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Lawsuit filed in district court against local public officials

By DEBRA TOBIN Logan Daily News Reporter This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

LOGAN – The Logan Daily News has received information about a pending lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, against the City of Logan, Logan Police Chief Aaron Miller, Lt. Gregg Cluley, patrolmen Josh Mowery and Tony Byram, Hocking County Prosecutor Laina Fetherolf, Logan City Mayor Martin Irvine, former Logan City Law Director Bob Lilley, Logan Fire
Chief Brian Robertson, and employees of the Hocking County Probation Department.

The suit, filed by Marshal Lucas “Great Elk Dancer for his Elk Nation” was received at the Southern District Office on June 12. According to the clerk’s office, it could take months or up to a year before any case goes to trial. She also indicated that not every case that’s filed goes to trial. Lucas, who believes he has been harassed since he opened his first business in Logan, the Mingo
Trading Company, alleges that those mentioned in the suit have interfered with his commerce, all of which he describes as “tribal” businesses.

According to the court paperwork, Lucas is asking the court for “injunctive relief and declaratory judgment as well as compensatory damages for the value of the business opportunity or expectancy that was lost as a result of the defendants tortious and improper interference in the amount of which is $20 million.”


Lucas claims that the Treaty of Canandaiqua of 1794, Jay Treaty of 1794, Greenville Treaty of 1795, 42 USC Section 1983 and the U.S. Constitution exempts him from prosecution and harassment by the City of Logan in state court for violations of city ordinances.

Some of the complaints in the suit include allegations that Miller visited Mingo Trading Company in 2008 because of a noise complaint in the middle of the day and allegedly told Lucas he needed to file for an event license; Logan Police officers allegedly followed his customers and harassed them after leaving his place of business; probation officers allegedly threatened individuals with arrest should
they frequent his establishment and slandered his business by calling it a “head shop.”

His Internet Café, Red Door, was closed for seven month due to “made up” code violations, which caused a loss of revenue and overhead cost and expenditures on the building, the court documents continue. And the defendants have allegedly intended to impair and destroy his business and relationships with the third parties, and that denial of licenses and police harassment was caused as a
result of Lucas’ national origin in that he is Native American.

A total of 19 complaints against the defendants are listed in the lawsuit.

While Lucas said he is not at liberty to discuss the case at this time, he told The Logan Daily News that this lawsuit is a culmination of more than five years of harassment and interference of his tribal commerce.

None of the defendants listed in the lawsuit have been served, so they would not comment on the pending case.

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