“I’m glad that finally the truth was revealed, and it’s basically just a political witch-hunt,” said Angela Kephart, who was appointed to the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise board by former Principal Chief Michell Hicks in March 2015.
Councilmembers voted by a wide majority to kill the resolution — introduced by Councilmember Teresa McCoy, of Big Cove — calling for Kephart’s removal from the board.

“It’s absolutely a no-brainer,” McCoy said of the decision. Any tribal member she’s talked to, McCoy told council, has been quick to say that Kephart should be booted from the board, no questions asked. In her view, the investigation — though, in McCoy’s estimation, was so poorly executed that “a monkey could have done it” — confirmed that many of the salacious suspicions that had precipitated it in the first place were correct and that Kephart had no place representing the board as a public official.
Tribal Council would not release the investigation or the name of the investigator.

“I think we need to bring this to the floor today and just get it over with,” McCoy said as council opened June 2. “Vote it straight up or straight down.”
“That’s my intention,” replied Chairman Bill Taylor. “We’re going to vote it up or down, and we’re going to move on. We can’t move forward if we’re having to deal with all the negative.”

The backstory

The “negative” in question erupted following a Feb. 6 Jennifer Nettles concert at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino.
What happened that night depends on who you ask. During the March council session, tribal member Louise Reed came to the podium to complain of the way Kephart had that night treated her daughter Samantha Hinojosa, who works at the casino. McCoy said Hinojosa had initially been the server for Kephart’s group of friends but was reamed out by Kephart after offering to start a tab rather than serving free alcohol. As a board member, Kephart is not allowed to accept anything free from the casino.

Kephart, on the other hand, says that nothing of the sort happened. She barely spoke to Hinojosa all night and was quick to remove the free alcohol bracelets from her group after she discovered they’d been issued, she said. Kephart says she didn’t know Hinojosa was Reed’s daughter, so any friction between the two families wouldn’t have influenced how she treated the young woman.

“I would say that she’s a victim of being raised in an environment to already think that I don’t like her or whatever, and I don’t even know her,” Kephart said. “I’m sure she’s a wonderful young lady who does a wonderful job for our casino.”

The next part of the complaint stems from casino surveillance video that was released on Facebook. How the video was obtained and who released it, without authorization, remains a mystery. In fact, after voting on allowing Kephart to keep her post, council voted unanimously to subpoena Facebook to find out who put it up.

The portions posted on Facebook show two of Kephart’s guests making out, with one of the women at a different point in the video dancing up on the male bartender who replaced Hinojosa and kissing him as other people intermittently make out in the background of the shot.

“She knew that room was going to be available, and she gained access to that room. She invited her friends, and even though she may have participated physically a little, she still did,” McCoy said when council first voted to order an investigation, in April. “She was within arm’s reach of her guests while they were behaving reprehensibly with a young male employee of the casino.”

The outcome

But according to Kephart, the investigator concluded that neither the video nor the follow-up interviews he did with all the people who had contact with her that night revealed anything that should warrant her seat being taken away.
The investigator’s conclusion stated that “Kephart attempted to correct the mistake” with the wristbands by cutting them off and asserted that “the investigator believes it would be unfair to hold Kephart accountable for actions of her guests that she may or may not have been aware of.”

There was little discussion preceding the vote on McCoy’s resolution, aside from McCoy’s assertion that passing the resolution is the obvious course of action. However, only two of the 11 councilmembers present agreed with her.
Reaction among tribal members who’d come to watch the proceedings was decidedly opposed to that outcome. Many of the group had traveled from Robbinsville, which Kephart represented during the years she sat on council as the Snowbird/Cherokee County representative.

“She’s gotten away with so much, that woman has,” said Agnes Adams, of Robbinsville.

“I was surprised, I was really surprised,” added Onita Bush, also of Robbinsville. “Disappointed and surprised.”

Kephart, on the other hand, wants to make it clear that she doesn’t deserve to be removed from the board or to have terrible things said about her.

“It’s terrible that I have to be so harassed,” Kephart said. “She’s bullying me politically Teresa (McCoy) is.”

Kephart felt that Reed’s appeal to council in March represented just another instance of people unfairly tarnishing her reputation. The morning of council’s April meeting, Kephart filed a lawsuit against Reed, asking for damages in excess of $10,000 — as well as attorney’s fees and court costs — due to the “defamatory and untrue” statements she made in March. As a result, Kephart alleged in the lawsuit, she may suffer “monetary and economic loss” by being forced to resign her position with Cherokee Indian Hospital and possibly losing her place on the TCGE. Reed has a June 13 deadline to respond to the lawsuit.

Kephart is no longer employed with the hospital, which she said is “just to save the hospital from more political fire.” She vehemently contested McCoy’s story that the hospital pushed her out, saying the organization was “very supportive” and “glad I was vindicated” by the investigation. The hospital itself declined to comment on the question, as it’s a personnel issue.

Going forward

This wasn’t the first time in the past year someone’s attempted to separate Kephart from her seat, which she holds through September 2017. Within a day of taking office, Principal Chief Patrick Lambert asked that she resign, citing issues of character. Kephart refused to do so.

“When he said, ‘I know her character,’ what do you know about me?” Kephart questioned.
“Chief Lambert is to me Patrick Lambert,” she continued. “I respect his seat but I don’t have respect for the way he’s treating our people.”

If you ask Lambert, the lack of respect points decidedly in the opposite direction. Kephart’s behavior is “demeaning to the position of trust” of her position, he said, and he will “stand opposed” to her “mistreating hardworking casino employees and our enrolled members.” He hinted that efforts to remove her aren’t over.

“I will continue to stand firmly with the Cherokee family and all employees who have had to suffer from this type of mistreatment from Ms. Kephart,” he said. “I think she should show respect to our Tribe and the position by resigning or face further potential efforts for removal".

McCoy agrees that the issue is not dead.

“It’s coming back up,” she said. “It will be coming back up over the next couple council sessions.”

In McCoy’s view, the investigation only proved the issues she had with Kephart’s behavior. Kephart, however, feels that McCoy is out to get her because she was appointed by Hicks, with whom McCoy did not get along.

“She doesn’t want me on that board because Chief Hicks appointed me to that board,” Kephart said. “It’s as simple as that.”