Former Winnemucca Indian Colony chairman arrested in California

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005 | 5:50 a.m.

WINNEMUCCA, Nev. - The former chairman of the Winnemucca Indian Colony awaits an Oct. 13 preliminary hearing in California on charges he illegally tried to access colony bank accounts.

William Bills, 46, was arrested after he showed up Sept. 27 at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Lodi, Calif., with suspected counterfeit documents claiming he had access to two colony accounts holding as much as $180,000, police said.

Bills earlier sent letters to the Lodi City Council and San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors announcing plans to build a casino at a truck stop near Lodi.

In the letter, obtained by the Reno Gazette-Journal, he described himself as chief of the Winnemucca Indian Colony.

"The Tribe would like to start a project in California that would create jobs, revenues and taxes that would help both areas for the betterment of San Joaquin County and my Tribe," Bills wrote.

But the first the colony heard about the casino plan was a couple of months ago when a newspaper reporter called and asked about it, said Allen Ambler, tribal administrator for the Winnemucca colony.

Bills' tribal membership lapsed about three years ago after a controversy over his eligibility to belong to the tribe, Ambler sid.

It was discovered that Bills' father adopted him and that Bills was actually Filipino with no American Indian blood, Ambler said.

Bills was arrested in Lodi on suspicion of attempted grand theft, forgery, identity theft and illegally possessing financial information.

He also is accused of possessing several forms of false identification, including a Department of Defense security badge for Travis Air Force Base in California that police said appatly was never used.

While being placed under arrest, Bills claimed diplomatic immunity as a member of the Shoshone nation, investigators said.

Bills also could be extradited to Nevada on a felony arrest warrant alleging he cashed a bad check for $1,546 in May 2001 at the Eldorado Hotel Casino in Reno, police said.

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Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com