Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Billings on December 4, 2009, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, WILLIAM ALVIN WICK, JR., a 28-year-old resident of Lame Deer, pled guilty to aggravated sexual abuse. Sentencing is set for March 11, 2010. He is currently detained.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

On the evening of November 17, 2007, WICK, Ron Oneida Whiteman, another male individual, and a juvenile male were driving around Lame Deer on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation drinking. The group saw the victim walking down the street and decided to pick her up, WICK was driving. The victim was staggering as she walked, because she was drunk. She got into the car with the men and sat in the back between Whiteman and the other adult male. They then bought more alcohol - vodka - and continued to drive around Lame Deer.

Whiteman and the other male individual made sexual advances toward the victim. WICK then drove to a remote area in the hills where Whiteman took off the victim's pants and then raped her in the backseat.

After that rape, Whiteman took her out of the car and took off the rest of her clothes. She fell to the ground because she was too drunk to stand. Whiteman tried to force her to perform oral sex, but she resisted. The men placed her on the hood of the car, naked, and WICK and the other individual held her arms down as Whiteman raped her again. Whiteman then threw her to the ground and the other individual tried to rape her but could not get an erection. Whiteman and WICK put her on the hood again and WICK tried to rape her but could not get an erection, so he inserted his fingers into her vagina.

Following the assaults on the hood of the car, Whiteman and the other individual carried her to the trunk. Before they put her in the trunk, naked, the juvenile raped her again while she was held by Whiteman and the adult male in a bent-over position. She pleaded with the men not to put her in the trunk to no avail. They drove around with her in the trunk drinking whiskey until she was rescued from the trunk of the car by the police. The victim had extensive bruising on her legs, thighs, buttocks, arms and chest, and lacerations and abrasions on her body.

The victim has very little memory of what happened to her. She was drinking at home on November 17, 2007. She was drunk and she left her home at some point to walk to downtown Lame Deer. She then remembers a man telling her to perform oral sex and then her head was grabbed and the man was trying to force her mouth to his penis. She remembers WICK, who she knew because she was related to him by marriage, laughing at her as she told him to leave her alone. Then the trunk closed. She remembers being in the trunk of the car, and screaming and asking the men to leave her alone. She also remembers hearing WICK laughing and talking while she was in the trunk.

The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment and a sexual assault examination was performed. Swabs were taken from the hood of the car and from the trunk. DNA testing confirmed that the victim's blood was on the hood and on the door of the trunk.

WICK provided two recorded statements. During the second statement, WICK admitted that he tried to have sexual intercourse with the victim but was unable to get an erection, so he stuck his fingers into her vagina. These acts occurred on the hood of the car. He admitted that he knew the victim was in the trunk of the car and that he drove around with her while she was in the trunk.

WICK faces possible penalties of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervision.

Whiteman pled guilty to federal charges and has been sentenced.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A copy of the Offer of Proof can be obtained by contacting Sally Frank at (406) 247-4638.

 

 

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