LAS VEGAS (AP) — The intercourse abuse trial of former “Dances with Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse in Nevada has once more been postponed.
A choose on Monday moved the beginning of the trial in state court docket in Las Vegas to Aug. 4. The 48-year-old had been scheduled to face trial subsequent week on fees that he sexually abused Indigenous girls and women for years within the Las Vegas space.
Craig Mueller, Chasing Horse’s lawyer, mentioned in a movement filed Friday that he wants extra time to organize and interview witnesses. It is the most recent in a collection of delays since Chasing Horse was arrested and indicted in early 2023.
Chasing Horse has pleaded not responsible to 21 felonies, together with sexual assault of a minor beneath 16, kidnapping and producing and possessing movies of kid sexual abuse. If convicted of the sexual assault fees, he may face many years or life in jail.
After starring as Smiles A Lot within the 1990 Oscar-winning movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse started selling himself as a self-proclaimed Lakota medication man whereas touring round North America to carry out therapeutic ceremonies, authorities have mentioned. He was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, dwelling to the Sicangu Sioux, one of many seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
Prosecutors say Chasing Horse used his place to realize entry to susceptible girls and women for many years till his arrest close to Las Vegas. He has been jailed ever since, however felony proceedings have been at a standstill for greater than a yr whereas Chasing Horse challenged his unique indictment.
It was finally dismissed after the Nevada Supreme Courtroom dominated that prosecutors had abused the grand jury course of once they supplied a definition of grooming as proof with none professional testimony. The excessive court docket’s order, nonetheless, left open the chance for fees to be refiled, and prosecutors shortly took their case earlier than one other grand jury.
Chasing Horse was once more indicted in October. The indictment added new allegations that he filmed himself having intercourse with one in every of his accusers when she was youthful than 14. Prosecutors have mentioned the footage, taken in 2010 or 2011, was discovered on cellphones in a locked secure contained in the North Las Vegas dwelling that Chasing Horse is alleged to have shared with 5 wives, together with the lady within the movies.
His case has been unfolding on the similar time lawmakers and prosecutors across the U.S. are funneling extra assets into circumstances involving Native girls, together with human trafficking and killings.
