IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
                                                FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA                     _ _-,t  ""i-;i  7: ;_
                                                                                                                          !
              ELOUISE PEPION COBELL, et al.,                   )                            ,_ .... - ,_            _ .....

                       Plaintiffs,                                         )
                                                                            )
                 v.                                                  )        Case No. 1:96CV01285
                                                                            )        (Judge Lamberth)
              GALE A. NORTON, Secretary of the Interior,       )
              et al_=,                                                       )
                                                                            )
                 Defendants.                                       )
                                                                            )
                 INTERIOR DEFENDANTS' REPLY TO PLAINTIFFS' OPPOSITION TO
                  INTERIOR DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO STRIKE PLAINTIFFS' REQUEST FOR
               PERSONAL SANCTIONS IN PLAINTIFFS' COMMENTS TO THE JANUARY 27, 2003
                  CORRECTED REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE SPECIAL MASTER

                       Interior Defendants submit this reply to Plaintiffs' Opposition to Interior Defendants'
              Motion to Strike Plaintiffs' Request for Personal Sanctions in Plaintiffs' Comments to the January
              27, 2003 Corrected Report and Recommendation of the Special Master ("Opposition") filed
              March 4, 2003. Plaintiffs' Opposition asserts that their Comments to the January 27, 2003
              Corrected Report and Recommendation of the Special Master ("Comments") did not contain a

              request for personal sanctions, opposition at 2. Thus, we respectfully request that the Court
              strike all but the first and last paragraphs of Plaintiffs' Comments because a fair reading shows
              that they are nothing more than personal attacks made in support of such personal sanctions.


                         Plaintiffs' characterization of their allegations as "statements of fact," Opposition at 2
              n.2, is a misnomer. Being unsupported in the Corrected Report or elsewhere, they are anything
              but. Additionally, Plaintiffs' statement that "what truly is scandalous here are the disgraceful
              attacks by defendants and their counsel on this Court and its judicial officers, as well as the
              malfeasance that they practice on 500,000 individual Indian trust beneficiaries every single day"
              is untrue and completely irrelevant to Interior's Motion to Strike.
                                                                     -1  -






                          Among other things, Plaintiffs' Comments state as follows:
                        Sanctions for citizen McCaleb are clearly appropriate and warranted. Unless this Court
                        holds contemnors accountable for their malfeasance [footnote regarding Court's recent
                        imposition of personal sanctions], there will be no end to the contemptuous behavior of
                        government officials and their counsel in this case -
                                                                                     and there will be no end to the harm
                        that they inflict on 500,000 individual Indian trust beneficiaries. In this light, as this
                        Court considers sanctions for citizen McCaleb, plaintiffs urge the Court to consider
                       personal sanctions for each of the following individuals who have aided and abetted Mr.
                        McCaleb.

               Comments at 1-2 (emphasis added). This is followed by two pages of specific allegations against
               six named individuals and general comments regarding past conduct in this litigation.
               Nevertheless, Plaintiffs now submit that their Comments "contain no such request for sanctions.
               .." Opposition at 2. This concession renders the personal attacks all the more immaterial,

               impertinent, and gratuitous as they were made in a context in which Plaintiffs sought no related
               relief]
                        Finally, Plaintiffs' "request" that the Court "consider... appropriate personal sanctions"

               against each attorney of record on the Motion to Strike, Opposition at 2 n.2, is unfounded and

               inappropriate inasmuch as the Motion to Strike is an appropriate response to the reckless,
               intemperate language employed in Plaintiffs' Comments.


               Dated: March 14, 2003                         Respectfully submitted,
                                                                   ROBERT D. McCALLUM, JR.

                        2
                          If the Court were to view Plaintiffs' current concession that they do not request
               sanctions as rendering Interior's Motion to Strike moot, Plaintiffs' allegations against the named
               individuals would still remain in the record. Recognizing the necessary high standard to succeed
               in a motion to strike, for all the reasons stated in Interior's Motion to Strike, and especially in
               light of Plaintiffs' current position, those allegations remain immaterial, impertinent, and
               scandalous.
                                                                     -2-





                                                                          Assistant Attorney General
                                                                    STUART E. SCHIFFER
                                                                   Deputy Assistant Attomey General
                                                                   J. CHRISTOPHER KOHN



                                                                   D.C. Bar No. 261495
                                                                   Deputy Director
                                                                    JOHN T. STEMPLEWICZ
                                                                    Senior Trial Attorney
                                                                    JOHN J. SIEMIETKOWSKI
                                                                    Trial Attorney
                                                                    Commercial Litigation Branch
                                                                    Civil Division
                                                                   P.O. Box 875
                                                                   Ben Franklin Station
                                                                    Washington, D.C. 20044-0875
                                                                    (202) 514-3368
                                                                    (202) 514-9163 (fax)



















                                                                     -3-




                                                             CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
                         I declare under penalty of perjury that, on March 14, 2003 1 served the foregoing lnterior
                Defendants' Reply to Plaintiffs' Opposition to lnterior Defendants' Motion to Strike Plaintiffs'
                Request for Personal Sanctions in Plaintiffs' Comments to the January 27, 2003 Corrected
                Report and Recommendation of the Special Master by facsimile in accordance with their written
                request of October 31, 2001 upon:
                Keith Harper, Esq.                                       Dennis M Gingold, Esq.
                Native American Rights Fund                          Mark Kester Brown, Esq.
                1712 N Street, N.W.                                      1275 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
                Washington, D.C. 20036-2976                         Ninth Floor
                (202) 822-0068                                           Washington, D.C. 20004
                                                                             (202) 318-2372

               By U.S. Mail upon:
               Elliott Levitas, Esq.
                1100 Peachtree Street, Suite 2800
               Atlanta, GA 30309-4530

               By facsimile and U.S. Mail upon:
               Alan L. Balaran, Esq.
               Special Master
               1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
               13th Floor
               Washington, D.C. 20006
               (202) 986-8477

               By Hand upon:
               Joseph S, Kieffer, HI
               Special Master Monitor
               420 7 th
                        Street, N.W.
               Apartment 705
               Washington, D.C. 20004
               (202) 478-1958


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