Lawyers seek sanctions against former Democratic official who sued Supreme Court

Nearly a dozen lawsuits have been filed in bitter family feud over ranch

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that the Attorney General’s Office was among the defendants seeking sanctions against Bret Healy. Healy’s ownership claim in the family ranch has also been updated.

Lawyers for the South Dakota Supreme Court and members of a family embroiled in a bitter family feud asked a federal judge Monday to sanction the former executive director of the Democratic Party.

They argue that Bret Healy filed a meritless lawsuit in August. Healy sued the South Dakota Supreme Court and its five justices, as well as a circuit court judge, an attorney who represented the Healy family and his family members, including his mother and two brothers. One of the brothers is Bryce Healy, the former state School and Public Lands commissioner. Bret Healy filed the lawsuit in federal court.

Besides serving as the South Dakota Democratic Party’s executive director, Healy has been a consultant for Native American voting rights.

He’s brought nearly a dozen lawsuits over the years, alleging that his family defrauded him out of the Brule County ranch that has been in the Healy family since 1897. But those lawsuits, including multiple trips to the South Dakota Supreme Court, and an appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, have ended in his defeat.

Sioux Empire United Way leadership defends diversity, equity, inclusion policy; denies gender identity a requirement for funding