Lawyer, Cache Creek Casino tribe declare peace in legal war

A bitter lawsuit between the tribe that owns the Cache Creek Casino Resort and their longtime attorney has been settled out of court, lawyers said Monday.

In the past year, the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians and noted tribal lawyer Howard Dickstein have fought a very public war of words.

The tribe publicized its dramatic lawsuit in October. Dickstein denied claims of wrongdoing and revealed aspects of the tribe's vast wealth.

The terms of the settlement are being kept confidential, however, and neither side had much to say Monday.

"The case has been settled to the mutual satisfaction of the parties," said tribal lawyer Paula Yost. Dickstein's lawyer, Elliot Peters, said the same.

Sacramento Superior Court will be notified of the suit's dismissal, Peters added.

Neither Dickstein nor tribal Chairman Marshall McKay returned calls Monday.

In its lawsuit, the tribe claimed Dickstein and financial adviser Arlen Opper had bilked the tribe for years.

"This lawsuit is about greed and betrayal," began the complaint, filed in Yolo Superior Court and later moved.

The suit claimed the tribe put its trust in Dickstein and Opper, starting when it was a small impoverished band in the Capay Valley.

Tribal members reaped huge profits, but also were rewarded with double-dealing, it claimed.

The Rumsey Band charged Dickstein and Opper with enriching themselves at the tribe's expense, while earning millions in professional fees.

Also named in the suit were Dickstein's law partner Jane Zerbi and local real estate developer Mark Friedman.

Among the lawsuit's allegations were that Dickstein took a $224,000 trip to France on a tribal jet without reimbursing the tribe and mishandled a $9 million trust account.

It claimed Dickstein and Opper sold the tribe on investments that were more beneficial to the advisers and their business associates.

The lawsuit sought an unspecified amount of damages and the return of millions of dollars in tribal assets.

It was the first time one of the Indian nations represented by Dickstein, a 64-year-old Sacramento lawyer dubbed the "godfather of California Indian law" by one legal publication, had turned on him with such ferocity.

Dickstein responded that during his 20-year association with the Rumsey Band, he had helped take them from poverty to "a gargantuan entity with assets over a billion dollars."

The Cache Creek Casino pulls in more than $300 million a year, he said.

"For them to be coming back against the people who represented them with little or no compensation for the first 10 years is very mean-spirited and disappointing," Dickstein said in October.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.