An El Dorado County man was sentenced Monday to three months in federal prison for diverting to his own address mail meant for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.
The band is a tribe made up of Miwok, Maidu and Nisenan Indians that governs the Shingle Springs Rancheria, a 160-acre reservation in El Dorado County, and owns and operates the Red Hawk Casino.
Cesar Caballero, 42, contests the tribe's use of the name, claiming a tribe with which he is affiliated is the real Shingle Springs Band of Miwoks. In August 2010 he submitted three change-of-address orders at the Shingle Springs post office routing mail addressed to the Shingle Springs Rancheria to Caballero's address in the community of El Dorado.
On Aug. 30, after a 2 1/2-hour non-jury trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund F. Brennan found Caballero guilty on three misdemeanor counts of obstructing the mail.
In December 2008, the tribe sued Caballero in federal court, alleging trade-name and trademark infringement. The civil lawsuit, which is still pending, asks for a permanent injunction prohibiting Caballero from posing as the tribe's representative and for punitive damages against him.
In the course of the civil action, Caballero has managed to keep U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez riled by refusing to obey the judge's directives. As a result, Caballero has spent 2 1/2 months in jail in accord with civil contempt orders issued by Mendez. He was most recently released April 5.
In urging a 30-day sentence Monday, Caballero's criminal-defense attorney, Joseph Wiseman, noted to Brennan that his client was "released after coming into compliance with (Mendez's) order. … This shows that a brief incarceration can have the desired effect on his behavior."
Brennan was not persuaded.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Denny Walsh
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.