks……
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