A grand jury in Nevada has once more indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on prices that he sexually abused Indigenous girls and ladies for many years, reviving a sweeping criminal case in opposition to the previous “Dances with Wolves” actor.
The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Courtroom, which incorporates Las Vegas, once more prices the 48-year-old with sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping. It additionally provides felony prices of manufacturing and possessing baby sexual abuse supplies.
It comes after the Nevada Supreme Courtroom in September ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s original indictment, whereas leaving open the chance for prices to be refiled. The courtroom sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury course of.
Clark County District Legal professional Steve Wolfson rapidly vowed to hunt one other indictment.
The preliminary 18-count indictment charged Chasing Horse with greater than a dozen felonies. He had pleaded not responsible.
His lawyer, Kristy Holston, had additionally argued that the case needs to be dismissed as a result of, the previous actor stated, the sexual encounters have been consensual. One among his accusers was youthful than 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the abuse started, in keeping with the indictment.
Neither Wolfson nor Holston instantly responded Thursday to telephone or emailed requests for remark.
Ty ONeil / AP
Finest recognized for portraying the character Smiles A Lot within the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is house to the Sicangu Sioux, one of many seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring within the Oscar-winning movie, authorities have stated, he propped himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medication man whereas touring round North America to carry out therapeutic ceremonies.
He’s accused of utilizing that place to realize the belief of susceptible Indigenous girls and ladies, lead a cult and take underage wives.
Chasing Horse’s arrest final January reverberated round Indian Nation and helped regulation enforcement within the U.S. and Canada corroborate long-standing allegations in opposition to him, resulting in extra felony prices, together with on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse in 2015 from the reservation amid allegations of human trafficking.
The 48-year-old has been in custody since his arrest final January close to the North Las Vegas house he’s stated to have shared with 5 wives. Inside the house, police discovered firearms, 41 kilos of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a reminiscence card with movies of sexual assaults, CBS News previously reported. Police stated that no less than two of the ladies have been underage when he married them: One was 15, police stated, and one other was 16.
When the Nevada Supreme Courtroom ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s indictment, the judges stated they weren’t weighing in on his guilt or innocence, calling the allegations in opposition to him severe. However the courtroom stated that prosecutors improperly supplied the grand jury with a definition of grooming with out skilled testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by considered one of his accusers.
Chasing Horse’s authorized points have been unfolding on the similar time lawmakers and prosecutors across the U.S. are funneling more resources into circumstances involving Native girls, together with human trafficking and murders.
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