A Nevada decide on Friday dismissed a drug-trafficking cost in opposition to a Dances With Wolves actor, however upheld a grand jury in Las Vegas’ sweeping indictment on 18 sexual assault-related crimes.
In her order issued late Friday afternoon, Clark County District Courtroom Choose Carli Kierny mentioned state prosecutors introduced sufficient proof for “an inexpensive grand jury to conclude that the sexual assaults occurred in opposition to two minors,” however discovered that “there was no substantive proof” linking Nathan. Chase after the psilocybin mushrooms that investigators discovered whereas looking his house.
Chasing Horse, 46, requested Kierny to throw out your complete indictment, saying his accusers needed to have intercourse with him and that the mushrooms present in a fridge in his house didn’t belong to him.
One among his accusers was underneath 16 — the age of consent in Nevada — when she mentioned Chasing Horse started abusing her.
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Public defender Kristy Holston mentioned she had no touch upon the decide’s ruling.
A grand jury in Las Vegas indicted Chasing Horse in February on fees of sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping, youngster abuse, lewdness and drug trafficking.
He has been in custody at a county jail since Jan. 31, when he was arrested by SWAT officers close to the house he shared along with his 5 wives in North Las Vegas.
The sexual abuse allegations date again to the early 2000s and cross a number of US states, together with Nevada, Montana and South Dakota, in accordance with the indictment.
Chasing Horse additionally faces sexual abuse fees in Canada and the US District Courtroom in Nevada, in addition to within the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.
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Police and prosecutors say that within the many years since Chasing Horse’s portrayal of the younger Sioux character Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar-winning movie, he has marketed himself to tribes nationwide as a drugs man with therapeutic powers who work together with greater beings might talk.
They accuse him of utilizing his place to steer a cult referred to as The Circle, getting access to susceptible women and girls and taking underage wives.
One of many victims was 14, authorities mentioned, when Chasing Horse instructed her that the spirits of their ancestors instructed him to have intercourse along with her.
“Her mom is sick,” mentioned Clark County Prosecutor Stacy Kollins, “and she or he was instructed that her virginity was the one pure a part of her ear and she or he needed to sacrifice it to keep up her mom’s well being.”
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A trial within the state case is scheduled to start on Could 1. Chasing Horse pleaded not responsible and invoked his proper to a trial inside 60 days of his arraignment.
He’s due again in court docket subsequent week for a listening to on one other movement asking the decide to grant him three separate hearings.
Chasing Horse and his attorneys argued within the movement that the allegations of sexual assault and the drug trafficking cost are unrelated.
Chasing Horse additionally faces a sexual assault cost in British Columbia for allegations within the southern inside city of Keremeos in September 2018.
Police on the Tsuut’ina First Nation west of Calgary filed warrants for his arrest, and mentioned they had been cooperating and sharing data with the LVMPD as a part of the investigation.
Tsuut’ina Nation Police consider there could also be different victims in Alberta and are working with the Calgary Police Service and different police companies throughout the province to help those that might want to come ahead.
Chasing Horse traveled throughout Canada attending powwows, together with these held within the Tsuut’ina Nation, police mentioned.
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He 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.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
