A judge upheld an 18-count indictment against "Dances with Wolves" actor Nathan Chasing Horse Friday.
In an order issued late Friday afternoon, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said state prosecutors presented enough evidence for "a reasonable grand juror to conclude that the sexual assaults occurred" but found that there was no substantive testimony connecting Nathan Chasing Horse to the psilocybin mushrooms investigators found while searching his home.
So, Kierny tossed the drug trafficking charge.
CHASING HORSE PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN NEVADA TO SEX ABUSE CASE
Chasing Horse pleaded not guilty to the charges in early March. He was indicted on charges of sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping, child abuse and lewdness. He has been held on $300,000 bail since Jan. 31 after he was arrested at his home in Las Vegas.
The prosecution has accused Chasing Horse of portraying himself as a medicine man to gain access to young women and to take underage wives. The alleged crimes date to the early 2000s and cross multiple U.S. states, including Nevada, Montana and South Dakota, according to his indictment in state court.
According to the prosecution, one of the girls sexually abused by Chasing Horse was 14 years old at the time the two had sex. The Oscar-winning actor allegedly told the girl that her ancestors' spirits had directed him to have sex with her.
"Her mom is ill," Clark County prosecutor Stacy Kollins said in court Wednesday, "and she’s told that her virginity is the only pure part of her left, and she has to sacrifice this to maintain her mom’s health."
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Chasing Horse claimed Friday in a bid to have the charges dismissed that his sexual relations were consensual.
His trial is set to begin May 1, although his legal team has filed another motion to have separate trials for each accuser. Chasing Horse and his attorneys argued in the motion that his accusers' allegations are unrelated.
Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation, and is widely known for his portrayal of Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner's 1990 film.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
