Next month, a federal court in Spokane will try the man who is accused of stealing a set of handcrafted baby moccasins from Northern Quest Resort & Casino more than four years ago.
According to court filings, Kevin William Wissman, 61, was taken into custody on January 15 following a traffic check in the Yakima region. According to the jail’s roster, he is being held at the Yakima County Jail.
In October 2020, a shadow box with five moccasins and a 1940s-made gauntlet was taken from a display case at the Kalispel Tribe’s Airway Heights resort and casino. Security cameras captured the incident.
Wissman faces a federal misdemeanor accusation of stealing from an Indian tribal organization. In October 2023, he was indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington.
Prosecutors moved to detain Wissman for risk of flight after he used a phony name to avoid arrest for 15 months. According to court documents, Wissman had previously been arrested on a DUI charge, but he gave a false name and did not show up for the mandatory hearing. He allegedly used the same fictitious name when he was captured on January 15 but then acknowledged that he was Kevin Wissman. According to the records, he was also disguised by wearing two hairpieces that were tucked under a beanie to give the impression that he had long hair.
The fate of the relics was not immediately apparent.
According to a statement from the Washington State Department of Corrections, the arrest was aided by the Community Response Unit, which is a component of the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force.
The U.S. Marshals Service, which led the task team, worked with Kalispel Tribal Police to conduct the investigation. The investigation was aided by the Yakima Police Department, Yakima County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, and U.S. Border Patrol.
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