Mescalero Apache Man Sentenced for Assaulting a Federal Officer

ALBUQUERQUE – Ellis Arkie Sago, 24, an enrolled member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who resides in Mescalero, N.M., was sentenced this morning in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to serve ten months in custody, five of which are to be served in prison and the remaining five in a halfway house, for assaulting a federal officer.  Sago will be on supervised release after completing his custodial sentence.

The BIA arrested Sago on Feb. 2018, on a criminal complaint charging him with assaulting a federal officer.  According to the criminal complaint, Sago was arrested on tribal charges after he assaulted a BIA officer.  Sago committed the assault on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in Otero County, N.M., on Sept. 9, 2017, by kicking the officer in the legs while the officer was arresting Sago. 

Sago subsequently was indicted on April 18, 2018, and was charged with assaulting a federal officer in Otero County on Sept. 9, 2017.

On May 30, 2018, Sago pled guilty to the indictment and admitted that on Sept. 9, 2017, he assaulted a BIA officer by kicking the officer in the legs. 

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.