April 21, 2003
Tribal court ignored its responsibility

Seven years after his first encounter with the law, 17-year-old Gary Long Jr. has been stopped.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Kornmann sentenced the youth to 45 years in prison for aggravated sexual abuse stemming from the rape and murder of 31-year-old Ivy Archambault of McLaughlin - offenses he committed at age 15.

Long first appeared in Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Juvenile Court at age 10. During the next five years, he faced more than 25 charges that ranged from assaults to burglaries to animal cruelty. At 14, he pleaded guilty to striking an 8-year-old in the head with a beer bottle - wielding enough force to break the bottle.

In exchange for a guilty plea, Long received the equivalent of a slap on the wrist - six months probation.

Just four months later, the teen-ager pulled a knife on a housing security officer, threatening to kill him if the incident was reported to authorities. All told, Long was accused of more than 10 burglaries involving a video game system, money, a bicycle and other items. He was charged with animal cruelty in connection with the brutal death of a kitten.

The aggravated sexual abuse charge that ultimately stopped Long's crime spree were incidental to a burglary. Failing to find anything of value in Archambault's car, he slipped through a basement window in her home - eventually finding his way to her bedroom. He raped and kidnapped Archambault, taking her outside of town where he bludgeoned her to death.

Until then, Kornmann said, the Standing Rock juvenile court sentenced Long to probation or dismissed charges against him again and again and again - sending a clear message that he could do whatever he liked with relative impunity.

"Tribal officials should hang their heads in shame," Kornmann said.

Indeed they should. They must share responsibility for helping to shape a human being capable of a crime more violent than any assistant U.S. attorney Mikal Hanson said he's seen in 19 years practicing law.

Long - finally - will pay for what he did.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Juvenile Court effectively walks.