Mashantucket — An appellate judge has upheld the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court’s dismissal of a tribal member’s claim that tribal leaders violated her civil rights when they reneged on a promise to pay her $400,000 in “incentive” payments withheld while she was banished from the tribe.

In an April 10 filing, Gregory Bigler, who hears appeals lodged in tribal court, sided with the tribe and its court. Bigler has yet to file a written decision.

Andrina Charles, 37, the plaintiff in the case, brought her original claim in 2013, alleging that the tribal council had rescinded a 2012 decision to pay her $400,000 in incentive payments she would have accrued between her 2006 banishment following her arrest on a larceny charge and her 2009 conviction on that charge.

The tribe’s elders council lifted Charles’ banishment in 2011, after she pleaded guilty in state court to a charge of third-degree accessory to larceny and served a sentence of probation. Charles contended that she should not have been banished while the charge was pending and that she was entitled to “reparations” for the financial losses she incurred during that period.

In March 2014, tribal Judge Thomas Londregan dismissed Charles’ suit, finding that the court lacked jurisdiction. In seeking the dismissal, the defendants claimed that the tribal constitution gives the elders council sole authority over banishment matters.

At the time of her banishment, Charles was earning $103,000 a year working for the tribe, primarily as a Foxwoods Resort Casino entertainment coordinator. She claimed to be earning annual bonuses of $15,000 a year and annual incentive payments of more than $93,000 in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, the incentive payments — distributions of Foxwoods’ profits — began to decline sharply. They have since been discontinued.

Charles, who was represented by attorney Jane Hunt, alleged in court documents that after considering her claim, the tribal council voted 4-3 in July 2012 to award her $400,000. Nearly three months later, she claimed, she received an email containing a letter in which Councilor Marjorie Colebut-Jackson stated that the council “was not in a position to grant you the relief you request ...”

A decision is imminent in another Mashantucket tribal court case involving banishment.

In that matter, a former tribal councilor, Charlene Jones, has sued the tribe and its employment rights office over Foxwoods’ hiring of tribal member Steven Thomas, who had been convicted of embezzling from the tribe. Thomas, a former tribal treasurer, was awaiting sentencing in federal court when the casino named him manager of tribal and Native American relations in December 2013.

Months later, the elders council banished Thomas for a year, though not from his home or place of employment.

Jones, who sought the position given to Thomas, has argued that he should have been considered ineligible for the job because he was not in “good standing” with the tribe.

Tribal Judge Edward O’Connell heard testimony last December regarding the tribe’s request that Jones’ claim be dismissed.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck