Alleged victim of Nathan Chasing Horse sexual assault details her allegations

Nathan Chasing Horse rose to fame as a child star, acting opposite Kevin Costner in the 1990 Academy Award-winning movie "Dances with Wolves." In the years since, he became revered by some in Indigenous communities as a self-described medicine man.

But the 48-year-old was arrested at his Las Vegas home in January 2023, accused of luring girls from California to Canada and allegedly raping them and making some his spiritual wives under the false guise of traditional practices.

He had been awaiting trial in Las Vegas, where he faced 18 counts including sexual assault of a minor and kidnapping of a minor. He pleaded not guilty and his attorneys had appealed the case to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Deputy Public Defender Kristy Holston argued that the indictment should be tossed based on two findings.

Holston said a term for "grooming" was improperly introduced to a grand jury and that exculpatory evidence that should have been introduced was left out during the hearing.

On Thursday, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered that the case be dismissed, but left open the possibility of charges being refiled.

"The allegations against Chasing Horse are indisputably serious, and we express no opinion about Chasing Horse's guilt or innocence," the Nevada Supreme Court added in court documents.

In a statement to ABC News, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said "this is only a minor setback," and his office will return to seek another indictment.

"My office is committed to resurrecting the charges in this case, and we will not rest until we obtain justice on behalf of the victims in this matter," Wolfson said.

Holston declined to comment further.

For Ren Leone-LaCroix, who alleged that Chasing Horse began sexually assaulting her when she was 14, the ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court was devastating but she said she is determined to do all she can to see the case ultimately go to trial.

Leone-LaCroix's mother Melissa Leone came into Chasing Horse's orbit because they're both Lakota, the Sioux Nation's largest tribe. It's a group known for historical figures like Sitting Bull, who defeated the U.S. Army at Little Bighorn.

Since Leone was adopted and raised in a white home, she wanted to find a way to connect with her Native roots and viewed Chasing Horse and his work as a self-described medicine man and healer as a way to do that.

"It was like the lights being turned on in a dark room," she told "Nightline." "It felt so open. It felt so loving."

She also wanted her daughter to be rooted in native culture, and they were both drawn in by Chasing Horse.

"I was 7. And I remember, like, thinking he was one of the most beautiful people I'd ever seen," Leone-LaCroix said of her first encounter with him at a California sweat lodge in December 2005. "He had a way of just like swallowing the energy wherever he was."

Mother and daughter eventually became part of his spiritual group, "The Circle." For more than a decade, they said they followed all his rules.

"Every month on the 8th, you were supposed to put money into that account for him," Leone said.

She estimated that she gave him $15,000 to $20,000 a year, which she said he used to finance his world.

Chasing Horse's defense team said "no comment" in an email response to questions regarding these allegations.

The arrest report also alleged that Chasing Horse had up to seven spiritual wives at the same 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 that's why he needed more love and more care."

As she got older, Leone-LaCroix showed a talent in traditional dances like jingle dancing. Chasing Horse would also have her upload videos of her dancing at Pow Wows to YouTube.

In 2012, Leone says she needed her spiritual leader more than ever after receiving a grim cancer diagnosis. She said she and her daughter sought Chasing Horse's help in healing her.

According to court documents, then-14-year-old Leone-LaCroix was summoned to Chasing Horse's Las Vegas home, she said. He allegedly took her into a closet as part of a healing ceremony.

"He said that it would cost me my virginity, I had tried saying no at first, and he said that if I didn't, that my mom would die and she wouldn't get help," Leone-LaCroix said . "He had raped me shortly after that."

Chasing Horse made Leone-LaCroix stay with him for several months after that, she said. According to a police report, she alleged that he took her on the road with him and "raped her every night."

In court documents, Chasing Horse's defense attorneys said Leone-LaCroix "did not testify that she told Nathan no" and that she "did consent to sex with Nathan in a transactional manner" to help her mother.

Leone recovered during that time, and said she was unaware of what her daughter was allegedly going through.

"Makes me feel like the worst mother on the planet," Leone said. "Like it's unforgivable. And how she held that for so long."

Leone-LaCroix alleged that Chasing Horse used his spiritual hold over them to keep her quiet.

"He said that it was a sacred promise between him, me and the spirits," she said. "And that if I told them, my mom would get sick again."

