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June 18, 2008
MERVIN LEROY SMALL PLEADS GUILTY IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT
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Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Billings on June 17, 2008, before Senior U.S. District Judge Jack D. Shanstrom, MERVIN LEROY SMALL, a 39-year-old resident of Fremont, Nebraska, pled guilty to aggravated sexual abuse. Sentencing is set for September 24, 2008. He is currently detained.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
On June 28, 2005, the FBI was notified by the BIA of an allegation of sexual abuse by SMALL of his niece. The victim's father learned of the allegation, confronted SMALL, and assaulted him. SMALL was treated at the clinic in Lame Deer. Law enforcement contacted SMALL about the assault. He refused to cooperate and, within a matter of days, he disappeared from the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.
In 2007, the FBI in Montana received new leads about SMALL's whereabouts. The FBI located SMALL in Fremont, Nebraska and, during an interview on August 4, 2007, SMALL denied the allegation that he sexually assaulted his niece. He explained that his brother had confronted him about the allegation and assaulted him in order to get him to admit the allegation. He stated that in order to stop his brother from beating him, he admitted that he did it.
However, on August 19, 2007, SMALL was re-interviewed and admitted that he in fact did sexually abuse his niece by sticking his finger in her anus. She was six-years-old at the time. He stated that it occurred around April of 2005, at his brother's home in Ashland.
SMALL faces possible penalties of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervision.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek prosecuted the case for the United States .
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.