ANADARKO, OK — After hours of explosive testimony, Judge Prescott is deliberating in the obscenity/tampering of public property case between Delaware Nation and former Tribal President Kerry Holton.
Delaware Nation filed suit against Holton over nine counts of obscenity for allegedly publishing (nude) photographs of himself on a tribally owned computer system and for tampering with public property, charged by means of Information.
Klint A. Cowan, the specially appointed prosecutor for the Delaware Nation by the authority and in the name of the Tribe, gives the District Court information that before this filing, within the Delaware Nation’s jurisdiction, the individual, Kerry Holton, who is an adult male tribal member, did unlawfully, wrongfully, and willingly commit the offenses of obscenity and tampering with public property.
Under Section 103 of the Delaware Nation Criminal Procedure Code, any time-based limitation of prosecution cannot begin to run until someone other than KERRY HOLTON knew or should have known that an offense had been committed. This Criminal Complaint is, therefore, timely.
Holton’s alleged actions were contrary to the Criminal Offenses Code and against the property, peace, and dignity of the Delaware Nation.
Delaware Nation is suing Holton on the charges described, totaling $4,750.00.
Here are some of the key talking points from the blockbuster trial:
- Holton’s Attorney, Robert Gifford, immediately noted that there was a lack of information presented in the case.
- Tribal Prosecutor Cowan stands to present the case to the court of 9 counts of obscenity and 1 count of tampering with public property.
- Gifford states there is a lack of evidence suggesting that an alleged flash drive was placed on Tribal property by Holton. Also, a lack of evidence to explain how the photos were on the described flash drive.
- The first witness and former Tribal prosecutor, Leslie Taylor, approached the stand to give her statement under oath.
- Cowan asks Taylor to describe her duties on the Tribal laptops and she responds that all work on Tribal equipment is for official business only.
- Cowan then proceeds to seek how Taylor was involved.
- Taylor stated that she was called to Tribal President Dotson’s office in February 2019, not knowing what she was about to witness. She stated that Dotson showed Taylor the alleged 30 obscene photos on her work laptop of former President Kerry Holton and 2 alleged obscene photos of an unknown woman. Dotson asked Taylor for legal advice on the matter.
- Taylor stated that she was upset and shocked to view these alleged obscene photographs of Holton and reiterated how much the content presented on the flash drive did not belong on work property.
- Cowan asks Taylor what the removable media policy was and Taylor said that it belonged to the Tribe and documents stored on work property are stored for the next elected official to gain access to vital information left behind by former elected officials.
- Taylor stated she advised the Executive Committee to find another prosecutor to present the case, due to the conflict of interests between her family relationship with Holton.
- Cowan asked why Taylor looked at all 32 photos and Taylor responded that it was not for pleasure and that she wanted to cover everything.
- Cowan asked Taylor to read Delaware Nation Criminal Procedure Code for the counts Holton was guilty of.
- Cowan asked Taylor to verify the 32 alleged obscene photos of Holton.
- Cowan had no further questions.
- Gifford asked Taylor when she prepared for the case before the Trial if she received the alleged obscene photos by email and she stated that she didn’t.
- Gifford asked Taylor if she recalls the details of every alleged obscene photo from 2019. Taylor responded that the photos’ characteristics were difficult to forget.
- Gifford states how he is having a hard time understanding how Leslie can recall every alleged obscene photo from 2019 and she responded that she never conspired to plant photos on Tribal property.
- Cowan objected to Gifford on what the foundation is based on to the fine details of each alleged obscene photograph.
- Gifford asked Taylor if she saw the alleged flash drive. Taylor seemed unsure but responded that there was no reason for a “rogue” flash drive to be on company property.
- Gifford expressed his frustration with Taylor and states that she is not answering his question.
- Judge Prescott announced that each party ask clear questions and give direct answers.
- Taylor responded to Gifford that if a flash drive is on tribal property, it belongs to Delaware Nation.
- Gifford then mentioned Taylor cannot confirm that the alleged flash drive belongs to Delaware Nation without a clear label or something to identify Tribal property.
