Reasons To Overturn The Removal Of David Miranda At The

REASONS TO OVERTURN THE REMOVAL OF DAVID MIRANDA AT THE TRIBAL MEETING ON JULY 26,2009 i

On March 1,2009, the People of our Band voted to install me as a PDC Board member. Since then I have worked as hard as I could to serve the best interests of the Band in building our business and our People. However, a majority of the Tribal Council chose to undo the People's vote by removing me in response to Ed Burbee's and Victor Rocha's slanderous email, even though Council had already known for years about the false claims made against me in the lawsuit. I would like you to know the truth about what it going on. The False Lawsuit Against Me In 2004, the PDC President at the time (who is not related to me) signed a contract with Starscope. In the contract, the PRC agreed to pay Starscope for its services in putting on the California State Open Golf Championships. The tournament did not raise as much as anticipated. To cover costs lost by the players who were guaranteed prize money for winning, the PDC voluntarily paid the purses owed to the players by Starscope. Even though PDC paid everything that was agreed to hi the contract plus the purse to the players that Starscope was supposed to pay, Starscope still claimed that PDC owed it the money that Starscope had owed to the vendors. When Starscope realized it could not sue the PDC, it turned around and sued me hi 2007 claiming that I promised them that I could get the PDC to agree to pay them through my brother (who was not PDC President at that time). I never made such a promise, and I never would. I am not that sort of person, and I have an honest character. At the time of the tournament I had just graduated from golf management school, and I was excited to volunteer my time to help out as much as I could to make it a success. Since late 2006 when I was served with this lawsuit, I have notified and met with the Pechanga legal department, Tribal Council, and PDC. I even hired the Tribe's attorneys, Holland & Knight, to be my attorneys so that the Tribe's interest could be protected from an Indian law perspective. After my attorney, James Kawahara, left Holland & Knight to start his own firm, he continued to provide the Pechanga legal department with information and updates on the progress of the lawsuit so that the Tribe could evaluate the case from its own perspective. In April/May 2009,1 asked the current PDC President and the PDC CFO if they would testify for me as a witness hi the upcoming June 2009 trial. The PDC President and the PDC CFO agreed. I also asked the PDC President if I could get some paperwork from the PDC CFO related to the suit, and he said that I could get whatever I needed. I then told my attorney that he could contact the PDC CFO to talk about getting some of this paperwork. Although I was not present for any conversations between the PDC CFO and the PDC President on this matter, anyone who has worked with the PDC CFO knows that he would never release paperwork to me or anyone else without first checking with the PDC President. It is my understanding from my attorney, James Kawahara, that the only paperwork that the PDC CFO gave James were copies of invoices/checks paid by the 1

PRC or supporting documents related to the Golf Tournament About a week after this, Council sent John Macarro to threaten me saying that if I did not return the paperwork, the Council would have me removed from the PDC. I immediately called James Kawahara to find out if we could get the paperwork back; however, James told me that he had already submitted the paperwork to the plaintiff as trial exhibits. When I asked John Macarro if he was going to try to get me removed from office now, he said no because the warning happened after the fact, and there was nothing we could do about it now. On June 8,2009,1 met with Tribal Council while one of our Tribal attorneys teleconferenced in, and I asked if they wanted me to delay the trial to get more time for the Tribe's lawyers to prepare for possible actions by Starscope. Legal said "yes" and I delayed the trial until November 2009. The Political Maneuvers to Get Me Removed & Influence Gaming Commission Elections As many of you know, Ed Burbee and Victor Rocha circulated an email about me that sided with the non-member's false legal claims against me, even though this same nonmember was trying to get more money from our Tribe than he deserved. This email was timed to cause confusion to the Tribal Council at the time of the PGC election and to cause them to make politically motivated decisions. The email between and Ed and Victor reads "My questions I may email to [the Tribal Attorney], but I hesitate to do so now, and prefer to wait for the bombshell effect. Then, no doubt a degree of confusion will descend and political moves will commence." It was expected that the timing of the email would cause confusion among our elected leaders on the Tribal Council and cause them to make political moves to save their own jobs. Even though the Council had known about the lawsuit for years and even though the tribal attorney essentially told me that there were no grounds for removing me since I was only warned after the fact, the Tribal Council chose by majority vote to undo the People's vote by manufacturing charges against me. The charges do not even make sense: Council claims that I abused my power as a PDC Board Member by asking permission from the PDC President and PDC CFO to use the PDC's paid invoices to Starscope in my trial. These invoices are not even confidential or proprietary since Starscope undoubtedly has copies since it was responsible to pay the vendors. As if this ridiculous charge was not enough, the Tribal legal department went to outside attorneys to fabricate a way to get me out of office. With the help of these attorneys, they decided to remove me by claiming that there is a possibility that giving me these invoices for the trial could be interpreted as a waiver of sovereign immunity as to additional documents. My attorney, who was formerly a partner in Hqlland & Knight, assures me that there has been no waiver and there are many grounds to prove this fact. It Could Happen to YOU or Any Member of Your Family Just because certain vocal members of our Tribe want to scare our Council into obeying their wishes because elections are less than a year away is not good cause for violating the rights of a single Tribal Member or the votes of the Membership hi the PDC election. 2

If the Tribal Council is allowed to get away with removing me under these circumstances, they will be able to maneuver to undermine the rights of every Tribal Member. No one will be safe if we allow them to railroad me out of elected office. It feels like McCarthyism where a small group of people get to decide everyone else's fate. Our Tribe is better than that, and we cannot allow this witch-hunt mentality to continue. The Constitution that the Membership enacted requires the Council to act in the best interests of the Tribe and to uphold the rights of every Tribal Member without bias. We never elected our Council to try to undermine our Members, and we never approved hiring a Tribal legal department to help the Council to find a way to persecute our Members. A few on the Tribal Council have ruined the lives and reputations of innocent Tribal Members. I want to thank all of you who supported me this past March hi the PDC election, and I want to thank everyone hi our Tribe who is concerned with honesty, fairness and our Tribal rights. I am asking you to support me and our Tribe's best interests by forwarding this email to other Tribal Members and by showing up to vote to reinstate me at my appeal hearing on July 26,2009. Sincerely,

David Miranda

3