 Following his arrest , the tribal court of the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe charged Lara with assaulting the arresting officers , along with four other charges . Lara pleaded guilty to the tribal charge of " violence to a policeman " . Soon after , federal prosecutors charged Lara with assault on a federal officer and a federal grand jury indicted him . Lara moved to dismiss the charge based on double jeopardy and other constitutional grounds . The Federal District Court , with Magistrate Judge Alice R. Senechal sitting by consent , denied the motions and Lara entered a conditional guilty plea , reserving the right to appeal . Senechal noted that two other trial courts in the circuit had already ruled that double jeopardy did not apply , that the ICRA only recognized the inherent sovereignty of the tribes and did not delegate prosecutorial power to the tribe . She further noted that another circuit court had ruled the same way . Lara also argued that the Petite doctrine , if applied , would preclude his prosecution , and that since it was never applied to federal prosecutions following convictions in tribal court , it discriminated against Indians . Senechal denied this motion , noting that Lara had shown no examples of other races not being prosecuted for like offenses . 
