Dances with Wolves star Nathan Chasing Horses alleged victims reveal chilling new details and call for new indictment after Nevada Supreme Court dismissed case
One of the alleged sex assault victims of former child star Nathan Chasing Horse is revealing details and demanding a new indictment after Nevadas Supreme Court dismissed his case.
One of the alleged sex assault victims of former child star Nathan Chasing Horse is revealing details and demanding a new indictment after Nevadas Supreme Court dismissed his case.
The star of 1990 Oscar-winner Dances With Wolves, the 48-year-old Chasing Horse had charges dismissed last week, however the court left open the possibility of refiling in a case that led to more criminal charges in the U.S. and Canada.
Kristy Holston, the chief deputy public defender representing Chasing Horse, successfully argued that a definition of grooming presented to the grand jury without expert testimony tainted the state´s case.
Ren Leone-LaCroix, who says Chasing Horse began assaulting her from the age of just 14, eventually became a spiritual wife and became pregnant with his child before leaving, is undeterred and will fight to get a trial.
It took me a long time to realize the full extent of what he took from me, she said. He took my whole life, everything I ever knew. And I want that for him.
One of the alleged sex assault victims of former child star Nathan Chasing Horse is revealing details and demanding a new indictment after Nevadas Supreme Court dismissed his case
Ren Leone-LaCroix, who says Chasing Horse began assaulting her from the age of just 14, eventually became a spiritual wife and became pregnant with his child before leaving, is undeterred and will fight to get a trial
Leone-LaCroix - a Lakota Sioux - first met Chasing Horse after she was adopted and raised in a white household and wanted to access her native roots.
She met the actor and spiritual leader in December of 2005, when Leone-LaCroix was seven.
I remember, like, thinking he was one of the most beautiful people Id ever seen. He had a way of just like swallowing the energy wherever he was, she told ABC News.
Leone-LaCroix and her mother Melissa Leone eventually joined The Circle, Chasing Horses group, which required large cash payments for membership of $15,000-$20,000 a year.
It was like the lights being turned on in a dark room, Melissa Leone said. It felt so open. It felt so loving.
When Leone was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, a 14-year-old Leone-LaCroix was called to visit Chasing Horses home in Las Vegas and led her into a closet for a healing ceremony for her mother.
He said that it would cost me my virginity, I had tried saying no at first, and he said that if I didnt, that my mom would die and she wouldnt get help, Leone-LaCroix said .
Chasing Horse allegedly raped her shortly after that.
Leone-LaCroix - a Lakota Sioux - first met Chasing Horse after she was adopted and raised in a white household and wanted to access her native roots
He said that it was a sacred promise between him, me and the spirits and that if I told them, my mom would get sick again.
Lawyers for Chasing Horse claim that Leone-LaCroix consented to sex with him in a transactional manner to help heal Leone and did not testify that she told Nathan no.
Makes me feel like the worst mother on the planet, said Leone, who eventually recovered but had no idea of what hed done to her daugher. Like its unforgivable. And how she held that for so long.
When she turned 16, Leone-LaCroix was asked to become one of Chasing Horses spiritual wives, of which hed have seven at a time.
He had told us that it was like traditional for holy men to have multiple wives because they -- medicine men -- needed more help than most people, Leone-LaCroix said. And so thats why he needed more love and more care.
She eventually told her mother that she wanted to be one of them.
I looked at it as an honor. When she told me that she loved him, that was enough, Leone said.
Leone-LaCroix said Chasing Horse would often become violent and try to play each of the wives against each other.
Leone-LaCroix and her mother Melissa Leone eventually joined The Circle, Chasing Horses group, which required large cash payments for membership of $15,000-$20,000 a year
Nathan Lee Chasing Horse, 47, was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota
A male member of the group, Fernando Trujillo, says he never saw any sex abuse but said that the wives were forced to wear bells so they could be heard and men were told that theyd go blind if they looked at them.
Leone-LaCroix said the abuse became almost ritualistic.
He had choked me and like slammed my head on the ground to the point where I had been out for three days. I was never allowed to go to the hospital for any of my injuries. If the bruises started to fade, he always made more, she said.
She finally left after discovering shed become pregnant at the age of 23 in 2021.
Knowing Im just as unsafe and Im just as unloved and Im just as unprotected, she said. Like, why dont I value myself more? That was intense.
Proceedings in the 18-count criminal case have been at a standstill for more than a year while the former Dances with Wolves actor challenged it.
The full seven-member court´s decision, issued Thursday, reverses earlier rulings upholding the charges by a three-member panel of the high court and a state judge.
Holston said prosecutors also failed to provide the grand jury with evidence that could have cast a doubt on the allegations against Chasing Horse, including what she described as inconsistent statements made by one of the victims.
Chasing Horse is best known for portraying Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film Dances with Wolves.
Nathan Chasing Horse sits in court, April 3, 2023, in Las Vegas. He now faces new charges
The high court agreed.
The combination of these two clear errors undermines our confidence in the grand jury proceedings and created intolerable damage to the independent function of the grand jury process, the court said in its scathing order.
The ruling directs the judge overseeing the case in Clark County District Court to dismiss the indictment without prejudice, meaning charges against Chasing Horse can be refiled.
But the order for dismissal won´t take effect immediately, as prosecutors also have the option to ask the high court to reconsider within 25 days.
The allegations against Chasing Horse are indisputably serious, and we express no opinion about Chasing Horse´s guilt or innocence, the order says.
Holston declined to comment. District Attorney Steve Wolfson, in a statement Thursday, described the courts decision as only a minor setback.
My office is committed to resurrecting the charges in this case, Wolfson said, and we will not rest until we obtain justice on behalf of the victims in this matter.
Chasing Horse is charged with sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping and child abuse. He has pleaded not guilty.
Kristy Holston, the chief deputy public defender representing Chasing Horse, successfully argued that a definition of grooming presented to the grand jury without expert testimony tainted the state´s case
Leone feels intense guilt for allowing her daughter to be around Chasing Horse
The 48-year-old has been in custody since his arrest last January near the North Las Vegas home he is said to have shared with five wives.
He is unlikely to be released from custody, even after the high courts decision, because he faces charges in at least four other jurisdictions , including U.S. District Court in Nevada and on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.
Chasing Horse is best known for portraying Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film Dances with Wolves.
But in the decades since starring in the Oscar-winning movie, authorities said, he built a reputation as a self-proclaimed medicine man among tribes and traveled around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He is 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.
Authorities have said one of the wives was offered to Chasing Horse as a gift when she was 15, while another became a wife after turning 16.
Chasing Horse also is accused of recording sexual assaults and arranging sex with the victims for other men who allegedly paid him.
His legal issues have been unfolding at the same time lawmakers and prosecutors around the U.S. are funneling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.
Chasing Horse 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.
