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Press Release

Valentine Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Federal Prison for Abusive Sexual Contact

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Dakota

PIERRE - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that Chief Judge Roberto A. Lange, U.S. District Court, has sentenced a Valentine, Nebraska, man convicted of seven counts of Abusive Sexual Contact. The sentencing took place on October 28, 2024.

Christopher Franklin Beauvais, 41, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $700 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund and $1,426 in restitution to one of his victims.

Beauvais was indicted by a federal grand jury in July of 2022. He pleaded guilty on July 22, 2024.

Between June of 2006 and November of 2012, in Mission, South Dakota, within the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Beauvais sexually abused three adolescent girls. He repeatedly touched the girls’ buttocks, breasts, and genital areas in a home, at his workplace, and in public. The children were between 12 and 15 years old. That abuse ended in 2012 when Beauvais solicited a picture of the youngest girl’s bare breasts. Later, in 2020 in Mission, Beauvais touched yet another 12-year-old girl’s genital area over the clothing while she slept in her bed.

This matter was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office because the Major Crimes Act, a federal statute, mandates that certain serious crimes alleged to have occurred in Indian country be prosecuted in Federal court as opposed to State court.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carl Thunem and Wayne Vanhueizen prosecuted the case.

Beauvais was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. 

Updated October 29, 2024

Topic
Indian Country Law and Justice