Lynn Crooks, Leonard Peltier & Medina shootout prosecutor, dies at 83

FARGO (KVRR) – The man who led the prosecution against former American Indian activist Leonard Peltier for the murders of two FBI agents has died.

Lynn Crooks was 83.

As an assistant U.S. attorney, Crooks led the government’s team of prosecutors during Peltier’s trial in Fargo in 1977.

Peltier was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The shootings happened during a confrontation South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975.

Crooks also prosecuted Yorie Kahl, the son of Posse Comitatus member Gordon Kahl. The Kahls, along with Scott Faul, were involved in a fatal shootout with law enforcement officers near Medina, North Dakota in 1983.

The confrontation resulted in the deaths of U.S. Marshal Kenneth Muir and Deputy Marshal Robert Cheshire.

“Lynn was a wonderful man. A great trial lawyer.  But more important, a kind and caring man with lots of friends who loved him,” according to former federal prosecutor and East Central District Court Judge Norman Anderson, a longtime colleague.

Crooks worked as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1969 to 2002.

After retiring, Crooks became an outspoken supporter of Marcy’s Law, which was designed to expand the legal rights of crime victims.