Trial ordered on charge of lewdness

VERNAL — A man who says he's the leader of an American Indian tribe testified at his preliminary hearing on an attempted-lewdness charge that the 12-year-old girl he's accused of victimizing was promised to him by her mother in exchange for half a cooler of energy bars.

Dale N. Stevens of Vernal said the agreement was reached while the girl and her family were staying in one of his trailers on land owned by his "tribe" in Uintah County in early 2007.

"That's the way Indians do things ... if they're living under their old ways," the 69-year-old said of the trade. "I became her guardian, put it that way, I became her guardian."

Stevens, who was bound over for trial in 8th District Court on charges of burglary and attempted lewdness involving a child following Thursday's hearing, said he is the chief of the Wampanoag Nation. While the federal government does recognize the Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts, it does not recognize Stevens' group, which according to federal court records, was founded in 2003 at an Arby's restaurant in Provo.

The girl, who is now 13, testified that Stevens entered the trailer where her family was staying at least four times during the night of May 19 without knocking. The girl had been left alone with her 2-year-old sister while her mother and four other siblings attended a relative's birthday party.

"I'd have to scream at him to leave every time he came over," the girl said of Stevens, noting that he'd always made her uncomfortable. "He kept saying it was time for me to give myself to him."

The girl said she eventually drifted off to sleep but awoke to find Stevens standing over her in his underwear and a T-shirt.

Stevens admitted to entering the trailer at one point during the night in his underwear. He testified that the reason for his repeated visits was to ensure that the fire in the enclosed wood-burning stove was not out of control.

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E-mail: geoff@ubstandard.com