Swinomish Tribal Member Charged with Domestic Violence Assault
Tribal Member Charged Federally as Habitual Offender Following Tribal Court Convictions for Prior Assaults
| U.S. Attorney's Office May 18, 2011 |
JONATHAN H. JACK, 28, an enrolled member of the Swinomish Indian Tribe, was charged this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle with domestic assault by a habitual offender and assault by striking, beating, or wounding. JACK qualifies as a habitual offender due to two prior convictions in Swinomish Tribal Court for domestic violence assaults against the mother of his children. JACK was arrested April 6, 2011, after he assaulted the woman and her father and violated both a no contact order and a ban from Swinomish Indian Reservation. If convicted, JACK faces up to five years in federal prison.
According to the charging documents, JACK was arrested at a home on the Swinomish Reservation after tribal police were called to the scene. JACK allegedly broken into the home through a bedroom window and assaulted his former girlfriend and her father. JACK tried to leave the home by going back out the window. He struggled with a tribal police officer and had to be tasered three times before police could handcuff him. JACK had been convicted on September 1, 2010, for two prior assaults against the female victim in this case. Those assaults occurred on March 7, 2010, and August 23, 2010. JACK was banned from Swinomish Tribal Land for two years and ordered to have no contact with the victim. Those orders were violated with the April 6, 2011, assault.
The charges contained in the complaint are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case is being investigated by the Swinomish Tribal Police and the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney J. Tate London. Mr. London serves as a tribal liaison for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney’s Office, at (206) 553-4110 or Emily.Langlie@USDOJ.Gov.