The summons and subpoenas have been sent and a grand jury is gearing up in Seneca County to present criminal charges and potentially resolve a longstanding miscarriage of justice — in the eyes of one Fayette resident and his ongoing struggle with the Cayuga Nation.
Yesterday, the Seneca County District Attorney’s office issued subpoenas to a number of individuals and witnesses who were present during last year’s violent clash with the Cayuga Nation Police Department law enforcement personnel during late-February along State Route 89 in Seneca Falls.
A peaceful press conference turned violent when members of the Cayuga Nation stepped onto Nation-owned, bulldozed properties that were taped off by the Cayuga Nation Police Department. Photo Courtesy: Greg Cotterill.
It wasn’t an ill-timed April Fool’s Day joke either.
Charles Bowman, a vocal and towering Fayette resident, suffered several injuries at the hands of officers and deputized agents from Pathfinder Solutions, Inc., an Indiana-based company that’s undergoing it’s own separate legal battle for civil damages in Seneca County as well.
The former Nation employee had also been subpoenaed to come before the Seneca County Courthouse in Waterloo on Tuesday, April 13 — more than a year after a peaceful press conference hosted by Cayuga Nation traditional leadership escalated into an all-out brawl.
“After 13 months, I will finally have my day in court. This proceeding will bring the unscrupulous mercenaries along with the CIN ‘police’ that terrorized our small community on February 29, 2020 to justice,” Bowman told FingerLakes1.com. “It is my understanding they will have to answer for the crimes they have committed — as any other citizen of our nation, not as a sovereign nation.”
Immediately after returning home from a bumpy ambulance ride and short stay at Geneva General Hospital after sustaining a host of injuries, Bowman officially filed a police report with the Seneca Falls Police Department on March 2, 2020.
Fayette’s Charles Bowman suffered bruised ribs, contusions, a concussion and broken nose, just to name a few injuries that he sustained on Feb. 29, 2020.
Since then, Bowman kept waiting for answers from virtually anyone, especially Seneca County public officials. Days turned weeks, weeks into months, and now that traumatizing anniversary recently elapsed for him on Feb. 29, 2021.
He’s under the impression that the Cayuga Nation Police Department “illegally operate on fee land and have no jurisdiction,” a verdict that had been later ruled in a U.S. Department of Interior decision from last August, which actually cited that infamous day of violence.
Recalling the bloodied scene on a snowy and sunny Saturday morning in Seneca Falls, Bowman characterized the situation as crimes being carried out by “white mercenaries attacking and beating a white person on fee land.”
When asked about the status of the county’s grand jury and why it’s suddenly happening so soon, District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz declined to comment, saying that he “cannot comment on pending investigations.”
Lee Alcott, the legal counsel of Clint Halftown, hasn’t offered any comment or statement yet regarding the grand jury after FingerLakes1.com contacted him on Thursday, April 1.
Gabe covered health and indigenous affairs in the Finger Lakes between 2019 and 2022. His award winning coverage was cited by the federal government and provided residents with an invaluable service during the coronavirus pandemic.