By JONAH LOSSIAH
One Feather Reporter
On the morning of Monday, Jan. 9, Wolftown Tribal Council Rep. Bo Crowe was arraigned on three felony charges following an incident that occurred this past weekend.
Rep. Crowe has been charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury (In offense of Tribal Code 14-40.54), aggravated reckless endangerment (In offense of Tribal Code 14-40.64), and assault by strangulation (In offense of Tribal Code 14-40.49). The Court applied case numbers 23CR9019, 23CR9020, and 23CR9021 for these charges, respectively.
The incident in question occurred ‘at Harrah’s Cherokee Resort Hotel’ on Friday, Jan. 6. The criminal complaint provided by Cherokee Court, alleges that ‘the defendant unlawfully assaulted Jason Matthew Burleson and inflicted serious bodily injury by creating a substantial risk of death. On the date and time of the offense, the defendant did assault the victim by striking the victim about the body and by placing his arm around the victim’s neck and squeezing, causing the victim to lose consciousness.’
Rep. Crowe was arrested on Saturday, Jan. 7 after a warrant was filed. He was detained at the Anthony Lossiah Justice Center over the weekend until his arraignment hearing on Monday. He was called into the criminal court room just after 9:30 a.m. wearing chains and an EBCI Detention striped jumpsuit.
Judge Barbara Parker placed a plea of ‘not guilty’ until Rep. Crowe could speak with his attorney and gave him a $5,000 unsecured bond. She then signed an order allowing for his release. Rep. Crowe indicated to the Court that he had retained his own legal counsel and did not need a court-appointed attorney.
Lead Tribal Prosecutor Cody White said in his statement to the Court that they would be requesting a ‘no contact order’ for Rep. Crowe to Jason Matthew Burleson, who has a physical address listed in Knoxville, TN.
The following are the potential punishments for the code violations listed:
Assault inflicting serious bodily injury – “Unless a person’s conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, assault inflicting serious bodily injury shall be punishable by a fine of not less than $500.00 and not more than $15,000.00, by a term of imprisonment of not less than 45 days and not more than three years, exclusion for a period of not less than one year nor more than 15 years; or any combination of them.”
Aggravated reckless endangerment – “Shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed $5,000.00, by a term of imprisonment not to exceed one year, or both. Reckless endangerment shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.00, by a term of imprisonment not to exceed six months, or both.”
Assault by strangulation – “Unless a person’s conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, assault by strangulation shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed $5,000.00, by a term of imprisonment of not less than one year nor more than three years, and by exclusion for a period of not less than one year nor more than ten years.”
White and Judge Parker established the date of the next criminal court hearing to take place on Wednesday, April 5. White said that he will be needing to contact Rep. Crowe’s attorney, whose name was not known at the time of the arraignment. White said that this date would be necessary before moving into pre-trial hearings, and that any other matters involving this case could be heard earlier if necessary.
