Amended suit filed to stop casino

<p>An East Bay attorney has filed an amended lawsuit this month on behalf of a local organization and several residents determined to stop the construction of a proposed casino and resort complex in Rohnert Park.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Attorney Stephan Volker filed the lawsuit on Jan. 12 on behalf of the Stop the Casino 101 Coalition, as well as 12 of its members — including City Councilmember Mike Healy of Petaluma — and two other Sonoma County residents. </p><p>The amended suit, like the original lawsuit that Volker filed on June 6 in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, questions the legality of the Department of the Interior’s decision on May 7 to take 254 acres in Rohnert Park into federal trust for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, and asserts that the state of California has jurisdiction over the property.</p><p>“But the amended lawsuit also includes some additional plaintiffs, and has to do with the personal harm that they would suffer if the project moves forward,” Healy said.</p><p>The background information contained in the amended lawsuit also contains a new argument — that contrary to claims by the tribe, historically the Graton Rancheria was not a reservation, was never held in trust and that there never was a tribe there. The suit claims that when the Graton Rancheria was created in 1920, it was not public land, but rather private land governed by the state of California.</p><p>The defendants in the amended lawsuit are Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior; Carl Artman, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior for Indian Affairs; the U.S. Department of the Interior; Jerry Gidner, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; Dale Morris, Pacific Regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.</p><p>Plans to build the casino also could be affected by the financial crisis facing Station Casinos in Las Vegas, which partnered with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria to purchase the land for the casino in 2003. Station Casinos has been struggling with a debt load of more than $5 billion after a management-led buyout last year, and might need to file for bankruptcy.</p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)</p>