The chairman of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes has agreed to pay back more than $30,000 he illegally received in duplicate stipends and salary for his work for the band.

The agreement comes as part of a deal with prosecutors to resolve a criminal case against Leon D. Bear and avoid a trial that had been scheduled to begin Monday.

Bear pleaded guilty Thursday to making a false statement on his 1999 income tax return, admitting that he failed to claim approximately $67,000 in income he received from the Skull Valley band and saving himself $13,101 in taxes.

The embattled Goshute leader, currently locked in a contentious tribal dispute over his controversial plan to store nuclear waste on Goshute land in Utah's west desert, faces up to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine when he is sentenced June 27.

In exchange for his plea, federal prosecutors have agreed to dismiss similar counts relating to Bear's allegedly fraudulent 2000 and 2001 income tax returns, as well as charges that Bear embezzled some $160,000 by double-billing the band for his travel expenses and inappropriately accepting a salary for his work as tribal secretary.

Court documents filed Thursday indicate Bear has agreed to pay back $6,300 for his secretary salary and $25,242 received in duplicate travel stipends. He has also agreed to settle all outstanding tax issues regarding his 1999, 2000 and 2001 returns.

Prosecutors, in turn, will recommend that U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins will sentence Bear at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines and give the Goshute chairman credit for accepting responsibility for his actions.

The tiny Tooele County band began making news in 1997, when Bear signed a lease with Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of utility companies seeking to store nuclear waste on the reservation pending the construction of a permanent facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The decision divided the band, and Bear has been struggling to retain leadership since.

A faction opposed to the nuclear-waste plan attempted unsuccessfully to oust Bear through a tribal election, ultimately leading to a number of federal indictments against a handful of those opposed to Bear.

Earlier this month, Sammy Blackbear, who had claimed to have been elected vice chairman in the election, pleaded guilty to one count of theft from an Indian tribal organization for embezzling at least $1,000 — though federal prosecutors claim it is as much as $25,000 — from the band.

Three others who were charged along with Blackbear — tribal members Marlinda Moon and Miranda Wash, and tribal attorney Duncan Steadman — are scheduled to stand trial on similar charges in June.

Last week, Bear's attorneys lost a bid to subpoena former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to testify in the Bear case. Bear's attorneys alleged the former governor had helped finance the splinter group's attempts to remove Bear as tribal chairman. Leavitt, now President Bush's secretary of Health and Human Services, was one of the state's most vocal critics against the plan to store as much as 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste on the Goshute land.

---

E-mail: awelling@desnews.com