Amelia Schafer
ICT + Rapid City Journal
RAPID CITY, S.D. – A former Oglala Sioux Tribal Councilman was found not guilty by a 12-person jury following a three-day sexual assault trial.
Howard Rooks, 53, was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Rooks was charged in a federal indictment with aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse.
“I feel helpless. I’m hurt that nobody listens,” the girl’s mother told ICT and the Rapid City Journal. “They made her relive this and they didn’t listen to her.”
The girl did not wish to be named.
Rooks, Oglala Lakota, was serving on the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council as a representative of the Medicine Root District when he was indicted on March 21 by a federal grand jury with aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse.
Following a less than two-hour deliberation, Rooks was found not guilty on both counts on Sept. 13.
“It’s (sexual assault) been happening all over the Rez and they get away with it,” the girl’s mother said. “When it happens, no one listens to any of these girls, and when it happens to their own they wonder why. Everyone posts so much about Missing and Murdered, but they don’t care.”
Rooks’s attorney, Angela Colbath, said the verdict was the right one.
“These types of allegations always come with high emotion,” Colbath said. “I can say for any defendant who is facing criminal allegations like in this case it’s a really hard process to be in that seat, and the process of the trial is an opportunity for the facts to come out and their side of the incident to come out.”
During opening statements on Sept. 11, U.S. prosecutor Heather Knox said following the annual Kyle Powwow on Aug. 13, 2023, Rooks allegedly assaulted the victim in the basement of his home in the Medicine Root District.
The girl, her mother and her brother had been staying in the basement of Rooks’s and his wife’s Kyle home for three years. Rooks’s wife is related to the girl.
Rooks testified Friday at the Andrew W. Bogue Federal Courthouse in Rapid City, where he was questioned about the alleged Aug. 13, 2023, assault.
Evidence presented included DNA swabs from the girl taken during a rape kit examination on Aug. 14, 2023, which indicated the presence of male DNA, but not specifically Rooks’s.
In an interview with law enforcement on Feb. 21, Rooks said he had a “lapse in judgment” that night.
“He meant that he should not have touched her in any way,” said Colbath during closing statements on Sept. 13. “Having any physical contact with her brought him here.”
Colbath said Rooks is a father of five, a former council member, an involved member of his community and a combat veteran.
In closing statements for the prosecution, Knox said the evidence shown throughout the previous three days and expert witness testimony showed Rooks should be found guilty on both counts.
“There is no credible evidence to the contrary,” Knox said. “What reason would she have to come in here in front of all these people and perjure herself? The girl you saw on the stand would not and did not do that.”
The girl took the stand earlier in the trial.
“She has nothing to gain by lying, and he has everything to gain,” Knox said.
Rooks did admit he was present in the house at the time of the alleged incident and crossed paths with another family member.
The family member in question also took the stand to testify that he saw Rooks standing above the alleged victim in the basement that night and asked Rooks what he was doing. He did not specifically see an assault occur.
“I have no doubt that he did go in the basement that night. He lived there,” Colbath said during closing statements.
Colbath said the male DNA found on the swabs taken from the alleged victim could have come from any of the four males living in the home. At the time of the incident, around 10 people were living in Rooks’s home and shared one bathroom.
After Colbath’s closing statements, Knox presented an additional four minutes of closing statements.
“People who commit sexual abuse are just like us. That’s why Howard Rooks is so dangerous,” Knox said. “He has all the power. He is well connected.”
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.
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