Stanko v. Oglala Sioux Tribe, No. 17-3176 (8th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and common law, against the Tribe and tribal officers, seeking damages for their violation of his constitutional and civil rights stemming from his arrest and incarceration. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal with prejudice of claims against the Tribe and the individual defendants acting in their official capacities because those claims were barred by the Tribe's sovereign immunity. The court affirmed the district court's dismissal without prejudice of claims against defendants acting in their individual capacities based on failure to exhaust tribal court remedies.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Gruender, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. In action alleging the Tribe and its tribal officers arrested plaintiff and detained him on an illegally issued warrant, assaulted and battered him and placed him in an isolation cell, and stole money from him, the claims against the Tribe and the individual defendants acting in their official capacity were properly dismissed based on the Tribe's sovereign immunity; plaintiff's individual capacity claims were properly dismissed without prejudice for failure to exhaust an available tribal court remedy. Judge Gruender, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
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