United States v. Leo Sure Chief, Jr.

Defendant Leo Sure Chief, Jr., challenges his conviction for aggravated sexual abuse on two grounds: (1) the district court erred by refusing to dismiss the indictment because the applicable statute of limitations had run, and (2) the district court erred by limiting the evidence that Defendant was allowed to present at trial. We hold that the statute of limitations had not expired and that Defendant suffered no prejudice from the exclusion of the proffered evidence. We therefore affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In approximately 1997, when B.V. was in the fourth grade, Defendant took her and a few other children on a trip to the country. B.V. knew Defendant because he was a friend of her mother. While on the trip, Defendant took the children for individual rides on a “four-wheeler.” When it was B.V.’s turn, Defendant took her to an abandoned trailer. He then forcibly fondled her vagina. When B.V. was in the ninth grade, she reported that incident of abuse to her school principal and to a counselor.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) investigated B.V.’s allegation. During the course of the investigation, an FBI agent interviewed…