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State Attorney Takes Last Swipe At Inflated Appraisal
AP 02/16/1000
By William Kates

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) _ A state attorney on Monday laid out his final attack
on the methods used by a federal government appraiser to assess the property
value in the Cayuga Indian National land claim dispute.

Assistant Attorney General David Roberts spent nearly four hours assailing
the testimony of Arvel Hale, the federal government's expert property
appraiser. Hale said the Cayugas should receive $335 million for their lost
ancestral lands in Cayuga and Seneca counties.

Roberts said the methods used by Hale were riddled with self-serving
mistakes, questionable methods and arbitrary data.

Later, Robert's co-counsel, John Pickett, took the nine-member U.S. District
Court jury back over the testimony from the state's expert appraiser, John
D. Dorchester, who said the 64,015 acres was worth no more than $51 million.

Judge Neal McCurn had expected to give his instructions to the jury Monday
afternoon but that timeline was derailed by Roberts' lengthy summation.
Closing arguments will continue Tuesday.

McCurn has said his instructions in the complicated case could take up to
two hours. The jury must then decide on a present-day market value as well
as the land's rental worth for its use and occupancy for each year from 1795
to the present.

The Cayuga's case is the first of several pending Indian land claims against
New York to reach the damages stage.

Using an overhead projector, Roberts went into a point-by-point attack of
what he called Hale's "flawed analysis." Roberts spent three days during the
11-day trial cross-examining Hale about his appraisal methods.

"There are layers upon layers upon layers of reasons to reject Mr. Hale's
methods. He has inadequate evidence. There's nothing reliable. His model
fails woefully," Roberts said.

Hale categorized nearly 5,700 separate parcels and used a best-use formula
to come up with average per-acre prices that he multiplied to reach a
"grossly inflated" total for the claim area, Roberts said.

An electronic memo from Hale to federal attorneys showed that Hale
understood that the court wanted the claim area appraised as a single, large
tract without consideration of any private development, such as houses,
businesses or other private improvements, Roberts said.

Roberts called the electronic memo a "smoking gun," noting that it was
mistakenly included in deposition materials that were turned over to the
state

Roberts argued that Hale later changed his approach after receiving
different instructions in a May letter from Justice Department lawyers. That
letter asked Hale for a "summation of the existing value of all the parcels"
based on their current use, Roberts said.

"This is diametrically opposite of what the court instructed," said Roberts.
"It's so apparent what they did, it screams at you."

Roberts noted for the jury that the Cayugas' original deed to the land
prevented the tribe from subdividing or leasing to private individuals,
another factor that would have made diminished its value over two centuries.

Referring to the electronic memo, Roberts said even Hale recognized that the
Cayugas should not benefit from how others had developed the land, even in
200-plus years of trespass.

"In his own words, he said the Cayugas should not reap benefits based on the
sweat and toil of others who managed the land for over 200 years and turned
a forest into what it is today," Roberts said.
 

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