Chasing Horse facing new child pornography charges

Prosecutors have filed new charges against Nathan Chasing Horse, an alleged cult leader previously accused of sexual assault before the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the case last month.

Court records show that a new criminal complaint filed Saturday charges him with using a minor under 14 to produce pornography and possession of pornography of a person under 16.

The higher court dismissed a previous indictment against Chasing Horse, 48, because of problems with how prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury. He had faced charges of sexual assault, lewdness, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

The dismissal did not prevent officials from seeking a new case against Chasing Horse, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has previously said.

During a court hearing Monday, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joseph Sciscento set a $200,000 bail for Chasing Horse, court records show.

The case has since been transferred to North Las Vegas Justice Court, where Chasing Horse first appeared after his arrest in late January 2023.

Federal prosecutors in Nevada also moved to dismiss sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography charges that Chasing Horse faced in federal court. A motion to dismiss that case was filed Sept. 27, the day after the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the state-level indictment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler granted the motion to dismiss the federal case on Oct. 1, court records show.

A spokeswoman for the district of Nevada’s U.S. attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Chasing Horse, who is also known for playing Smiles a Lot in the 1990 Kevin Costner film “Dances With Wolves,” was accused of committing crimes in the U.S. and Canada between 2012 and 2023, while running a cult called The Circle. He was arrested after police raided his North Las Vegas home, where he lived with multiple women he viewed as wives.

When police raided the home, they found a cellphone with pornographic videos of a child, multiple firearms and drugs, according to an arrest report.

Multiple women who told police that Chasing Horse assaulted them said he filmed himself “having intercourse with them while they were conscious and unconscious,” according to his arrest report.

One woman told police that Chasing Horse had groomed her, and told her to have sex with him so that he could heal her mother’s cancer, according to court records.

When the Supreme Court dismissed the previous indictment, the justices found that prosecutors did not provide a grand jury with expert testimony about “grooming,” despite having a jury instruction that described the term.

The court said the grooming definition “was wholly unsupported by competent evidence.” Justices also found that prosecutors failed to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.