Leaders Of Indian Tribe Fighting Alligator Alcatraz Have History Of Domestic Violence Arrests

Leaders of a Native American tribe fighting to close the Florida illegal alien detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” have batted down numerous allegations of domestic violence over the years as the tribe receives tens of millions in taxpayer dollars. 

The chair, treasurer, and a top adviser of the Miccosukee Tribe have all faced domestic violence charges over the past 30 years, according to a new report from the American Accountability Foundation. These allegations have ranged from misdemeanor battery to felony battery of a pregnant woman.

The tribe has also been plagued by kidnapping accusations and battles with the IRS, according to the American Accountability Foundation.

“While the Miccosukee Tribe wages a legal battle against Alligator Alcatraz, hoping to manufacture outrage, what they really want is to distract from their own sinister record,” American Accountability Foundation President Tom Jones told The Daily Wire.

“There’s a bleak history here: leadership tangled in a newborn baby abduction, repeated beatings on women, and a brazen refusal to pay federal taxes. The tribe’s latest public stunt is not about justice; it’s a smokescreen to keep Americans from asking tough questions about their dark trail of corruption and crime.”

The tribe grabbed headlines after it joined several environmental groups in a suit against Florida and the Trump administration over Alligator Alcatraz. A judge ordered the detention facility shut down, but a federal appeals court ruled earlier this month that the detention center can remain open.

The lower court decision led to a glowing ABC News profile of the tribe, featuring extensive quotations from Curtis Osceola, a senior executive policy adviser to Miccosukee Tribe Chairman Talbert Cypress, according to the outlet.

“It was a roar of applause,” Osceola told ABC. “Everyone was very, very pleased that the judge granted the temporary restraining order.”

What ABC didn’t mention was that Osceola was arrested in January for battery and resisting law enforcement. 

Osceola was booked on January 24 after a woman called police, and they responded to his residence in Doral, Florida. According to police, Osceola answered the door with blood on his face. This blood appears to be visible on his mugshot. 

Osceola mugshot/ American Accountability Foundation report.

After police went into Osceola’s home to check on the status of the female caller, a woman identified as his girlfriend alleged that he slapped her amid an ongoing dispute about his divorce from his wife. Police said that “there were various signs of a disturbance inside the residence including a broken glass on the floor.”

Osceola later claimed the incident resulted from his girlfriend’s “adverse reaction to prescription medication.” 

The charges were dropped about a month after the arrest — but not after Osceola lost his role as Miami-Dade County’s chief resilience officer. 

“While I have been cleared of all wrongdoing by the state attorney’s office and all charges against me have been dropped—in the court of public opinion, things are different. It is for this reason, among others, that the Mayor’s office has decided to rescind their offer to me to lead the Office of Resilience as its Chief,” he said in a statement. 

Prosecutors gave a different explanation. The office of Miami-Dade State Attorney said that the charges were dropped due to “the victim indicating that she had no recall of the incident and therefore that she was unwilling to cooperate in the prosecution of the case.”

Other tribal leaders have also been arrested on domestic violence charges. 

Talbert Cypress, the chair of the tribe, was charged with battery in 2006. Court records indicate that he ended up going through a pretrial diversion program. Another key tribal official, Kenneth Cypress, was charged in 1995 with battery of a pregnant woman and disorderly intoxication. There ended up being no action taken on the arrest, according to court records. He is currently the treasurer for the Miccosukee Tribe’s Business Council.

Talbert was quoted by the media in opposition to Alligator Alcatraz, saying that the tribe “will always stand up for our culture, our sovereignty, and for the Everglades.”

The Miccosukee Tribe has been involved in numerous other legal controversies, including a 2018 incident where the tribal authorities took the child of a Miccosukee woman and a white man from a Miami hospital. The parents accused the tribe of kidnapping their child after the grandmother of the child obtained an emergency order giving her custody. The grandmother claimed that the father would abuse the child, a claim both parents disputed. 

After a lengthy legal battle and calls from lawmakers, including then-Florida Senator Marco Rubio, to return the child, the parents regained custody of their daughter.

The grandmother at the center of the case, Betty Osceola, has organized vigils in protest of Alligator Alcatraz. It is unclear if she is related to Curtis Osceola, the embattled tribal adviser.

As the tribe weathered all of these incidents, it was heavily funded by the federal government.

Since 2008, the tribe has taken in around $233 million in federal funding, according to an analysis from the American Accountability Foundation. This includes over $100 million from the Department of the Interior and $50 million from the Department of Health and Human Services. 

American Accountability Foundation report.

Even as the tribe cashed hefty checks from the government, judges have ruled that it has been delinquent in paying its taxes. In 2018, a court ruling opened up the tribe to being on the hook for more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes after a judge ruled that casino profits were taxable income. As of 2021, each tribal member reportedly receives $160,000 annually in casino profits, according to court documents. 

The American Accountability Foundation said that the “controversial tribe should cease to be funded by taxpayers as they continue to skirt taxes and hamper the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement.”

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals sided against the tribe in 2021 after it appealed the decision, saying that it “encouraged members to hide their payments from the IRS.”

“The taxpayers here followed the Tribe’s advice, and they are now subject to hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax deficiencies. They offer various reasons why they do not owe taxes on these payments,” the majority wrote. “One assertion is that any taxes are barred by a statute that exempted an earlier land transfer from taxation; another is that the payments are merely non-taxable lease payments from the casino. Unfortunately for these Tribe members, the payments are just income — taxable income. That means we affirm.”

Four years later, the same court ruled against the tribe after it attempted to shut down Alligator Alcatraz. 

The judges ruled that a lawsuit brought by environmental groups and the tribe “failed to state a viable claim” that Florida and the Department of Homeland Security violated federal environmental laws. The decision was celebrated by Republicans in Florida, including Governor Ron DeSantis, who promised to open up similar detention centers across the state. 

As of last week, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire that Alligator Alcatraz was still holding a variety of illegals, including those convicted of drug trafficking, murder, and sexual offenses targeting children.

“Despite repeated hoaxes peddled by the media and activist judges, Alligator Alcatraz is still open and housing some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, pedophiles, weapon traffickers, and drug dealers until they are swiftly removed from our country,” said Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.