Press Release
Mescalero Apache Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Statutory Rape Conviction
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE – Norman Stan Chee, 22, a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation, was sentenced today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 30 months in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release for his statutory rape conviction. Chee will be required to register as a sex offender when he completes his prison sentence.
Chee was arrested in Oct. 2013, based on a criminal complaint alleging that he knowingly engaged in a sexual act with a child between 12 and 16 years of age. On Jan. 28, 2014, Chee entered a guilty plea to a felony information charging him with engaging in a sexual act with a minor who was at least four years younger than Chee. According to the information, Chee committed the crime on Feb. 21, 2012, at a location within the Mescalero Apache Reservation in Otero County, N.M.
According to court filings, the BIA initiated an investigation into Chee in July 2012, when officers responded to a call regarding an alleged assault and saw Chee and the victim, who was 15 years old, fleeing from the site of the assault. During an interview, the victim admitted having engaged in sexual activity with Chee. Chee also was interviewed and admitted that he engaged in sexual acts with the victim. Chee stated that his sexual relationship with the victim began in Feb. 2012, and admitted knowing that the victim was 15 years old.
This case was investigated by the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan of the U .S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.
Updated January 26, 2015
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