Costs enhance towards a Dances With Wolves actor accused of sexually abusing and trafficking indigenous ladies and women within the US and Canada for many years.
A grand jury in Nevada on Wednesday indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on 19 counts, increasing on earlier prices of sexual assault, human trafficking and little one abuse to incorporate kidnapping, lewdness and drug trafficking.
Chasing Horse, 46, now faces prices in 4 jurisdictions, with the newest case introduced by prosecutors on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.
Nathan Chasing Horse sits in courtroom in North Las Vegas, Nevada, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. Bail has been set at $300,000 for the previous “Dances With Wolves” actor who’s charged in Nevada with sexually abusing and trafficking Native ladies and women.
(AP Picture/Ty O’Neil)
Las Vegas police 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, whom he bodily and sexually assaulted and took as underage wives. Prosecutors additionally accused him of grooming younger women to switch his older wives. His followers within the cult referred to as The Circle believed he had therapeutic powers and will talk with larger beings.
Chasing Horse’s public defender, Kristy Holston, tells 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 earlier than the indictment. She declined to elaborate.
“For the reason that public is so on this case and since solely chosen particulars of the accusations have been made public, we predict it might be greatest for the state to current their proof in a public listening to the place the protection will spotlight the weaknesses of the state’s case on document in courtroom,” she mentioned in an e mail.
Holston didn’t instantly reply Wednesday afternoon for touch upon the extra prices filed towards her consumer. A listening to is scheduled for March 1 in Clark County District Courtroom.
Chasing Horse has 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 recognized for his function as Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar-winning movie, Dances With Wolves. He was arrested on January 31 close to the North Las Vegas house he shared along with his 5 wives.
Authorities searched the house and located firearms, psilocybin mushrooms, 41 kilos of marijuana and two cell telephones with movies and photographs of underage women being sexually assaulted, in keeping with an arrest report.
The footage of the assaults led to federal little one pornography prices in U.S. District Courtroom in Nevada.
Chasing Horse’s arrest in Nevada was the end result of a months-long investigation by Las Vegas police. Based on courtroom paperwork, police found a sample of sexual abuse and alleged crimes courting again to the 2000s in a number of states, together with Montana and South Dakota, in addition to Canada, the place he was charged in a 2018 rape in British Columbia.
READ MORE: Bail set for ‘Dances With Wolves’ actor as Canadian police apply for extra prices
Earlier this month, prosecutors from the Fort Peck Tribes of Montana charged Chasing Horse with one rely of aggravated sexual assault in reference to a 2005 rape, in keeping with a warrant obtained by the AP.
Ken Trottier, a tribal courtroom prison investigator, mentioned Wednesday that two teenage women accused Chasing Horse of rape on the time. The investigation was closed, Trottier mentioned, as a result of the ladies’ statements couldn’t be substantiated.
That modified after Chasing Horse was arrested in Nevada, Trottier mentioned, with extra proof permitting Fort Peck to pursue a prison case.
Nonetheless, Chasing Horse is unlikely to ever seem in tribal courtroom, Trottier mentioned. Tribal leaders banned him from the reservation almost a decade in the past amid allegations of human trafficking.
“We by no means anticipate him to return right here,” Trottier informed the AP. “If he ever steps on our reserve, he will probably be hunted.”
Trottier mentioned Wednesday he hopes federal prosecutors in Montana will step in, permitting 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.
“I am going to most likely by no means have the satisfaction of having the ability to put him in handcuffs,” Trottier mentioned, “however at the very least we might help the Las Vegas case and different investigations.”
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