Bialota Vindicated, Calls Into Question 7th and 4th Circuit Court Merger
The Bialota Network | Investigation | Oct. 8, 2026
James Bialota’s recent vindication suggests a possible conspiracy against him, and supports a link between a millionaire’s and lawyer’s fraud, the Rapid City Council, and Judicial Campaign Donations. Questions are now being raised about combining the 7th and 4th Circuit Courts (the South Dakota 7th Circuit is currently comprised of Pennington, Custer, Fall River, and Oglala Counties).
In a ruling just filed today ( https://ujs.sd.gov/media/zhkot2me/31286.pdf ) regarding a property dispute, Bialota won for a second time in the South Dakota Supreme Court. This time, in a unanimous South Dakota Court decision (with Supreme Court Justice Delaney Concurring Specially), the Court appears to admonish Judge Heidi Linngren of the 7th Circuit (who is the current presiding Judge over the entire 7th Circuit) for reasons including ruling against the Supreme Courts previous ruling, citing that Judge Linngren erred in judgement.
Court Ruling Excerpt:
[¶6.] In Bialota I, we reversed the circuit court’s entry of summary judgment and remanded “with directions for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”1 Bialota I, 2024 S.D. 7, ¶ 25, 3 N.W.3d at 462….
The Courts final words on the matter and the final decision are as follows;
[¶24.] For these reasons, the circuit court erred in granting Defendants’
motion to make redemption. We reverse and remand for further proceedings
consistent with this opinion.
This is the second time the 7th Circuit was reversed and remanded to listen to the Supreme Court. Will Judge Linngren finally obey?
The other issues were numerous, including several fraud accusations backed with physical evidence. In our own research we discovered Judge Heidi Linngren had received campaign contributions from the opposing firms’ attorneys in years prior, which appeared to total the maximum amount from a single firm’s attorneys. The other fraud alleged with evidence submitted to the case included the opposing attorney Nathan Chicoine’s personal forgery and filing of false documents.
Nathan Chicoine is employed at DeMersseman Jensen Tellinghuisen & Huffman of Rapid City, which also lists Greg Strommen of Rapid City Council as an employee.
Court Ruling Excerpt:
[¶12.] Bialota raises several issues on appeal, including whether the circuit
court erred in granting Defendants’ motion to make redemption. Due to our
resolution of this issue, we need not consider the other issues raised by Bialota.
The Supreme did acknowledge the fraud accusations, but as per their ruling, the Supreme Court did not consider these issues for lack of need. Since the Court declared the main error was in the Judge Linngren’s ruling, there was not an additional need to determine that the fraud allegations were true.
Court Ruling Excerpt:
In the ruling in [¶0.] …Bialota moved for relief from that order under SDCL 15-6-60(b)(3), based on Lakota Lakes’ alleged fraudulent reports filed with the secretary of state and alleged fraudulent statements regarding the purchase price of the Property….
Because of the serious error of judgement by Judge Linngren, the refusal to rule consistently with the Supreme Courts prior decision, granting the opposition relief, and not being entitled too by law, the other allegations were not ruled on by the court. The Judge’s error was a fatal error to the case, and the ruling was clearly erroneous and did not follow the law.
In the weeks prior to this ruling, James Bialota personally defended his wife’s case at the Rapid City Council Legal and Finance.
Why are the Bialotas so upset? The property is currently assessed at $232,000 dollars, per Pennington County records, and the opposing party was actively trying to sell the property for $425,000 while the matter was still in the courts.
Almost 2 weeks ago, the real estate agent in an interview stated he did not know the case was pending or that Lis pendens was filed on the property, and believed the that property was available for immediate possession.
The listing agent Jeremy Kahler, stated via text on 10/8/2026 that he did speak to the alleged owner (opposing party) and their attorney after the previous conversation. The Bialotas informed Kahler via text that Bialota won the property in the Supreme Court Decision today, and Bialota texted and attempted to call Kahler with no replies. James Bialota even called the realtors office and told one of the staff that Supreme Court ruled the property was again decidedly theirs.
Kahler was specifically asked to reply or comment prior to publishing, and he abruptly ended the call. The listing is still up at https://jeremy.thekahlerteam.com/properties/tbd-trackers-trail-keystone-sd-57751-86127 , but not as the Bialota’s listing.
What about the listing? Should Kahler have taken it down? Bialota is yet again the clear owner according to the State’s highest authority.
