This whole thing has been a huge story locally, and this story was on the front page of the paper this morning.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/11/05/4219250/madera-authorities-track-down.html
Table Mountain> lol
From my phone. If someone could post the text I would be grateful. Weird, he called me when he was out here and asked if he could teach a class at my school. I politely declined.
Wow, what a mess!
"Chukchansi casino clash: Tex McDonald's bail raised to $2.4 million
By Marc Benjamin
The Fresno BeeNovember 5, 2014 Updated 3 minutes ago
Security video from Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino shows some of the confrontations that occurred Oct. 9 when a rival tribal leadership faction entered the hotel-casino. The clash led state and federal government agencies to close Chukchansi Gold.
The Chukchansi tribe's infighting has led to the arrest of a former police officer who now works as a South Carolina jiujitsu instructor.
Benjamin James Rhodes, 40, of Bluffton, S.C., was arrested at his business late Tuesday and charged with kidnapping, assault and other charges filed last week by Madera County's district attorney.
Rhodes is among a group of men who served in a security force that raided the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino on Oct. 9 in a supposed tribal police operation to wrest audit documents from a second faction controlling the casino.
Fifteen people involved in the armed confrontation at the hotel and casino have been charged with multiple felonies. The forced takeover of the casino occurred when people directed by Tex McDonald, the leader of one of the contentious factions of the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, took over the gaming center from a tribal faction overseen by Reggie Lewis and Nancy Ayala.
The casino and hotel has been closed since then by state and federal authorities.
CHUKCHANSI CASINO TIMELINE: Creation, controversy and confrontation
On Wednesday, McDonald's bail was raised to $2.4 million during his arraignment in Madera County Superior Court. At the same hearing, Judge Mitchell Rigby also raised bail for Vernon King, a treasurer for the McDonald council, to $1.75 million.
In announcing charges last week, Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz said that McDonald's bail was set at $1 million, while bail for the others would be $800,000 apiece. McDonald has two prior strikes dating back to 1992 and 1995 for assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats. All are charged with various felonies: kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, battery inflicting serious injury, and assault with a stun gun.
Bluffton police said Rhodes was arrested without incident at the request of the Madera County Sheriff's Office, and he's being held for extradition to face seven counts each of kidnapping and false imprisonment, six counts of assault and battery with a firearm, one count of personal use of a firearm and one count of being armed in the commission of a felony, The Island Packet (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) reported.
Rhodes was among a handful of men who were recruited from out-of-state to join McDonald faction tribal police chief John Oliveira in the casino office raid, said Madera County Sheriff John Anderson.
Oliveira was a former assistant special agent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also has a military background and served six years in Iraq in counterterrorism operations, according to a press release issued by the tribe shortly after Oliveira's hiring in September.
It will be up to Gov. Jerry Brown to decide whether to extradite the out-of-state suspects, Anderson said. Nine men remain at large.
"These are people who had a degree of experience in law enforcement or military background or some kind of security background," said David Leibowitz, a spokesman for the McDonald faction. "These people were not newbies."
The Oct. 9 incident was not an armed takeover of the casino, he said, because the security force went directly to the tribal gaming commission office, which was in the opposite direction from the casino from the hotel entrance.
"This was not some kind of posse or a gang of thugs," Leibowitz said. "It was a carefully orchestrated action operating under the authority of a legal tribal government."
But, the sheriff said, the McDonald faction security force was not recognized by California law enforcement officials as a policing agency, nor was it recognized by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs under its guidelines.
"They had the same authority as a private citizen," Anderson said.
Jeff Reich, whose law firm represents McDonald and King, said the McDonald security force had a lawyer with them.
"How many criminals show up at the scene of a crime with their lawyer?" Reich asked.
Reich was in court with McDonald and King on Wednesday. The judge raised their bail based on the charges filed against the two men, Reich said.
A bail hearing is set for Nov. 12 in Madera, where Reich will seek a lowering of bail and possible release of the tribal leaders."
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/11/05/4219250_madera-authorities-track-down.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
TOSH COOK -
From my phone. If someone could post the text I would be grateful. Weird, he called me when he was out here and asked if he could teach a class at my school. I politely declined.
Just out of curiosity, did you decline because you didn't know him? Because you did? Had you heard about any of this or did you only draw the connection after seeing the article?
I didn't put it together until I saw the paper this morning. I declined because it was just so...strange. He was very clear he did not want to roll and only wanted to teach (Red Flag #1). He dropped Relson Gracie's and Pedro Sauers name but it sounded shady (Red Flag #2) and I really don't let people I don't know teach my students. Also he dropped Jon Plyers name and said they were friends. When I checked with Jon he "knew of him, but didn't know him", which was absolutely not what he told me. (Red Flag #3)
My dad lives in Coarsegold off the 415. No joke, this is huge news up there.
TOSH COOK -
I didn't put it together until I saw the paper this morning. I declined because it was just so...strange. He was very clear he did not want to roll and only wanted to teach (Red Flag #1). He dropped Relson Gracie's and Pedro Sauers name but it sounded shady (Red Flag #2) and I really don't let people I don't know teach my students. Also he dropped Jon Plyers name and said they were friends. When I checked with Jon he "knew of him, but didn't know him", which was absolutely not what he told me. (Red Flag #3)
I imagine that'd do it, thanks for the response!
TTTosh
TOSH COOK -Are you from the Fresno area?
This whole thing has been a huge story locally, and this story was on the front page of the paper this morning.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/11/05/4219250/madera-authorities-track-down.html
Sounds like a strong arm Watergate.
I wonder if these guys are related to Sturgis & Hunt?
Later
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jiujitsumstr - WHAT THE? The Article reads about Anthony Johnson, but this thread is about some instructor?
Seriously. UG News can't even keep track of which threads it's ripping off these days.
This dude is a joke. Absolutely horrible promotion standards, and his jiu-jitsu is just as bad. 
Erik_in_559 -TOSH COOK -Are you from the Fresno area?
This whole thing has been a huge story locally, and this story was on the front page of the paper this morning.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/11/05/4219250/madera-authorities-track-down.html
Yes sir. www.rgjjoffresno.com
And a VTFU for HKP! He is good people.