OKMULGEE, Okla. — A man and woman seeking citizenship into the Muscogee Creek Nation were back in court Tuesday afternoon. Attorneys for the pair say they weren’t given all the discovery information they needed before trial next month.
“A lot of obstruction and delays,” said Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons.
That’s how Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons described the discovery process so far, as he works to get Rhonda Grayson and Jeff Kennedy citizenship into the Muscogee Creek Nation. They’re both Creek Freedman and applied for citizenship in 2019. They were both denied.
“You’re going to see in each step they ignored that,” said Attorney Solomon Simmons. “In each step they were contrary to the law that governs this space and that’s what we’re going to prove.”
Attorney Solomon Simmons says the Treaty of 1866 Article 2 was never invalidated and provides citizenship rights to the Freedman. That’s the crux of his argument.
In court Tuesday, both sides went through dozens of discovery questions line by line. The judge decided on each one whether the Muscogee Creek Nation’s Attorney General, who is representing the Citizenship Board, should provide more information or if the provided answers stood.
Many questions dealt specifically with the Treaty of 1866 and information surrounding the validity of it. In one discovery question, the Attorney General said the Citizenship Board did not have any documents that say the Treaty of 1866 has been invalidated.
“We believe if they had that information, they’d provide that information because it’s the crux of the case,” said Solomon Simmons.
Solomon Simmons asked for a summary judgement, but the judge said more evidence would be needed.
The judge also awarded fees to the plaintiffs and ruled that attorneys for the Citizenship Board would need to supply some additional answers and documents by Friday or face additional sanctions.
The trial is expected to start on April 4th.
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