Kirtland Man Sentenced to 97 Months in Federal Prison for Sexual Assault Conviction
Defendant Prosecuted as Part of Federal Initiative to Address the Epidemic of Violence Against Native Women

ALBUQUERQUE—Hareldo Horse, 31, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Kirtland, New Mexico, was sentenced this afternoon to 97 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for his sexual assault conviction. Horse will be required to register as a sex offender when he completes his prison sentence.

The sentence was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Steven C. Yarbrough, Special Agent in Charge Carol K.O. Lee of the Albuquerque Division of the FBI, and Director John Billison of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety.

Horse was arrested on March 11, 2013, on an indictment charging him with sexually assaulting a woman in a location within the Navajo Indian Reservation on October 20, 2012. He has been in federal custody since that time. On September 10, 2013, Horse pleaded guilty to the indictment and admitted inappropriately touching the victim’s genitals at a time when the victim was physically in capable of declining to participate in the sexual act.

This case was investigated by the Farmington Resident Agency of the FBI and the Shiprock Office of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Mysliwiec. The case was brought pursuant to the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project in the District of New Mexico, which is sponsored by the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women under a grant administered by the Pueblo of Laguna. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project seeks to train tribal prosecutors in federal law, procedure, and investigative techniques to increase the likelihood that every viable violent offense against Native women is prosecuted in either federal court or tribal court or both. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project was largely driven by input gathered from annual tribal consultations on violence against women and is another step in the Justice Department’s on-going efforts to increase engagement, coordination, and action on public safety in tribal communities.