A Nevada judge has dismissed drug trafficking charges against ‘Dances With Wolves’ star Nathan Chasing Horse, but upheld a Las Vegas grand jury’s verdict on 18 sexual abuse counts.
Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said in a Friday ruling that there may be enough evidence against the alleged cult leader for a “reasonable juror to conclude that there was a sexual assault,” but dismissed the testimony linking the actor to psychedelic mushrooms which investigators found by searching his body. House.
Chasing Horse asked the judge to dismiss the whole indictment, arguing that each one of his accusers – including a 16-year-old girl – had sex with him along with his consent. The age of consent in Nevada is 16.
His attorney, public defender Kristy Holston, declined to comment on the court’s ruling.
The 46-year-old was arrested on January 31 near the house he shared along with his five wives on charges of sexually assaulting a minor, kidnapping, child abuse, lewdness and drug trafficking after a months-long police investigation. received October 2022. Since his arrest, he has been held on $300,000 bail on the county jail.
Chasing Horse – a member of the Sicangu Sioux tribe of the Lakota nation – attracted followers from various tribes in america and Canada who believed he was a “medicine” and “sacred person” who could communicate with higher beings and perform healing ceremonies, officials said .
Investigators said he had used his influence to sexually and physically abuse young women and girls in multiple states and Canada for the reason that early 2000s.
Authorities say he “used spiritual traditions and their belief system on quite a few occasions as a tool to sexually assault young girls.”
Followers of his cult, referred to as “The Circle”, allegedly offered their young daughters to the Chasing Horse for wives, in line with an arrest report that said one girl was allegedly offered to him as a “gift” when she was 15 and one other married him when she turned 16.
The actor – known for his role as Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 film Dances With Wolves – wrote detailed diary entries about his progress in grooming young girls to be his future wives, in line with Clark County Deputy Chief District Attorney William Rowels.
Authorities have accused the previous child actor of training his wives to make use of guns and “suicide pills” in case police ever attempt to “break up their family”.
After his arrest, authorities found firearms, psilocybin mushrooms, 41 kilos of marijuana, and two cellphones containing videos and photos of sexual assaults of underage girls in his home, in line with the arrest report.
The Chasing Horse trial is scheduled to start on May 1. He pleaded not guilty.
He’s due back in court next week, where he’ll ask the judge to grant him separate trials.
With postal wires