- Taylor could not confirm the identity of the alleged flash drive but relied on the guidance of the tribe’s IT department.
- Gifford asked Taylor if she could confirm if the laptop mentioned was former President Holton’s. She was able to confirm and mentioned that all Holton’s information had been wiped out before the next elected official used it.
- Gifford then proceeded to ask Taylor about her artistic views of nude content and she responded that the manner Holton was presenting himself was not artistic in her opinion. Taylor stated that kind of content needs to stay at home and doesn’t belong in the workplace.
- Gifford asked if Taylor had additional documents or beliefs that the property was transferred from Holton’s laptop to the alleged flash drive on President Dotson’s computer.
- Gifford then asked Taylor to explain where the alleged flash drive came from.
- Former Tribal Government Employee, Neawa Horn, was formerly terminated for an alleged theft crime from Holton’s office.
- Judge Prescott asks the attorney to approach. After a quick deliberation, no additional questions were asked by Gifford to Taylor.
- President Deborah Dotson is called to the witness stand by Prosecutor Cowan to give her statement under oath.
- Dotson stated that the items on the alleged flash drive belonged to Holton. Some items on the same flash drive were letters and Delaware Nation documents.
- Dotson then discussed the bowl of flash drives and describes the alleged flash drive that contained Holton’s alleged obscene photos as a red-colored device. Dotson described utilizing the bowl of flash drives as a common practice among the Tribal Government.
- Dotson’s discovery of the alleged obscene photos on the red flash drive was shocking and she was very offended by them.
- Dotson explained that when an elected official leaves office, the documents are to be archived from their devices onto removable media for future officials to reference when needed.
- Dotson stated that she looked at all 32 photos to verify if a Tribal Government employee was featured in any of them or not. Speculated from an alleged relationship between the employee and Former Tribal President Holton.
- Dotson stated that she contacted the former Tribal Prosecutor Leslie Taylor to meet her in her office to discuss the matter, show her the alleged obscene photos, and seek legal advice.
- The alleged obscene photos Dotson showed Taylor was accessed from an inserted flash drive when viewed on the President’s work computer.
- Dotson contacted former BIA Chief Michael Longhat for advice and was advised to contact FBI Agent John MacLemore, who then advised Dotson to contact ARGO.
- The Executive Committee voted to prosecute Holton based on the evidence provided by Dotson.
- Cowan presents the alleged red flash drive to Dotson and asks if she recognized if it was the one used to commit the alleged acts. Dotson confirmed that the flash drive Cowan presented to the court was the one containing the alleged nude photos of Kerry Holton.
- Cowan inserts the alleged flash drive into the smart board and opened the folder titled “doxuments” which contained the subfolders which contain the alleged obscene photos of Holton.
- Cowan asked Dotson to confirm the tribal documents that were on the drive by displaying them on the smart board. Dotson was able to confirm the documents were related to Tribal Government and the ones that she saw when first viewing the flash drive.
- Cowan and Gifford approached the Judge so Cowan could explain the link between the documents. Cowan was able to stipulate that the documents were all indeed the ones located with the alleged obscene photos on the flash drive.
- No further questions were asked.
- Cowan called IT Director Joshua Farley to approach the witness stand to give his statement under oath.
- Cowan asked if Farley has seen the red flash drive that contained the alleged obscene photos of Holton and Josh confirmed that he had.
- Cowan asked if Farley was familiar with metadata and if she could interpellate the information on the flash drive to determine more information about the photos.
- Farley said that the size, location, created by, and dates metadata can be accessed in each photo or document stored on the flash drive.
- Alleged obscene photos were located in a folder titled “iPod Photo Cache.”
- Farley was able to explain the information in the file properties that explain when an item was created and when it is modified.
- Cowan asks Josh to explain the server location path and how it could pinpoint where the file was created.
- Both parties agreed to stipulate that the additional non-alleged obscene photos were work-related and appropriate images.
