(CN) — The Nevada Supreme Court, on Friday, decided not to intervene in the sex abuse case against Nathan Chasing Horse, a Native American actor who appeared in the film "Dances With Wolves."
The actor, who had built a reputation as a "medicine man," a position of respect in Native communities, has been accused of sexually abusing Indigenous girls and women for two decades in the United States and Canada.
Earlier this year in Las Vegas, Chasing Horse was charged with 19 felonies, including sexual assault of a minor, child abuse and kidnapping, relating to six alleged victims. He is also charged with drug trafficking, having been found in possession of 236 grams of Psilocin, a hallucinogen. According to the Associated Press, which obtained a 50-page search warrant, authorities believe that Chasing Horse was also the leader of a cult, known as "The Circle."
Prior to the arrest, Chasing Horse was banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana in 2015, after he was accused of "human trafficking, drug dealing, spiritual abuse and intimidation of tribal members," according to Indian Country Today, a nonprofit news site that covers Indigenous people.
In June, the 47-year-old Chasing Horse was charged in Alberta, Canada, with three counts of sexual exploitation and four counts of sexual assault, stemming from allegations dating back to 2005.
Chasing Horse had filed a writ of habeas corpus in Nevada, seeking to have the indictment against him blocked largely on procedural grounds. His public defender told the Nevada Supreme Court's three-judge panel that prosecutors had failed to properly instruct the grand jury, and withheld exculpatory evidence. She argued that Chasing Horse's alleged victims never expressed non-consent to him.
The three-judge panel denied the motion, writing, "We are not satisfied that petitioner has demonstrated that entertaining the writ is warranted, and without deciding up on the merits of the claims raised in the petition, we decline to exercise our original jurisdiction."
One of the judges dissented, writing that he "would exercise jurisdictional discretion and entertain the writ in order to reach the merits of the issues raised in the petition."
The case now heads back to the district court in Clark County, where it can proceed to trial.
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