Duchesne man gets 4 months for burglary, lewdness

VERNAL — A man who claims to be the leader of an American Indian tribe he co-founded in a Utah restaurant has been ordered to serve four months in jail for burglary and attempted lewdness involving a child.

Dale N. Stevens, 70, was sentenced for repeatedly entering a trailer home on May 19, 2007, where a 12-year-old girl was sleeping. During at least one visit, the girl said, Stevens was wearing only underwear.

At a jury trial in October 2008, Stevens maintained he entered the trailer because the girl was alone and he was worried about her safety. But Stevens also testified at an earlier preliminary hearing that he'd secured the right to marry the girl in a barter with her mother for half a cooler of energy bars.

Deputy Uintah County attorney Greg Lamb told jurors that at one point Stevens told the victim "she was his and it was time she started acting like a wife."

Stevens claims to be chief of the Wampanoag Nation, a group he formed in 2003 with other individuals at an Arby's restaurant in Provo. The group, which is not affiliated with the federally recognized Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts, was declared "a complete sham" by a federal judge in Salt Lake City earlier this year.

In addition to jail time, Stevens was ordered to spend six years on supervised probation, pay a $1,000 fine, pay for any counseling the victim may need and undergo any treatment recommended by Adult Probation and Parole.

Stevens said at Tuesday's hearing that he intends to appeal his conviction. He continues to maintain that he is a tribal member and therefore not subject to the jurisdiction of state courts.

But Stevens' legal troubles in Uintah County are not yet over. He faces charges of obstruction of justice, sexual exploitation of a minor and forgery in a separate case. Prosecutors allege that Stevens aided a convicted sex offender in his flight from Iowa authorities and that Stevens had images of child pornography on his computer.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 17.

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E-mail: geoff@ubstandard.com