Alleged sufferer of Nathan Chasing Horse sexual assault particulars her allegations

Nathan Chasing Horse rose to fame as a toddler star, performing reverse Kevin Costner within the 1990 Academy Award-winning film “Dances with Wolves.” Within the years since, he grew to become revered by some in Indigenous communities as a self-described medication man.

However the 48-year-old was arrested at his Las Vegas dwelling in January 2023, accused of luring ladies from California to Canada and allegedly raping them and making some his non secular wives below the false guise of conventional practices.

He had been awaiting trial in Las Vegas, the place he confronted 18 counts together with sexual assault of a minor and kidnapping of a minor. He pleaded not responsible and his attorneys had appealed the case to the Nevada Supreme Courtroom.

Deputy Public Defender Kristy Holston argued that the indictment ought to be tossed primarily based on two findings.

Holston stated a time period for “grooming” was improperly launched to a grand jury and that exculpatory proof that ought to have been launched was overlooked throughout the listening to.

On Thursday, the Nevada Supreme Courtroom ordered that the case be dismissed, however left open the opportunity of fees being refiled.

“The allegations towards Chasing Horse are indisputably critical, and we specific no opinion about Chasing Horse’s guilt or innocence,” the Nevada Supreme Courtroom added in courtroom paperwork.

In a press release to ABC Information, Clark County District Lawyer Steve Wolfson stated “that is solely a minor setback,” and his workplace will return to hunt one other indictment.

“My workplace is dedicated to resurrecting the fees on this case, and we is not going to relaxation till we receive justice on behalf of the victims on this matter,” Wolfson stated.

Holston declined to remark additional.

For Ren Leone-LaCroix, who alleged that Chasing Horse started sexually assaulting her when she was 14, the ruling by the Nevada Supreme Courtroom was devastating however she stated she is decided to do all she will to see the case finally go to trial.

Leone-LaCroix’s mom Melissa Leone got here into Chasing Horse’s orbit as a result of they’re each Lakota, the Sioux Nation’s largest tribe. It is a group recognized for historic figures like Sitting Bull, who defeated the U.S. Military at Little Bighorn.

Since Leone was adopted and raised in a white dwelling, she needed to discover a solution to join together with her Native roots and seen Chasing Horse and his work as a self-described medication man and healer as a manner to do this.

“It was just like the lights being turned on in a darkish room,” she advised “Nightline.” “It felt so open. It felt so loving.”

She additionally needed her daughter to be rooted in native tradition, they usually have been each drawn in by Chasing Horse.

“I used to be 7. And I keep in mind, like, pondering he was one of the crucial stunning individuals I might ever seen,” Leone-LaCroix stated of her first encounter with him at a California sweat lodge in December 2005. “He had a manner of identical to swallowing the power wherever he was.”

Mom and daughter finally grew to become a part of his non secular group, “The Circle.” For greater than a decade, they stated they adopted all his guidelines.

“Each month on the eighth, you have been supposed to place cash into that account for him,” Leone stated.

She estimated that she gave him $15,000 to $20,000 a yr, which she stated he used to finance his world.

Chasing Horse’s protection workforce stated “no remark” in an electronic mail response to questions relating to these allegations.

The arrest report additionally alleged that Chasing Horse had as much as seven non secular wives on the similar time.

“He had advised us that it was like conventional for holy males to have a number of wives as a result of they — medication males — wanted extra assist than most individuals,” Leone-LaCroix stated. “And in order that’s why he wanted extra love and extra care.”

As she acquired older, Leone-LaCroix confirmed a expertise in conventional dances like jingle dancing. Chasing Horse would even have her add movies of her dancing at Pow Wows to YouTube.

In 2012, Leone says she wanted her non secular chief greater than ever after receiving a grim most cancers analysis. She stated she and her daughter sought Chasing Horse’s assist in therapeutic her.

In accordance with courtroom paperwork, then-14-year-old Leone-LaCroix was summoned to Chasing Horse’s Las Vegas dwelling, she stated. He allegedly took her right into a closet as a part of a therapeutic ceremony.

“He stated that it will price me my virginity, I had tried saying no at first, and he stated that if I did not, that my mother would die and he or she would not get assist,” Leone-LaCroix stated . “He had raped me shortly after that.”

Chasing Horse made Leone-LaCroix stick with him for a number of months after that, she stated. In accordance with a police report, she alleged that he took her on the street with him and “raped her each evening.”

In courtroom paperwork, Chasing Horse’s protection attorneys stated Leone-LaCroix “didn’t testify that she advised Nathan no” and that she “did consent to intercourse with Nathan in a transactional method” to assist her mom.

Leone recovered throughout that point, and stated she was unaware of what her daughter was allegedly going via.

“Makes me really feel just like the worst mom on the planet,” Leone stated. “Prefer it’s unforgivable. And the way she held that for thus lengthy.”

Leone-LaCroix alleged that Chasing Horse used his non secular maintain over them to maintain her quiet.