- Gifford asked Josh if he was familiar with the way iTunes stores imported data and the capacity of the alleged flash drive.
- Gifford asked for clarity about the file convertor that the President used to open iPhone photos on her Windows operating system.
- No further questions were asked.
- Cowan suggests to Judge Prescott to put the alleged flash drive device into a custody-like state where it can never be circulated into the tribal complex files again.
- Gifford made the statement that there wasn’t enough evidence to tie his defendant Kerry Holton’s involvement to the alleged crimes of obscenity and tampering with public property.
- Gifford also threw in the argument of jurisdiction.
- Gifford then expressed the artistic value of the alleged obscene photos of Holton.
- Gifford pointed out that the nude photos were for weight-loss purposes.
- Gifford then pointed out how Tribal employees in the past had targets against Holton to prevent him from fulfilling his duties and running for office.
- Cowan fired back that this case was obscene.
- Gifford argued that these crimes were not published publically to be considered obscene.
- Holton is asked to approach the witness stand.
- Holton’s defense immediately began by stating that he denied placing the alleged flash drive on the tribal property or placing the alleged obscene photos on a Tribal computer.
- Holton stated that his work laptop was too heavy to use and returned it to the IT department.
- Holton claimed that he used his personal iPad to conduct tribal gov business.
- Holton stated that he did nothing to place the alleged flash drive in the bowl of flash drives that were mentioned in the argument. He stated he never even used flash drives in his daily duties.
- Gifford asked Holton about Mrs. Horn’s involvement in the unauthorized displacement of tribal property that eventually led to her termination before 2015.
- Holton claimed he didn’t even have a PC desktop workstation.
- Holton discovered more items were missing than originally reported when we returned to the office as Tribal President in 2015.
- Holton stated that he had no idea how the photos got on the alleged flash drive and denies all allegations against him.
- Cowan asked Holton if he had a desktop workstation and a work laptop. Holton answered that he did not have a desktop workstation but was issued a laptop that he claimed weighed too much.
- Cowan provided IT documentation proving that Holton was indeed issued a desktop workstation.
- Cowan asked if the alleged female in the alleged obscene photos was the ex-wife of Holton. Holton responded that the woman in the few alleged obscene photos appeared to be his ex-wife.
- Cowan asked Holton who took the alleged photos and Holton claimed he acted alone.
- Holton confirmed his involvement in all alleged obscene photos by saying that he appeared to be in each one.
- Cowan opened the alleged flash drive and asked if the Delaware Nation Constitution and some EC minutes were personal or work files.
- Holton claimed that everything stored on the alleged flash drive was for personal data.
- Holton then stated that he created the minutes on his iPad using the Word application.
- Cowan responds that the Executive Committee minutes file metadata suggests that the file was created on Holton’s desktop workstation that was assigned to him by IT, rather than on an iPad using the Word application that Holton testified using.
- The closing arguments proceeded.
- Cowan argued that regardless of how you label the photos (artistic or fitness), alleged nude photographs were located on Delaware Nation property and available for anyone to see. Such acts are condemned by the Delaware Nation constitution.
- Cowan argued that archive files on the alleged flash drive were mixed with alleged obscene nude photos and were not removed before the next Tribal Official was elected.
- Gifford argued that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Holton was in the wrong or has been uniquely identified.
- Gifford argued why an iPhone photo convertor was utilized by Dotson if the alleged obscene photos were unable to be viewed or identified in the first place.
- Gifford argued that former employee, Horn, may have tampered with Holton’s equipment before being terminated, suggesting that Horn may have had some involvement in the alleged flash drive of photos.
- Finally, on the grounds of intent, Holton’s alleged obscene photos were not dispersed by him, thus making the issuer of the content the criminal.
- Judge Prescott requested a recess to deliberate, then requested additional time to determine the verdict.
- The Delaware Nation vs Kerry Holton still awaits a verdict.
Mr. Holton was asked by Public Relations if he would like to comment on the trial. Holton stated that the trial was, “unnecessary.”
Report and photos by Public Relations Officer Wesley Boone
