LAS VEGAS (AP) – A Nevada judge has dismissed a drug-trafficking charge against a former “Dance with the Wolves” star, but upheld an indictment by a Las Vegas grand jury on 18 felony counts of sexual assault.
In an order issued Friday afternoon, Clark County District Court Judge Carly Kearney said state prosecutors presented enough evidence “for a reasonable grand jury to conclude he was sexually assaulted” but that there was no concrete evidence linking Nathan Chasing Horse to psilocybin. Mushroom detectives found it when they searched the house.
Chase horse, 46, had Kearney asked To drop all the charges, saying that the accused wanted to have sex with him. One of the women was younger than 16 — the legal age in Nevada — and says Chasing Horse began abusing her.
Public Defender Christy Holston said she had no comment on the judge’s decision.
Chaining Horse was charged in February with sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution and drug trafficking. As of Jan. 31, he is being held at the county jail on $300,000 bail. He was arrested by SWAT officers near the home he shared with his five wives in North Las Vegas.
His arrest sent shockwaves across India and led to high-profile criminal charges in at least three other jurisdictions, including In Canada and the US District Court in Nevada, as well as on the Indian reservation at Fort Peck in Montana.
Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota – home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation – and is best known for his portrayal of Smiling Lot in the 1990 Kevin Costner film.
Police and prosecutors in the decades since its appearance in the Oscar-winning film, Chasing Horse has introduced itself to tribes as a potion with healing powers capable of communicating with higher beings. They accuse him of abusing his power. leading a ritual known as The CircleAccess to girls and women at risk and marrying underage wives.
The alleged crimes occurred in In the early 2000s, they crossed several US states, including Nevada, Montana and South Dakota, according to a court filing.
One of the victims was 14, according to authorities, when Chasing Horse told her that the ghosts of their ancestors ordered him to have sex with her.
“Her mother is sick,” Clark County Prosecutor Stacey Collins said in court Wednesday, where she was told her virginity was the only intact part she had left and she had to sacrifice it to keep her mother healthy.
Collins declined to comment Friday on the judge’s decision.
Experiment The state case is scheduled to begin on May 1. Pursuit Horse has pleaded not guilty and invoked his right to a arraignment within 60 days.
The judge is due in court next week to hear another request for a separate hearing. Chase Horse and his attorneys argued in a statement that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit was unrelated.