Former actor, alleged cult leader indicted again on sexual assault charges
Las Vegas Review-Journal/October 31, 2024
By Katelyn Newberg and Noble Brigham
For the second time, an alleged cult leader accused of preying on the Native American community and sexually assaulting women has been indicted by a Clark County grand jury.
Last month, the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the previous indictment against 48-year-old Nathan Chasing Horse, which charged him with counts of sexual assault, lewdness, kidnapping and drug trafficking. The dismissal did not prevent prosecutors from pursuing a new case or bringing forth a new indictment.
Prosecutors then filed a new case against Chasing Horse on child pornography charges.
On Thursday, Chief Deputy District Attorney William Rowles announced another indictment in a court hearing in front of District Judge Jerry Wiese.
Chasing Horse is now charged with 10 counts of sexual assault of a minor, one count of first-degree kidnapping of a minor, one count of open and gross lewdness, six counts of sexual assault, one count of using a minor under the age of 14 in the production of pornography and two counts of possessing images depicting sexual conduct with a child.
“I think the 13 years of sexual abuse that he’s committed here in Las Vegas speak volumes as to his danger to our community,” Rowles alleged.
He accused Chasing Horse of portraying himself as a spiritual leader and using his position of power to sexually abuse children.
Bail set at $500,000
Wiese set bail at $500,000 with high-level electronic monitoring. Chasing Horse was in custody Thursday at the Clark County Detention Center.
Chasing Horse, who also is known for playing Smiles a Lot in the 1990 Kevin Costner film “Dances With Wolves,” was accused of committing crimes in the U.S. and Canada between 2012 and 2023, while running a cult called The Circle.
He was arrested in January 2023 after police raided his North Las Vegas home, where he lived with multiple women he viewed as wives.
Rowles said that when police searched Chasing Horse’s house, they found a phone that contained a video showing him having sex with one of his wives when she was under the age of 14. At the time of his arrest, a phone found on him had other images of child pornography, according to Rowles.
Multiple women have told police that Chasing Horse assaulted them and filmed himself “having intercourse with them while they were conscious and unconscious,” according to a prior arrest report. He also was accused of grooming one woman and telling her to have sex with him so that he could heal her mother’s cancer.
Victims testified to the grand jury that they met Chasing Horse as young children because of their connection to The Circle, according to Rowles, who alleged that he “groomed them into sexual abuse.”
A victim testified that at a South Dakota ceremony when she was 16, Chasing Horse “informed her that she was going to give up her virginity to him and it was what the spirits wanted her to do in order to maintain that faith and that belief,” Rowles said.
Chasing Horse later sexually assaulted that victim at his North Las Vegas home, the prosecutor alleged.
The Supreme Court dismissed the previous indictment after finding that prosecutors did not provide a grand jury with expert testimony about grooming, despite a jury instruction that described the term.
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