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Officers at the Swinomish Police department wouldn’t say what was going on yesterday.

Reporter questions were referred to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s General Manager Allan Olson, who initially said “no comment” when asked whether officers had been disarmed, or forced to forfeit their weapons.

But at about noon on Tuesday, he did say the police department was in the process of reorganizing. And, “the police department is fine,” he said.

Though specific details about the reorganization were not forthcoming on Tuesday, a search of federal court records found recent activity concerning the Swinomish Police.

Last month, a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations against a woman whose vehicle was seized by Swinomish Police was dismissed in the United States District Court in Seattle.

That lawsuit named current Police Chief Andrew Thorne, Assistant Chief Larry Yonally, three other Swinomish Police Officers and the state Department of Licensing. Susan Pearson alleged that her truck was illegally confiscated last year after she was stopped for running a stop sign on the reservation.

In the legal answer to the allegations, the tribal police lawyers stated that officers discovered Pearson’s driver’s license had been suspended days earlier for unpaid tickets and they found drug paraphernalia and heroin in her pockets.

According to court documents, the case was dismissed against Thorne and the Department of Licensing.

The other defendants had not been properly served according to court documents, so the case against them ended on July 5 for “failure to prosecute.”

Pearson’s attorney, William Johnston of Bellingham, said he may appeal the case.

“The question is, do Indian tribes have the right to confiscate non-Indians’ cars?” Johnston said.

He said there are currently several other cases in courts involving assest seizures by tribal police.

For the past year, Swinomish Police have been recovering from a scandal in which former Chief Thomas Schlicker wound up being sentenced to federal prison for embezzling money from the tribe.

Schlicker, who had been with the department for 17 years, admitted in a plea agreement that he put tribal money – some of which was from the sale of confiscated vehicles – into a secret bank account that only he could access.

He was sentenced to 16 months in prison in November.

Reporter Kane Stokes contributed to this report.