Recently a federal judge ruled that two victims of a car accident caused by an employee driving a pick-up owned by Wind Creek Casino in Wetumpka, Alabama were prevented by sovereign immunity from seeking damages from the Poarch Creeks tribe.
The victims, Casey Wilkes and her boyfriend, Alex Russell, were driving on U.S. Highway 14 in search of breakfast on New Year’s Day morning.
At that time, Spraggins, who worked for the Wind Creek Casino was driving in the opposite direction under the influence, in fact three times the legal limit. Spraggins lost control of her pickup and hit the couple head on.
Wilkes spent 10 days in come with brain injuries, multiple fractures and a crush ankle. Her parents sued the tribe to try to get back some of the money they spent on hospital stays and months of therapy.
They sued the driver and the casino that employed her and ran up against the brick wall of tribal sovereign immunity.
Judge John Bush of the County Circuit Court, ruled that although the crash occurred off tribal land on a state highway and involved a casino employee who wasn’t a member of the tribe, that the state had no jurisdiction and dismissed the lawsuit.
