By james art For the second time, an alleged cult leader accused of robbing a Native American community and sexually assaulting women has been indicted by a Clark County grand jury.
Last month, the Nevada Supreme Court threw out the previous indictment against 48-year-old Nathan Chasing Horse, which accused him of sexual assault, obscenity, kidnapping and drug trafficking. The dismissal did not prevent prosecutors from opening a new case or filing a new indictment.
Prosecutors then filed a new case against Chasing Horse on child pornography charges.
On Thursday, Chief Deputy District Attorney William Rawls announced another charge at a hearing before District Judge Jerry Wiese.
Chasing Horse is now charged with 10 counts of sexual assault of a minor, one count of kidnapping a minor in the first degree, one count of open and gross indecency, six counts of sexual assault, one count of exploitation of a minor under the age of 14 in the production of pornography and two counts of possession of images depicting sexual behavior with a child.
“I think the 13 years of sexual abuse that he committed here in Las Vegas speaks volumes about his danger to our community,” Rawls said.
He accused Chasing Horse of posing as a spiritual leader and using his position of power to sexually abuse children.
The bond is $500,000
Wiese set bail at $500,000 with high-level electronic monitoring. Chasing Horse is currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center.
Chasing Horse, who is also known for playing Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 film Dances With Wolves, was accused of committing crimes in the US and Canada between 2012 and 2023 while leading a cult , called The Circle.
He was arrested in January 2023 after police raided his home in North Las Vegas, where he lived with multiple women he thought were wives.
Rawls said that when police searched Chasing Horse’s house, they found a phone that contained a video of him having sex with one of his wives when she was under 14 years old. At the time of his arrest, the phone found in his possession had other images of child pornography, according to Rawls.
Multiple women told police that Chasing Horse assaulted them and filmed himself “having intercourse with them while they were conscious and unconscious,” according to a previous arrest report. He was also accused of grooming a woman and telling her to have sex with him so he could cure her mother’s cancer.
The victims testified to a grand jury that they were introduced to Chasing Horse as young children because of their association with The Circle, according to Rawls, who claims he “groomed them for sexual abuse.”
A victim testified that at a ceremony in South Dakota when she was 16, Chasing Horse “informed her that she would give up her virginity to him and that’s what the spirits wanted her to do to keep that faith and that belief,” Rawls said.
Chasing Horse later sexually assaulted that victim at his home in North Las Vegas, prosecutors allege.
The Supreme Court threw out the previous indictment after finding that prosecutors failed to provide the grand jury with expert testimony about grooming, despite a jury instruction that described the term.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at [email protected] or 702-383-0240. Contact Noble Brigham at [email protected].