The opposing party was officially Lakota Lakes LLC, owned by multi-millionaire Peter Taunton, who sold Snap fitness for over $200 million in 2014. In recent years Taunton has been accused of frauds in;
1. Cases in 2023, 2024, and 2025, where Peter Taunton has been alleged to commit fraud regarding Nautical Bowls. Nautical Bowls apparently fired CEO Peter Taunton in 2024 from the fallout from the lawsuits, according to a report by Minneapolis TV station Fox 9.
2. A 2015 case in Minnesota’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court involving Peter Taunton. Taunton, that case alleged, was involved in Ponzi scheme-related fraud, and settled the dispute for $126,500 in August of that year. As part of the settlement agreement, he agreed to waive his right to receive any distribution of assets in the bankruptcy case.
3. A 1999 divorce ruling that on August 4, 1999 order that Taunton “intentionally and fraudulently hid marital assets”.
Peter Taunton’s Instagram posted the following about fraud 19 weeks ago: “Anyone who pays taxes should be furious that billions are being drained through fraudulent abuse of social programs with little to no oversight!” In this message, there was no mention of his confirmed or alleged repeated fraud. What’s interesting is that Peter Taunton has sued his previous attorneys for loosing cases involving his own fraud, such as STATE OF MINNESOTA IN COURT OF APPEALS C4-02-737, which Taunton lost.
Will his current attorneys be sued?
The property in question is listed as an “exclusive home site”, a vacation and home site to many executives. With current modest homes of 2400 sq ft listed at over $1 million, it begs the question: How does someone who is worth over $100 million loose property for non-payment of more than 3 years of taxes?
Even after notifying the listing agent almost 2 weeks ago of the legal issues and pending South Dakota Supreme Court case, the listing was still up for the opposing party at this article’s publishing.
The opposing party with a Lis pendens filed against the deed appeared to be actively attempting to still defraud a possible future buyer by showing that the property was ready for purchase from Taunton. In the Bialota’s opinion, the circle of fraud was complete. The Bialotas and their Attorney Brian Utzman of Rapid City believed it and saw the evidence.
A Lis pendens is a public notice filed against a piece of real estate to warn anyone that a lawsuit affecting the property's title or ownership is currently pending.
Now, why was James Bialota at the Rapid City Council defending a Supreme Court Case? There, the public learned that Greg Strommen of the Rapid City Council had threatened Bialota with civil remedies while at the legal & finance committee for Rapid City, after James Bialota named names in corruption and asked, “isn’t it your firm caught in a fraud”? (See video link here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18Th5THYhX/ )
The City of Rapid has been accused of using the weight of Government and Police against James Bialota for personal actions like this. The case had nothing to do with the City of Rapid, except that one of the opposing law firm’s lawyers, Greg Strommen, is a City Council member. Bialota called out the City Council for this, and specifically named Greg Strommen for his firms’ actions, asking if the Police stepped in to not charge the City Council members firms attorney. The charges amount to over 40 years combined on forgery, filing false documents and fraud on the court. (See video link here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1PL3kMvK1t/ )
This ruling does not only vindicate the Bialotas, who have fought this case since early 2021 at the expense of tens of thousands in legal fees, but they’ve now won it twice in the South Dakota Supreme Court. The ruling of Judge Linngren’s erroneous ruling calls into question the combination of Judicial Circuits in western South Dakota. As the Presiding Judge of the entire 7th Circuit, could or should Linngren oversee a District more than double in size, including the 4th Circuit’s current counties?
Do the residents of Butte, Meade, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Lawerence, Perkins and Ziebach Counties want a judge that does not follow the law or listen to the South Dakota Supreme Court to rule over them?
Likely not, and this case emphasizes the difference between city and rural judges. It appears big city judges have gotten too big for their robes, and they seem to think they can overturn the South Dakota Supreme Court on their own.
The boondoggle that is the 7th Circuit Court is coming to light as Bialota and others are repeatedly vindicated from false rulings from the 7th Circuit. Is this why the state needs to combine the rulings, to make it appear there are less erroneous as a whole? Please, don’t. The Bialotas and others specifically moved from their jurisdiction after raising these issues and judicial retaliation for appealing and reporting the frauds.
Will this lead to other vindications soon?
Time will tell. The Bialota Network has a wide plethora of facts on fraud and corruption by the 7th Circuit Court. Many times, the Pennington County States Attorney’s Office has tried to gag Bialota and others from disclosing information to the public. However, per SDCL and case law, once information is published on the court record, it is public and fair game to publicize.
Stay tuned for a definitive way for the people of South Dakota to address once and for all the statewide corruption and finally hold people accountable.
Pictured at top: Peter Taunton (Top Left), Jeremy Kahlee (Top Right), Heidi Linngren (Bottom Left), Nathan Chicoine (Bottom Right)
