Former Kickapoo president’s crimes will follow ‘each of us to the grave’

Lester Randall, former chairman of the Horton-based Kickapoo Tribal Council, was banished from the tribe and ordered to pay more than $150,000 in restitution Friday after pleading guilty in tribal court to crimes including two counts of attempted murder.

Randall subsequently faced federal charges of producing child pornography.

Randall’s tribal court sentence also calls for him to confiscate three residential homes and numerous motor vehicles, Tribal Council Chair Gail Cheatham said in a Saturday news release.

“Under traditional and customary tribal law, the sentence of exile means that Randall is legally considered dead and a non-entity for the Kickapoo Tribe,” the release said.

Randall was taken away after federal law enforcement officials convicted him of federal charges of spousal assault, producing and receiving child pornography and soliciting prostitution.

Randall, 49, spent more than 10 years on the Kickapoo Tribal Council, including about eight years as its chairman, said Napoleon S. Crews, attorney general of the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas.

“Our tribe members can now begin the process of healing from the wounds and destruction caused by Lester Randall,” Cheatham said. “Randall has caused harm and trauma on our reservation that will take years to overcome.”

Tribe claims Lester Randall caused ‘confusion and pain’

Randall pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of attempted murder and one count each of embezzlement, second-degree assault, theft, conspiracy to commit theft and attempted arson, Cheatham said.

Crews said Randall pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder on May 3 when Kickapoo Tribal Police, assisted by three other law enforcement agencies, went to his home to arrest him.

Randall left his home and was immediately arrested, he said.

“When officers entered Randall’s home to clear and search it, a propane stove was intentionally turned on, filling the home with propane fumes,” Crews said. “One of the officers managed to turn off the gas stove and his arm was burned by a small explosion which could have had catastrophic consequences if the door had not been opened immediately.”

As part of the settlement, Randall signed a statement released Saturday by the tribe that said Randall had caused “confusion and pain that affects every family on the reservation.”

“You treated the reserve as your personal playground, causing sexual, physical and psychological trauma to children, parents, women, men and families,” the statement read.

“The personal harm you have inflicted on the entire reservation will have lasting effects that will follow each of us to our graves,” they wrote.

The statement added: “Your financial greed has contributed to the drug and alcohol addiction problems that pervade the reserve. Some victims of drug, alcohol and sexual manipulation have fled the reservation and do not want to come back until you leave.”

What charges does Lester Randall still face?

Randall still faces charges filed on July 17, when a federal grand jury indicted him on four counts of assault, each allegedly involving his spouse, who was identified in the indictment only as “ER.”

The indictment alleges that Randall struck the ER with a wooden bowl on September 29, 2023; hit her in the head with an X-Box headset on April 9, 2024; tried to strangle or choke her on April 17, 2024; and attacked her with an aluminum baseball bat on April 25, 2024.

The indictment stated that each alleged crime was committed on the Kickapoo Reservation near Horton in northeastern Kansas.

Court records show Randall also faces charges brought by a federal grand jury on December 4:

• Two cases of sexual exploitation of a minor involving the production of child pornography, both allegedly committed between February 20, 2020 and February 20, 2022.

• One count of sexual abuse of a minor involving the production of child pornography, allegedly committed on January 18, 2022.

• Two cases of sexual abuse of a minor involving the viewing of child pornography, one of which was allegedly committed on January 23, 2022, and the other on February 5, 2022.

• One count of solicitation of prostitution, allegedly committed between June 30, 2022, and July 1, 2022. The indictment alleges that Randall solicited a known person “to travel for interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.”

Randall was scheduled to make his first court appearance on the federal charges on Monday, January 13, at 2:30 p.m., in U.S. District Court in Topeka.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at [email protected] or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on the Topeka Capital-Journal: Former Kickapoo chairman banished from tribe after convictions