ONLY ON 3: Gambling With Your Rights At Indian Casinos

INDIO – Gambling with your rights. That’s what one Palm Desert woman says after a severe injury at a local Indian casino.

Tory Fretz can only watch as people play tennis at Palm Desert’s Jackie Cooper Tennis Academy. She was a women’s tennis pioneer in the 1970’s.

But, then, last October, Tory got hit by a valet driver at the Fantasy Springs Casino parking lot. She was there meeting friends, tennis legends Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals, for a concert.

Fretz recalls, “I never saw it coming. It was dark. Had I seen a car with the lights in front, I probably could have dodged it. I never knew what hit me.”

Now, partially blind and suffering from severe headaches, her tennis coaching career is over.

“Couldn’t see out of my left eye, very well at all. In fact, double vision. And I have optic nerve damage. I’m still not sure whether I’ll lose the sight,” says Fretz.

We went to the Fantasy Springs event parking lot with Fretz and her attorney one night. Not adjusting the light levels on our camera it is apparently very dark. The CHP report faults both the valet driver and the poor lighting conditions. What is the casino doing about the poor lighting and Fretz’s $90,000 in medical bills?

“Just nothing,” explains Fretz. “A whole year. No one coming to take responsibility for the bad lighting.”

When her attorney tried to file a lawsuit against the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, he ran up against tribal sovereignty. That means you can’t sue an Indian tribe in civil court. People gambling at Indian casinos also gamble away their right to a jury trial.

Attorney Joe Davis says, “Hopefully, this is a cautionary tale for anybody who visits a casino in the area. There are giving up substantial rights in my estimation. Rights that everyone has come to expect, in forms of safety and responsiveness in case of an unfortunate injure when they walk on casino property.”

No trial by jury. Instead, justice is decided by one man. Martin Mueller is an Indian Wells attorney, effectively, a judge for hire.

Mueller was a founding partner at Best, Best & Krieger, the law firm representing the tribe’s insurance company. And, Mueller was on the same legal team representing the Cabazon Indians in the landmark 1987 supreme court case giving the tribe the ability to run casinos in the first place.

Davis adds, “One man that they have hired and appointed resolves all disputes and settles and handles all of these cases. That’s quite a bit of power without any recourse. If he makes a decision that’s arbitrary or unjust or in some fashion capricious, you have no recourse.”

We tried for weeks to get in contact with the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians. It never answered our request for an interview.

We went to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to explain its tribal justice system. It also declined our request for an interview, telling us to simply read the legal terms of their gaming compact.

We went to the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to see if it could explain the legal language of this tribal compact. It told us there is no local government expert able to answer our questions.

Fretz’s earning power as a tennis coach may be ruined for life.

“This case has an overall value, I think in excess of a million dollars,” comments her attorney.

Tribal insurance would cover that amount if the tribal arbitrator agrees with Fretz. Thousands of people walk into Indian casinos every day.

Looking back at her year of physical pain, Tory Fretz has these words of warning: “It’s at your own risk, so you’d better be careful.”

Martin Mueller sent this email to News Channel 3:

Nancy Conrad representing the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians sent News Channel 3 this email:

As of airtime, the leadership of the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians has sent us no comment.