Deboraugh Rodgers Challenges Cherokee Nation Again

YouTuber and associate of Jose “Chille” DeCastro Deboraugh Rodgers spoke at a recent council meeting of the United Keetoowah Band and challenged the legal powers of the Cherokee Nation as a whole.

Rodgers, who previously challenged the Cherokee Nation’s very existence in her 2023 drunk driving case that was decided under Cherokee Nation jurisdiction, was again challenging the jurisdiction of the nation in another DUI case.

This time her concerns came with a UKB Tribal light horse police officer arresting a non-Cherokee on Cherokee Nation land and the handling of the case under Cherokee nation law. Rodgers claimed that the case should have either been dropped or turned over to the United States to try as it involved a non-native American.

Rodgers was one of Jose “Chille” DeCastro’s first people that he campaigned for in 2022 and 2023. She had been arrested for drunk driving in 2022 on Cherokee Nation land and resisted officers when they attempted to detain her, leading to a physical altercation in which she was tased and body slammed.

DeCastro would challenge the body cam footage presented by officers during the trial, convincing Rodgers that frames of the video were missing, and others were inserted by police. At one point taking the claims so far as to attempt to fundraise for a forensic video expert to testify on Rodgers’ behalf that the footage was doctored.

Rodgers herself refused to comply in pre-trial proceedings and wound up in jail for contempt of court for sixty days. During that time, DeCastro led a fundraising campaign claiming that Rodgers was being “thirsted” by prison guards as the only source of water in her cell came from a sink on the back of the toilet.

DeCastro and Rodgers also attempted to prove that the recognition of Cherokee Nation as a sovereign nation was illegal, and that Cherokee Nation had no jurisdiction of its own or rights to pass laws that conflicted with United States law.

Rodgers was ultimately found guilty of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence, resisting arrest and carrying a loaded firearm onto Cherokee Nation land. She was fined $2,500.00 and was given a suspended 30-day sentence due to time served.

Her case was one of DeCastro’s most famous failures as a “constitutional law scholar” and not a lawyer and set the stage for other failed campaigns.