[ad_1]
“Kevin Costner Charged With Sex Abuse Following Allegations in Nevada”
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — A former Dances With Wolves actor was charged Monday in Nevada with felony charges of sexually abusing and trafficking Indigenous girls, but testimony from investigators and Victims before a judge faced bail postponed by Nathan Chasing Horse.
The delay until Wednesday to allow Chasing Horse, 46, to switch attorneys was announced in a north Las Vegas courtroom full of friends and relatives hoping to release him on bail.
Across the courtroom, some alleged Chasing Horse victims and their supporters held signs reading “NO MORE STOLEN SISTERS” and “WOMEN ARE NO PRISONERS.”
Rulon Pete, executive director of the Las Vegas Indian Center, said after the hearing the victims were willing to “help ensure justice is done.”
“Unfortunately, they are very scared,” he told The Associated Press after speaking with the victims and prosecutors. “When that was pushed back, it was like giving more weight to the situation.”
Chasing Horse has been held without bail since his January 31 arrest near the north Las Vegas home he shares with several wives. He is charged with eight crimes, including sex trafficking, sexually assaulting a child under the age of 16 and child molestation. Prosecutors also filed an additional criminal charge against him in connection with what detectives described as videos stored on a phone showing sexual assaults on a minor.
He has not submitted a plea. In Nevada, defendants do not file a plea until their criminal case is transferred to a state district court, either following a grand jury indictment or after a judge determines that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to allow the defendant to stand trial.
He appeared briefly in court last Thursday but did not speak when his public defenders invoked his right to a hearing in custody. Nevada law requires prosecutors to present convincing evidence that a defendant should remain in custody.
Clark County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Walsh told the judge Thursday she is awaiting testimony from Las Vegas police detectives, FBI special agents and victims. A North Las Vegas justice of the peace was also able to hear from Chasing Horse’s relatives.
Chasing Horse played the role of a member of the Sioux tribe in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning 1990 film Smiles a Lot.
Since then, he has built a reputation as a “medicine man” among tribes in the United States and Canada. Detectives described him in a search warrant as the leader of a cult called The Circle, whose followers believed he could communicate with higher powers.
Pete of the Las Vegas Indian Center described the medicine man’s role in their culture as a highly respected leadership position. “They’re like priests, if you will.”
“You’re following what they teach,” he said, adding that despite the intimidation and threats Pete said they’ve faced since Chasing Horse’s arrest, the victims have shown great courage by speaking out have.
Las Vegas police said Chasing Horse abused its position, physically and sexually assaulted Indigenous girls, and took underage wives for over two decades. He was also banned from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana, in 2015 following similar allegations.
The crimes, police say, span multiple states, including South Dakota, Montana and Nevada, where he has lived for about a decade.
According to the search warrant, Chasing Horse trained his wives in the use of firearms and instructed them to “shoot down” with any authorities who tried to “break up their family.” If that failed, or if he was ever arrested or died unexpectedly, he told his wives to take “suicide pills,” the document said.
After SWAT officers took Chasing Horse into custody last week, detectives searched the family home and found guns, 41 pounds (18.5 kilograms) of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, according to his arrest report.
A criminal complaint released Monday also charges Chasing Horse with two counts involving a dead bald eagle and parts of a dead hawk discovered during a search of his property.
Police said at least six victims have been identified, including one who was 13 when she said she was abused and another who said she was offered to Chasing Horse as a “gift” when she was 15
Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation.
Rio Yamat, The Associated Press
[ad_2]
Don’t miss interesting posts on Famousbio
