NORTH LAS VEGAS (AP) —In mid-February, Las Vegas police arrested former actor Nathan Chasing Horse at his home after uncovering what they describe as two decades of sexual assault and human trafficking allegations.
Chasing Horse is known for his role in the Oscar-winning Kevin Costner film “Dances with Wolves.” Police say he built a reputation for himself among tribes across the United States and Canada as a so-called medicine man and used his position to abuse young Native American girls.
Chasing Horse is accused of sexually assaulting girls as young as 13 and taking wives as young as 15. Police say the assaults occurred in multiple states, including Nevada, and in Canada.
This month, a Nevada judge tossed a drug trafficking charge against Chasing Horse but upheld a Las Vegas grand jury’s sweeping indictment on 18 sexual abuse-related felony crimes. Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said in an order that there was enough evidence against the alleged cult leader for “a reasonable grand juror to conclude that the sexual assaults occurred,” but dismissed testimony connecting the actor to psychedelic mushrooms investigators found during a search of his home.
Chasing Horse asked the judge to throw out the entire indictment, arguing that all his accusers — including a 16-year-old girl — consensually had sex with him. The age of consent in Nevada is 16. His attorney, public defender Kristy Holston, declined to comment on the judge’s ruling.