“He stated that it was a sacred promise between him, me and the spirits,” she stated. “And that if I advised them, my mother would get sick once more.”

Practising Native American faith was outlawed in america till the passing of the “The American Indian Spiritual Freedom Act” in 1978. The legislation legalized conventional spirituality and ceremonies within the U.S.

“Native individuals have been jailed. They have been taken from their households for training their non secular beliefs,” stated Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an legal professional who works carefully with Indigenous victims of violence and sexual assault.

The ban led to a number of Native and indigenous ceremonies being practiced in secrecy for worry of retaliation, Nagle famous.

“I feel that cloak of secrecy has continued via to as we speak and might affect, even when we do not perceive it consciously as native individuals,” she stated.

Many years later, Native and Indigenous communities proceed to guard and follow the ceremonies handed down by their ancestors.

“Our non secular leaders, our non secular leaders, they’re trusted. And once they violate that belief, it is extremely damaging,” Nagle stated.

Greater than 50% of American Indian and Alaska Native ladies will expertise sexual violence of their lifetimes, the Nationwide Institute of Justice reported in 2016.

The extent of belief in leaders could make it difficult for particular person perpetrators to be held accountable, Nagle famous.

“It is exhausting, although, as a result of I feel the stigma on our communities is so extremely sturdy, so there’s a whole lot of strain to shove it below the rug. Cover it,” she stated.

Chief Arvol Trying Horse is a revered non secular chief of the Nice Sioux Nation and spoke out towards Chasing Horse in 2003.

“All I can say is admittedly makes me sick,” Trying Horse stated.

His household has been charged with defending the sacred Lakota traditions for 19 generations. He stated the elders determined way back that taking a number of wives is now not a Lakota follow.

“Intercourse would not don’t have anything to do with our ceremony,” he advised “Nightline.” “In our custom, the ladies are the spine of our nation.”

When “Nightline” requested Chasing Horse’s attorneys about allegations that he had misused non secular practices, that they had no remark.

Leone-LaCroix stated that when she was 16, she advised her mom she needed to turn into one in all Chasing Horse’s non secular wives.

“I checked out it as an honor,” Leone stated. “When she advised me that she cherished him, that was sufficient.”

Fernando Trujillo was a part of Chasing Horse’s non secular group from 2006 to 2014. He advised “Nightline” he noticed many ladies and ladies, together with Leone-LaCroix, round their chief. He famous that it made him really feel uncomfortable, regardless that he by no means noticed any bodily abuse.

“His wives needed to put on these noisemakers, bells, in order that we might hear them once they’re coming and look straight all the way down to the ground, or flip our backs and never have a look at them as a result of we might go blind,” he stated. “That is how managed everyone was.”

In accordance with Leone-LaCroix, Chasing Horse performed his non secular wives off towards one another and created stress amongst them. She additionally advised detectives that he grew to become violently indignant at occasions.

“He had choked me and like slammed my head on the bottom to the purpose the place I had been out for 3 days,” she stated. “I used to be by no means allowed to go to the hospital for any of my accidents. If the bruises began to fade, he at all times made extra.”

Chasing Horse hasn’t been charged with bodily assault. When requested about Leone-LaCroix’s allegations of bodily abuse and being denied medical remedy, his legal professional had no remark.

Leone-LaCroix determined to depart the group when she acquired pregnant and feared for her kid’s security, she advised “Nightline.”

“Understanding I am simply as unsafe and I am simply as unloved and I am simply as unprotected,” she stated. “Like, why do not I worth myself extra? That was intense.”

After practically a decade, Leone-LaCroix left the circle in 2021. She was 23.

After which a yr later, a tip would knock the felony investigations into Chasing Horse extensive open. A girl reported to Canadian authorities that Chasing Horse allegedly raped her in 2018. Las Vegas authorities have been notified and commenced their very own investigation of Chasing Horse which resulted in Vegas investigators turning into conscious of Leone-LaCroix’s allegations and raiding Chasing Horse’s dwelling in early 2023.

That raid would result in Chasing Horse being charged with 18 counts in Nevada together with sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping and lewdness. He pleaded not responsible. Authorities in Canada and Montana have additionally issued warrants for Chasing Horse’s arrest.

Attorneys with the Division of Justice additionally filed a federal felony grievance alleging sexual exploitation and possession of kid pornography.

When requested about that grievance, Chasing Horse’s legal professional had no remark.

The ruling by the Nevada Supreme Courtroom that dismissed the 18 rely indictment this week agreed with Chasing Horse’s protection workforce’s argument {that a} definition of grooming offered to the grand jury with out professional testimony tainted the state’s case. The protection additionally argued, and the courtroom agreed, that prosecutors failed to supply the grand jury with proof that would have forged a doubt on the allegations.

For Leone-LaCroix, the interval since Chasing Horse’s arrest has been eye-opening.

“It took me a very long time to appreciate the total extent of what he took from me,” she stated. “He took my complete life, every part I ever knew. And I need that for him.”

ABC Information’ Juju Chang and Jessica Hopper contributed to this report.