Olson on Piersol, Native empowerment

Editor's note: what follows is more from a vocal victim of the South Dakota Republican Party and our favorite kamikaze teevee anchor man, Shad Olson as he prays for the End Times.

A Rapid City Federal District Judge, long criticized for exhibiting leftist judicial bias and with decades of family ties to leftist USAID-NGO foundations and political leaders announced his impending retirement today from the Federal bench, with potential implications for several high profile lawsuits involving radical leftist NGO, NDN Collective and their local targets.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Piersol announced his retirement decision in communications received by litigants in those pending legal actions, including Rapid City's Uhre family, Grand Gateway Hotel and Retsel Corporation, targets of a racial smear campaign by NDN Collective and a subsequent racial discrimination lawsuit by the Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights, which had been set for trial in early June. An email notice of Piersol's retirement decision notified parties on both sides of that lawsuit and others that those trials are now postponed indefinitely, pending judicial reassignment by the court.

Judge Piersol had been presiding federal justice in two pending civil actions between NDN Collective and Rapid City's Retsel Corporation, the ownership group of Grand Gateway Hotel that became the target of a national boycott after a native-on-native shooting death sparked a racial controversy.

Retsel Corporation and Grand Gateway Hotel became embroiled in a racial smear campaign and social media boycott after a native-on-native shooting death inside the hotel in March 2022. NDN Collective employees and associates then undertook a "racial testing" operation, storming the hotel lobby demanding room rental while streaming the altercation to social media platforms, and claiming "racial discrimination" after they were denied service, despite dozens of Native American employees and customers lodged at the hotel at the time of the incident.

NDN Collective disingenuously concealed their ongoing hostilities against hotel ownership and intentions for inflicted law fare and viral media attacks against the business, couching their denial of room rental as "innocent victims of racial discrimination," a stance Judge Lawrence Piersol upheld and allowed in court filings.

Local and national media outlets made no effort to investigate, explore or report the actual chain of events in context, adding to the firestorm of leftist outrage against hotel ownership.

Three weeks ago, Judge Piersol issued what would be his final evidentiary ruling in the case, refusing defendants to allow characterization of the NDN Collective room rental event inside the hotel as a "racial testing" operation, despite mounting pressure from critics amid evidence previously and purposefully concealed from the general public.

Judge Piersol, Pennington County, and the pro-Marxist non-governmental organization, NDN Collective have mutual longstanding financial and, or, family ties to the Bush Foundation, and the Macarthur Foundation, the same far leftist organizations that have dominated DOGE headlines in recent months, creating obvious conflicts of interest in multiple criminal and civil cases involving NDN Collective and their leadership that have been ignored by both federal and state courts. The Uhres believe MacArthur and Bush Foundation political influence have been instrumental in violation of their rights to due process at both the county and federal court levels.

Members of the Uhre family had demanded an investigation of those shared ties, openly questioning Judge Lawrence Piersol's ability to maintain judicial impartiality in ongoing legal matters and whether Pennington County's grant relationships have also influenced an inequitable dispensation of justice in other cases.

In 2019, Piersol sided with native protesters in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's NODAPL blockade of the Keystone XL pipeline, blocking a riot boosting law as unconstitutional that would have enhanced penalties for organizing riots and encouraging out-of-state participation.

Documents obtained independently to the scrutiny of the Elon Musk, DOGE corruption investigation of USAID and other federal departments show Judge Piersol and NDN Collective have both family and financial affiliations with the Bush Foundation, a Democrat leftist NGO that has given upwards of $100-million to NDN Collective. Judge Lawrence Piersol's wife Catherine served on the Bush Foundation's Board of Directors until at least 2014, according to visible foundation records and has been an advocate for social justice programming at the University of South Dakota School of Law, involved in the cultivation and early identification of future public servants under the guise of philanthropic interest.

In September 2024, the Uhre family's Retsel Corporation filed a six-count federal civil RICO lawsuit against NDN Collective and other defendants, alleging a coordinated malicious campaign to destroy their business through defamation, injurious falsehoods spread on social media and by circulating a doctored email to create an illusion of a "Native Ban," from the hotel and to destroy community reputation. As part of the Retsel lawsuit, NDN now faces federal complaints for wire fraud and forgery in the production and circulation of that doctored email. Judge Piersol was also presiding over that litigation.

"We are frankly pleased about Judge Piersol's decision to step down from the federal court and the timing of a continuance for our mother's failing health that should preclude Piersol's ability to preside over pending trials. Given his consistent favoritism toward NDN in court rulings, his retirement offers our family renewed hope for a restoration of impartial due process, unbiased judicial rulings on legal motions moving forward and ultimately, a greater chance for fair trial in these matters, which have taken a devastating toll on our livelihood and lives over the past three years," a Uhre family spokesman said.

The Uhre family and attorneys had previously requested a health continuance to the June trial date as former Retsel Corporation CEO Connie Uhre, diagnosed with lung cancer and hospitalized for the past several weeks for a lung infection, was too unwell to participate in a proceeding that could force a damages liquidation of her own assets. Piersol granted that continuance in conjunction with the notice of his expected retirement date of August 15th.

To date, the Uhres and family company, Retsel Corporation, have faced a total of 10 lawsuits since the 2020 George Floyd riots and the beginning of NDN Collective's pile-on racial smear operation, an ordeal they believe is directly responsible for Connie Uhre's physical distress and rapid decline in health.