New York officials are holding on to a truckload of untaxed Indian-made cigarettes they seized, challenging the recent order of a state judge who said the state had to give them back.
State Police and the Cuomo administration say they are not changing their enforcement practices despite the court ruling.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed an appeal notice, temporarily halting the order of state Supreme Court Justice David Demarest.
Demarest ruled June 18 that there was no tax due on the 26,000 cartons of Signal brand cigarettes headed from the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation to HCI Distributors, a subdivision of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. Demarest found no legal basis to hold them.
HCI sued State Police and St. Lawrence County prosecutors.
