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- By Native News Online Staff
A former council chair of the Kansas Kickapoo Tribe has been banished from the tribe after pleading guilty to attempted homicide, attempted arson, larceny, and embezzlement.
The sentence of banishment means that Randall is “considered legally dead and a nonentity to the Kickapoo Tribe,” according to a news release from the tribe.
Lester Randall pleaded guilty and was sentenced in early January. Randall was instructed to forfeit three houses and multiple vehicles, as well as pay $150,000 in restitution. Randall was immediately arrested following the sentencing on federal indictments for sexual exploitation of a minor, producing and receiving child pornography, enticement for prostitution, and aggravated domestic battery, according to Topeka news station WIBW 13.
That’s in addition to ongoing prosecution around four charges of assault. Per a KSNT report, Randall allegedly assaulted his spouse on four separate occasions, including using a video game headset and a wooden spoon in the attacks.
“Members of our Tribe can now begin the process of healing from the hurt and damage caused by Lester Randall,” Tribal Chairperson Gail Cheatham said in the tribe’s news release. “Randall has caused hurt and trauma on our Reservation that will take years to overcome.”
Randall served as tribal chairman from Oct. 2005 to Sept. 2023 — nearly 18 years at the tribe’s helm. The news release from the tribe said Randall made a “playground” of the Kickapoo reservation, where spent his time in leadership “wreaking havoc and pain that extends into every family on the reservation.” The release stated Randall was responsible for damaging the tribe’s jury selection, police, and court processes, as well.
“The personal hurt that you have inflicted throughout the entire Reservation will have a lasting effect that will follow each of us to our graves. You have no idea how deeply you have hurt us; or maybe you do. Every family on the Reservation can detail the personal hurt that you have caused a family member and their entire family,” wrote Kickapoo Attorney General Napoleon S. Crews in a plea offer memorandum included with the press release.
“It is not an overstatement to say that children, parents, women, men, and families want you gone from the Reservation, never to return. We want you banished from the Reservation for life. As a banished person, you will be considered legally dead and a nonentity under traditional and customary Tribal law.”
Randall, who also served as a regent for Haskell Indian Nations University, was required to acknowledge the memorandum as part of his guilty plea. A hearing date for his remaining federal charges has not yet been set.
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