LAS VEGAS — Expenses are mounting towards a “Dances With Wolves” actor who’s accused of sexually abusing and trafficking Indigenous ladies and women within the U.S. and Canada for many years.
A grand jury in Nevada indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on Wednesday on 19 counts, increasing on earlier expenses of sexual assault, trafficking and youngster abuse to incorporate kidnapping, lewdness and drug trafficking. Chasing Horse, 46, now faces expenses in 4 jurisdictions, with the latest case introduced by prosecutors on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.
Police in Las Vegas have described Chasing Horse as a cult chief who used his place as a self-proclaimed drugs man to achieve entry to Indigenous women and girls, who he bodily and sexually assaulted and took as underage wives. Prosecutors additionally accused him of grooming younger women to exchange his older wives. His followers within the cult generally known as The Circle believed he had therapeutic powers and will talk with increased beings.
Chasing Horse’s public defender, Kristy Holston, advised The Related Press that she was wanting ahead to revealing holes within the state’s case throughout a preliminary listening to that was canceled Wednesday morning forward of the indictment. She declined to elaborate.
“For the reason that public is so on this case and since solely choose particulars of the accusations have been launched, we predict it might be most applicable for the State to current their proof in a public listening to the place the protection can reveal the weaknesses of the State’s case on the file in court docket,” she mentioned in an electronic mail.
Holston didn’t instantly reply Wednesday afternoon for touch upon the extra expenses filed towards her shopper. An arraignment is scheduled March 1 in Clark County District Court docket.
Chasing Horse has declined a number of requests from the AP for an interview from the Las Vegas jail the place he’s being held on a $300,000 bond.
Born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Chasing Horse is extensively identified for his position as Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar-winning movie, “Dances With Wolves.” He was arrested Jan. 31 close to the North Las Vegas residence he shared along with his 5 wives.
Authorities searched the house and located firearms, psilocybin mushrooms, 41 kilos of marijuana and two cellphones containing movies and pictures of underage women being sexually assaulted, based on an arrest report.
The footage of the assaults led to federal youngster pornography expenses in U.S. District Court docket in Nevada.
Chasing Horse’s arrest in Nevada was the fruits of a monthslong investigation by Las Vegas police. Based on court docket paperwork, police uncovered a sample of sexual abuse and alleged crimes relationship again to the 2000s throughout a number of states, together with Montana and South Dakota, in addition to Canada, the place he’s been charged with a 2018 rape in British Columbia.
Earlier this month, prosecutors with the Fort Peck Tribes in Montana charged Chasing Horse with one depend of aggravated sexual assault in reference to a 2005 rape, based on a warrant obtained by the AP.
Ken Trottier, a tribal court docket felony investigator, mentioned Wednesday that two teenage women on the time had accused Chasing Horse of rape. The investigation was closed, Trottier mentioned, as a result of the women’ statements couldn’t be corroborated.
That modified after Chasing Horse was arrested in Nevada, Trottier mentioned, with extra proof that allowed Fort Peck to pursue a felony case.
It’s unlikely, although, that Chasing Horse will ever seem in tribal court docket, Trottier mentioned. Tribal leaders banished him from the reservation practically a decade in the past amid allegations of human trafficking.
“We don’t ever anticipate him to return right here,” Trottier advised the AP. “If he ever steps foot on our reservation, he can be hunted.”
Trottier mentioned Wednesday that he hopes federal prosecutors in Montana will step in, permitting for stiffer penalties if Chasing Horse is charged and convicted of any crime on the reservation — the place federal authorities have concurrent jurisdiction when the sufferer and suspect are each Native American.
“I’ll in all probability by no means have the satisfaction of having the ability to put handcuffs on him,” Trottier mentioned, “however a minimum of we’re capable of assist the Las Vegas case and different investigations.”
