A 23-year-old man recently living on the Wind River Indian Reservation was found not guilty of rape Wednesday after a three-day jury trial.
Nathaniel Preston Redfish was facing three sexual abuse charges that could have meant life in prison for him when his jury trial started Monday morning in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming.
The case started the morning of Aug. 14, 2024, when Redfish and his girlfriend’s best friend had sex at a home in Ethete, Wyoming, which is on the reservation.
Redfish’s girlfriend found the pair “under the covers” together after the three of them had been hanging out and drinking, says the original case complaint. The friend told her at the time that it wasn’t consensual — that Redfish had raped her.
The friend went to the hospital for a sexual assault examination. The original complaint alleged the test results showed injury to her genital area.
Innocent
To court-appointed defense attorney Tom Fleener, Redfish was an unusual client from the beginning.
Redfish demanded a quick trial, Fleener recalled.
“He kept insisting that he was innocent and didn’t want to spend another day in jail,” said Fleener.
Redfish spent about six months in jail, including two months in Fremont County, one week in the Platte County Detention Center and three months in the Scottsbluff County jail, Nebraska, the attorney added.
At the trial this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Wyoming put the alleged victim on the stand, along with a DNA expert, a sexual assault nurse examiner and law enforcement personnel.
Redfish testified on his own behalf.
Fleener also called Redfish’s now-ex-girlfriend, who had caught him in bed with her friend; and the defense’s own rape examination nurse, said the attorney.
On the stand, the girlfriend said when she caught them that night, she pulled the covers off her friend first, then off of Redfish.
The friend at first apologized, then later said Redfish had raped her, Fleener summarized from the testimony.
Enraged, the girlfriend started screaming, hitting the pair and throwing dumbbells, he recalled from case evidence.
The friend ran outside, frantic, then later had a rape examination conducted.
Naturally, investigators found a substance with a high-probability match to Redfish’s DNA, the defense attorney noted.
Fleener said the jury deliberated for about two hours Wednesday evening before acquitting Redfish.
The Long Bus Ride
Federal authorities released Redfish from custody immediately. The man had nothing except some clothes Fleener had bought him so that he wouldn’t have had to wear jail scrubs to trial, the attorney said.
According to Fleener, Redfish’s wallet and phone were left on the Wind River Indian Reservation at the time of his arrest.
Fleener said he gave his client some money and bought him some more clothes, hygiene items and a bus ticket to Bismark, North Dakota. His grandma is waiting there for his arrival.
Redfish could not comment to Cowboy State Daily on Friday because the man didn’t have a phone, Fleener added.
“He’s a good kid and needs to have his name somewhat cleared,” said Fleener. “What happened to him is a travesty.”
Justin Stephenson, chief deputy of the U.S. Marshals Service of Wyoming, said he didn’t know the specific details of Redfish’s release.
Generally, when a person is released on acquittal, he’s not furnished any money or bus tickets from the federal office, Stephenson said.
That situation is extremely rare, he added.
In fiscal year 2022, only 290 of 71,954 defendants in federal criminal cases — about 0.4% — went to trial and were acquitted, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
Stephenson said he could only remember about 10 acquittals in his 22 years of service to the U.S. Marshals office, and most of those had holds or cases from other jurisdictions even after their acquittals. So, they weren’t released straight to the streets.
Believing The Victim
The woman who reported Redfish for rape did not immediately respond to a Friday message request for comment.
She had told investigators last year that she blacked out the night of the incident, went to bed fully clothed and woke to find Redfish having sex with her. She attributed to him statements like, “You’ll be the donor; give us the kid we can’t have.”
As of Friday afternoon, there were no publicly-filed federal charges of false reporting against the woman.
The FBI’s Denver Office, which helped investigate the report along with the Wind River Police Department (an outpost of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs), gave a brief comment Friday about the acquittal: “The FBI thanks the jury for their service and respects their verdict.”
Stephanie I. Sprecher, acting U.S. attorney for Wyoming, said in a Friday email that the federal prosecutor’s office works with federal agencies “to thoroughly investigate crimes committed on the Wind River Indian Reservation.”
She added: “I am proud of our collective team for their dedication on this case and for believing in the victim. We thank the jury for witnessing often difficult evidence and testimony. We appreciate their service and respect their verdict.”
The BIA, which initiated the investigation, did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
