Federal prosecutors in Nevada quietly dismiss Chasing Horse’s long-dormant sex abuse case

Federal prosecutors in Nevada dismissed a long-dormant sex abuse case against Nathan Chasing Horse.

The dismissal of the federal case was granted Oct. 1. The former “Dances with Wolves” actor had been charged in that case with two counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.

Prosecutors moved to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the charges can be refiled, on Sept. 27. That’s a day after the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of another indictment in state court against Chasing Horse, which was finalized late Friday.

The federal charges stemmed from the same allegations that led to Chasing Horse’s now-dismissed state indictment.

Federal prosecutors took no action in the case after filing the complaint in February 2023.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said his office intends to refile the charges, which included sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping and child abuse.

In the new case, Chasing Horse faces one felony count each of possessing and producing child sexual abuse materials. He is being held on $200,000 bail.

Prosecutors said Monday in court that Chasing Horse, 48, recorded videos of himself having sex with one of his accusers when she was younger than 14. In at least one video, the girl was “fully passed out,” prosecutor William Rowles said.

When Rowles described the videos, Chasing Horse closed his eyes and shook his head.

Rowles said the footage, taken in 2010 or 2011, were found on cellphones in a locked safe inside the North Las Vegas home that Chasing Horse is said to have shared with five wives, including the girl in the videos.

His defense attorney, Kristy Holston, declined to comment after court Monday. Rowles also said he had no comment.

The dismissal of his 18-count indictment was ordered in late September by the Nevada Supreme Court, after Holston successfully argued that a definition of grooming — presented to the grand jury without expert testimony — had tainted the state’s case, and that prosecutors should have shared with the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of the victims.

Chasing Horse has been jailed in Las Vegas since his arrest last January. But the case, which sent shockwaves throughout Indian Country and led to more criminal charges in the U.S. and Canada, had been at a standstill for more than a year while he challenged it.

Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” the former actor was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.

In the decades since starring in the Oscar-winning movie, authorities say he built a reputation as a self-proclaimed medicine man among tribes and traveled around North America to perform healing ceremonies.

He’s accused of using that position to gain access to vulnerable girls and women starting in the early 2000s, leading a cult and taking underage wives.