Judge removes Las Vegas Review-Journal staff from courtroom

Noble Brigham, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jan 21, 2026

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LAS VEGAS — A judge removed Las Vegas Review-Journal staff from her courtroom Wednesday because they refused to promise not to name an alleged victim testifying in the Nathan Chasing Horse sexual assault trial.

An attorney for the Review-Journal plans to appeal District Judge Jessica Peterson’s ruling.

Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Review-Journal, previously said that the news organization does not normally publish sexual assault victims’ names but has the right to do so if it chooses.

“The decision on what we publish is ours, not the court’s,” he said.

The victim in question, who is now an adult, has been identified in public court records. The Review-Journal has not previously published her name.

Chasing Horse, 49, who played Smiles a Lot in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves,” is accused of targeting the Native American community and sexually assaulting multiple women.

Authorities say Chasing Horse, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Indian Lakota Tribe, portrayed himself as a “medicine man” and committed crimes in the U.S. and Canada while running a cult called The Circle that had up to 350 followers at its peak.

This isn’t the first time Peterson has tried to restrict media coverage.

In a “decorum order” on the first day of jury selection in the Chasing Horse trial, Peterson demanded, among other conditions, that the press not conduct interviews with parties or witnesses at the Regional Justice Center while the case is pending and “not disclose or publish any personal identifying information” without the permission of victims, witnesses and jurors.

She walked back her prior conditions after receiving a letter from the news organization.

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