Practicing Native American religion was outlawed in the United States until the passing of the "The American Indian Religious Freedom Act" in 1978. The law legalized traditional spirituality and ceremonies in the U.S.

"Native people were jailed. They were taken from their families for practicing their religious beliefs," said Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an attorney who works closely with Indigenous victims of violence and sexual assault.

The ban led to several Native and indigenous ceremonies being practiced in secrecy for fear of retaliation, Nagle noted.

"I think that cloak of secrecy has continued through to today and can impact, even if we don't understand it consciously as native people," she said.

Decades later, Native and Indigenous communities continue to protect and practice the ceremonies passed down by their ancestors.

"Our religious leaders, our spiritual leaders, they are trusted. And when they violate that trust, it's incredibly damaging," Nagle said.

More than 50% of American Indian and Alaska Native women will experience sexual violence in their lifetimes, the National Institute of Justice reported in 2016.

The level of trust in leaders can make it challenging for individual perpetrators to be held accountable, Nagle noted.

"It's hard, though, because I think the stigma on our communities is so incredibly strong, so there's a lot of pressure to shove it under the rug. Hide it," she said.

Chief Arvol Looking Horse is a respected spiritual leader of the Great Sioux Nation and spoke out against Chasing Horse in 2003.

"All I can say is really makes me sick," Looking Horse said.

His family has been charged with protecting the sacred Lakota traditions for 19 generations. He said the elders decided long ago that taking multiple wives is no longer a Lakota practice.

"Sex doesn't have nothing to do with our ceremony," he told "Nightline." "In our tradition, the women are the backbone of our nation."

When "Nightline" asked Chasing Horse's attorneys about allegations that he had misused spiritual practices, they had no comment.

Leone-LaCroix said that when she was 16, she told her mother she wanted to become one of Chasing Horse's spiritual wives.

"I looked at it as an honor," Leone said. "When she told me that she loved him, that was enough."

Fernando Trujillo was part of Chasing Horse's spiritual group from 2006 to 2014. He told "Nightline" he saw many women and girls, including Leone-LaCroix, around their leader. He noted that it made him feel uncomfortable, even though he never saw any physical abuse.

"His wives had to wear these noisemakers, bells, so that we could hear them when they're coming and look straight down to the floor, or turn our backs and not look at them because we'd go blind," he said. "That's how controlled everybody was."

According to Leone-LaCroix, Chasing Horse played his spiritual wives off against each other and created tension among them. She also told detectives that he became violently angry at times.

"He had choked me and like slammed my head on the ground to the point where I had been out for three days," she said. "I was never allowed to go to the hospital for any of my injuries. If the bruises started to fade, he always made more."

Chasing Horse hasn't been charged with physical assault. When asked about Leone-LaCroix's allegations of physical abuse and being denied medical treatment, his attorney had no comment.

Leone-LaCroix decided to leave the group when she got pregnant and feared for her child's safety, she told "Nightline."

"Knowing I'm just as unsafe and I'm just as unloved and I'm just as unprotected," she said. "Like, why don't I value myself more? That was intense."

After nearly a decade, Leone-LaCroix left the circle in 2021. She was 23.

And then a year later, a tip would knock the criminal investigations into Chasing Horse wide open. A woman reported to Canadian authorities that Chasing Horse allegedly raped her in 2018. Las Vegas authorities were notified and began their own investigation of Chasing Horse which resulted in Vegas investigators becoming aware of Leone-LaCroix's allegations and raiding Chasing Horse's home in early 2023.

That raid would lead to Chasing Horse being charged with 18 counts in Nevada including sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping and lewdness. He pleaded not guilty. Authorities in Canada and Montana have also issued warrants for Chasing Horse's arrest.

Attorneys with the Department of Justice also filed a federal criminal complaint alleging sexual exploitation and possession of child pornography.

When asked about that complaint, Chasing Horse's attorney had no comment.

The ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court that dismissed the 18 count indictment this week agreed with Chasing Horse's defense team's argument that a definition of grooming presented to the grand jury without expert testimony tainted the state's case. The defense also argued, and the court agreed, that prosecutors failed to provide the grand jury with evidence that could have cast a doubt on the allegations.

For Leone-LaCroix, the period since Chasing Horse's arrest has been eye-opening.

"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."

ABC News' Juju Chang and Jessica Hopper contributed to this report.