Bellicose Bumpkin

These stories don’t have anything in particular to do with Middleboro or the proposed 5*RTHTHAC¹ aka casino. But they came up in my google alerts and piqued my interest.

Former Mashpee Wampanoag tribal chairman Shawn Hendricks claims that his wife hit him with her car.

Imagine claiming that someone tried to run you over in a parking lot or run you off the road. Shocking allegation. I’m glad nobody in Middleboro would ever do something like that. A shameful lie like that could really damage someone’s reputation and business.

Also in the news, my friend and Mashpee Wampanoag tribal elder Amelia Bingham had another set back in her court case to recover land that were deeded to her descendants. Amelia of course was shunned by Glenn Marshall for asking questions about agreements between the tribe and investors. She was absolutely right of course and subsequent analysis by the current tribal council has shown the deal to be rather crappy, not unlike our deal in Middleboro.

I’m not so sure that Amelia would describe me as her friend, but we have had a number of interesting meetings. First on June 5, 2007 Amelia and her grandson came to former CFO president Jacquie’s house. She had a stack of papers about Glenn Marshall that she showed to myself and Jacquie. From there we took her to the selectman’s meeting where she warned the board to find out more about Marshall. She was ignored. Ever since that meeting, I strongly advocated for her to be unshunned – for whatever that was worth.

I’ve only met Amelia on three other occasions – each time at court hearings for Glenn Marshall. We had a nice discussion each time.

Back to point. So far Amelia has proven to be right every time. While the tribe continues to pour effort in the casino pipe dream, they are letting the real prize get away – more than 15,000 acres of prime Cape Cod real estate.

¹ 5*RTHTHAC – FIVE STAR RESORT(that happens to have a casino)

From the Cape Cod Times:

The Cape Cod Time is reporting that the wife of Tribal Chairman Shawn Hendricks has taken out a restraining order that requires Hendricks to stay away from her and their three children.

Divorces are notoriously messy things but if the allegations are true, this tribe needs to do some soul-searching.

Steroids + Firearms + Temper + Karate = Yikes?
Running a casino like the one being planned for Middleboro is serious business. As with any venture that involves large sums of money and inusfficient oversight, the potential for wrongdoing is huge. Middleboro needs a partner it can depend on and trust. First we were sent a convicted rapist and serial liar in Glenn Marshall. Now, if the Mrs. Hendricks charges are true, we have a gun-toting blackbelt with a foul temper who’s all jacked up on mood altering steroids. He sounds like an anti-hero from some bad action movie.

But this is not a movie. If these allegations are true, Middleboro and the region have to be very concerned about the inability of this tribe to put solid leadership in place. If the tribe is sending us people like Marshall at a time when they really need to be on their best behavior – what is going to happen when they are flush with cash, operating on sovereign land, and beholden to no one?

At this time I will point out that nothing has been proven and Hendricks has not been convicted of anything. But I have to believe that restraining orders are not given out lightly, and I think Middleboro needs to be concerned about the leadership track record of this tribe.