NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A former “Dances With Wolves” actor accused of sexually abusing Indigenous girls and women for many years was charged with federal crimes Wednesday, including to the rising checklist of felony circumstances towards Nathan Chasing Horse since his arrest final week in Nevada.
Chasing Horse, 46, now faces two counts of sexual exploitation of kids and one rely of possession of kid pornography, in keeping with a felony grievance filed Wednesday afternoon in Nevada U.S. District Court. Authorities have stated Chasing Horse filmed sexual assaults.
The federal prices got here hours after a state decide on Wednesday granted $300,000 bail to Chasing Horse, who has been in Las Vegas police custody since his Jan. 31 arrest close to the house he shared along with his 5 wives.
Earlier Wednesday, about two dozen of Chasing Horse’s family and pals had filed right into a North Las Vegas courtroom in a present of assist, hoping he could be launched on bail. They cheered and celebrated the decide’s choice as they left the courthouse, waving indicators that translate to “Justice for Chasing Horse.” Now, if he posts bail, he’s prone to be taken into federal custody.
In state court docket, Chasing Horse is charged with eight felonies, together with sexual assault, intercourse trafficking and youngster abuse. He has not entered a plea.
Canadian police in British Columbia confirmed this week in addition they are pursuing a felony case towards the previous actor, who is understood for his portrayal of Smiles A Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar-winning movie. He is accused in a 2018 sexual assault within the British Columbia village of Keremeos close to the Washington state border.
Authorities in Nevada have stated his crimes date to the early 2000s and stretch throughout the United States and into Canada.
It wasn’t instantly clear how, if in any respect, the federal prices will have an effect on Chasing Horse’s case in Clark County. His public defender, Kristy Holston, didn’t instantly reply Wednesday night to a request for remark.
At his bail listening to Wednesday morning, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney William Rowles informed the decide that Chasing Horse ought to stay in custody as a result of he was “grooming” women to exchange his older wives on the time of his arrest.
“There is evidence that this individual is still in the process of grooming young children to replace the others as they grow up,” Rowles stated.
Nevada authorities have described Chasing Horse in additional than 100 pages of court docket paperwork because the chief of a cult generally known as The Circle, whose followers believed Chasing Horse, as a “medicine man,” may talk with larger beings. Police stated he abused that place to bodily and sexually assault girls and women and take underage wives.
At its peak, Rowles stated, The Circle had about 300 members.
Investigators and victims had been anticipated to talk in court docket Wednesday, as a result of Nevada legislation requires prosecutors to point out convincing proof {that a} defendant ought to stay jailed as they await trial. But after delays within the proceedings, the decide heard solely from Rowles, who requested $2 million bail, and Holston, who requested the decide to set bail at $50,000.
After the listening to, Holston informed The Associated Press she additionally was proud of the decide’s choice and stated she is trying ahead to his subsequent court docket date in North Las Vegas, at present scheduled for Feb. 22. At that listening to, a decide is predicted to listen to proof within the case and determine whether or not Chasing Horse will stand trial.
“We’re really looking forward to the preliminary hearing in this case,” she stated, “because it’s another public hearing where we will have an opportunity to point out the weaknesses in the state’s case.”
Rulon Pete, a consultant of the victims and the manager director of the Las Vegas Indian Center, stated they had been disillusioned with the decide’s choice. Some of the victims had been within the courtroom Wednesday.
“What happened this morning was like a slap in the face,” Pete informed The Associated Press.
Police have stated they’ve recognized no less than six victims, together with one who was 13 when she stated she was abused, and one other who stated she was provided to Chasing Horse as a “gift” when she was 15.
Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, residence to the Sicangu Sioux, one of many seven tribes of the Lakota nation. In 2015, he was banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana, following allegations of human trafficking.
