TULSA, OK – The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) has ruled that Tulsa has jurisdiction over misdemeanor crimes committed by Native Americans that are not Muscogee Creek Nation citizens.
On August 30, 2021, Nicholas Ryan O’Brien, an enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation, was arrested and charged with Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol, Transporting an Open Container, Expired Tag, Driving Left of Center, and Improper Use of Left Lane. These charges were classified as misdemeanors. The arrest occurred near 1300 South Denver Avenue in Tulsa, and was conducted by Tulsa police.
On October 6, 2022, O’Brien filed a motion to dismiss his case alleging that the Tulsa municipal court lacked jurisdiction over him in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma. Tulsa Municipal Judge Mitchell McCune denied the motion agreeing with Tulsa’s argument that it had jurisdiction under section 14 of the Curtis Act.
On June 28, 2023, O’Brien filed another motion to dismiss in light of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the Hooper case, which held that Tulsa could not use the Curtis Act as it’s justification for jurisdiction over Native Americans.
Judge McCune dismissed the case on August 17, finding that the Hooper decision had undermined Tulsa’s jurisdictional argument.
Tulsa appealed this decision to the OCCA, which issued its ruling on Dec. 5, 2024. The OCCA found that Tulsa’s jurisdiction derived from the State of Oklahoma’s sovereign authority to prosecute crimes in its territory.
The United States Supreme Court decision in the Castro-Huerta case established that state jurisdiction could be preempted when the exercise of that jurisdiction unlawfully infringed on tribal self-government.
According to the OCCA decision, O’Brien was a citizen of the Osage Nation and not the Muscogee Creek Nation, so Tulsa’s prosecution of him would not “infringe upon tribal self-government”.
The OCCA decision reversed the dismissal of the case and remanded it back to the Tulsa municipal Court for reinstatement.
This decision was covered in the “Lawyer’d Up” episode below.
