Press Release
Non-Native Man from Rio Arriba County Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Native American Woman
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico
Defendant Prosecuted as Part of Federal Initiative to Address the Epidemic Incidence of Violence Against Native Women
ALBUQUERQUE – Deandre Lamont Brown, 29, a non-Native man who resides in Dulce, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Santa Fe, N.M., to 12 months in prison for assaulting his intimate partner. Brown will be on supervised release for three years after completing his prison sentence.
Brown was arrested on April 17, 2015, on an indictment charging him with assaulting his intimate partner, an Indian woman, by strangling or suffocation. According to the indictment, Brown committed the crime on Oct. 3, 2014, on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in Rio Arriba County, N.M.
On Jan. 12, 2016, Brown pled guilty to the indictment and admitted assaulting the victim, a Native American woman who was his intimate partner, by strangling and suffocating her.
This case was investigated by the Jicarilla Apache Tribal Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Novaline D. Wilson.
This case was brought as part of 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 American 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.
Updated November 29, 2016
Topic
Indian Country Law and Justice
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