Uintah man charged with lewdness

VERNAL — A 69-year-old man who claims to be the leader of an American Indian tribe has been charged with repeatedly entering a mobile home located on his property and propositioning a 12-year-old girl.

Dale Nolan Stevens is charged in 8th District Court with one count of second-degree felony burglary and one count of class A misdemeanor lewdness involving a child.

According to court records, in mid-May Stevens entered a mobile home where the girl was staying at least five times during the same night, adding coal to the fire that was heating the mobile home.

The girl told Uintah County sheriff's detectives she asked Stevens not to put more coal on the fire and had to "get vocal" to get him to leave.

"On one occasion she told Dale that it was getting hot, and Dale told her that she should take off her clothing to cool down," sheriff's Detective Leonard Isaacson wrote in a probable cause statement.

The girl also told detectives that Stevens informed her that she had been "promised to him." The girl eventually fell asleep but told Isaacson she awoke to find Stevens "standing over her in his underwear, a hat and a pair of shoes."

"Like all the times before (she) had to yell and threaten him to leave the residence," Isaacson wrote, noting that when the girl's mother returned home, she found her daughter barricaded in her room. The woman and her children then fled Stevens' property.

In the past, Stevens has claimed to be the chief of the Wampanoag Nation — a tribe that was founded in an Arby's restaurant in Provo in 2003, according to court records. The true Wampanoag Tribe is based in Massachusetts. Its leadership has voiced anger over the misappropriation of the tribal name.

Stevens and fellow "tribe" members are involved in a federal civil lawsuit with Uintah County. The group, operating under the name The Order of the White Light and the Western Arbitration Council, is accused of using phony arbitration proceedings to secure high-dollar judgments against county officials.

At a bail hearing Tuesday morning, Stevens' bail was reduced on the burglary and lewdness charges from $11,850 to $3,000. He also is being held on two warrants totaling $5,587.

Stevens is due back in court Nov. 28 for a preliminary hearing.

---

E-mail: geoff@ubstandard.com