Judge in land claim steps aside
Jan. 7, 2001

By PATRICK GANNON and KELLY HASSETT
Observer-Dispatch

News that the federal judge overseeing the Oneida Indian land claim is leaving the case led to speculation Saturday on where the case might head from here.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Neal P. McCurn said Friday in a letter he would ask that the unsettled case be assigned to Albany Judge Lawrence E. Kahn, local officials and attorneys involved in the case said. The news was first reported Saturday in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

McCurn, 74, has been involved in the case for two decades. He gave no reason in his letter for stepping down, and could not be reached for comment.

Last year, a lengthy mediation effort McCurn arranged failed without a resolution to the complex land claim. The obviously frustrated judge then announced the case would head to trial, a process he said could last years.

Rocco DiVeronica, chairman of the Madison County Board of Supervisors, said the aging McCurn’s health may be a factor in his wanting to bring another judge into the case.

“I feel a little bit for him because he’s been working on it for 20 years,” DiVeronica said.

Kahn, 63, was appointed to U.S. District Court in 1996 by President Clinton. He said Friday he has not yet heard from McCurn. He also hasn’t followed the land-claim issue or heard any cases involving Indian law, he said in an Associated Press report.

“I am familiar with law, however. That’s what I do,” Kahn said in the report. “I’ll do my best to be fair to everyone and do my best to follow the law.”

The Oneidas of New York, Wisconsin and Canada sued Madison and Oneida counties three decades ago for the return of 250,000 acres the Indians claim the state purchased without first getting required approval from the federal government. The state also is named as a defendant.

As of his departure, McCurn hadn’t set a court date for a trial.
Because Oneida Nation lawyers didn’t receive McCurn’s letter until late Friday and hadn’t reviewed it as of Saturday, they had no comment, Oneidas’ spokesman Mark Emery said.

Utica attorney Leon Koziol, who has represented landowner groups in their fight against the Oneidas, urged the incoming judge to set an early trial date.

“I feel a new judge ... could very well become an active judge on the issues and wrap up the litigation expeditiously,” Koziol said. “It depends on the character of the judge himself.”

McCurn’s recent rulings, including one last September determining that area residents wouldn’t be defendants in the case, favored landowners, Koziol said.

“My hope is that the newly assigned presiding judge will follow that trend,” Koziol said. “That’s my hope, and I think the landowners deserve it.”

McCurn also issued a December decision allowing a state Supreme Court judge to rule on the legality of the state’s gaming compact with the Oneidas, who operate Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona.

While Kahn must get up to speed on the many complicated issues involved in the land claim, local officials said Saturday the installation of a new judge probably won’t delay the impending federal trial.

“It hopefully won’t have any impact on the trial calendar,” Oneida County Executive Ralph J. Eannace Jr. said.

He lauded McCurn for his efforts to bring the long battle to a negotiated settlement.

Robert Witmer, the lawyer for Madison and Oneida counties, said McCurn “made a good run” at resolving the case.

Among his last rulings in the case, McCurn last week turned down requests by the Oneida Ltd. silverware company and three landowner opposition groups to join the case as defendants. He put on hold a request by Bond, Schoeneck & King, the Oneidas’ first land claim lawyers, to reap some of the settlement money.

And he allowed two Connecticut brothers to submit papers claiming their ancestors, the New York Brothertown Indians, hold title to 99,840 acres in Oneida County they said was given to them by Oneidas in 1774 after a band of seven tribes sought refuge there.

Local residents did not seem surprised McCurn resigned from the case.

Sherrill’s Steve Schell said he can understand why McCurn passed the case on to someone else.

“He’s probably frustrated,” Schell said. After 20 years on the case, “I’d be, too.”

The Oneida land claim issue has been around for as long as the Schells have lived in the area. As with many landowners, they bought their house with a disclaimer regarding the Oneida land-claim case.

Eric Felter, a Vernon resident, hopes the new judge’s perspective would bring some progress.

“Maybe a new judge will shed some new light on the situation,” he said. “Maybe he’ll be able to push things (forward).”

Maryann Reidpath, a resident of Kenwood, near Oneida, sees it differently: “I just don’t think it’s ever going to be resolved,” she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press