A former member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council and of the Montezuma-Cortez School Board has been sentenced to life in prison.
Lyndreth Wall, 60, had portrayed himself as a traditional “medicine man” in order to delude multiple women into thinking they should let him touch them sexually in order to be healed. One victim was under 16 years old.
In November, a jury convicted him on 15 counts of sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact in Indian Country, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.s District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher pronounced the sentence Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Durango.
A grand-jury indictment issued in 2024 says that between 1997 and 2017 Wall persuaded five victims in Towaoc to let him touch them sexually as part of what he claimed was a traditional healing process.
When one victim said she was uncomfortable with that, the indictment says he became upset and said he needed to touch her to heal her. He also threatened to not heal one of her family members if she did not go along.
The indictment says he used traditional objects and said prayers while performing the acts.
“Claiming you are a spiritual healer and then using that position of power to sexually abuse people who come to you for help is an abhorrent crime,” said U.S. attorney Peter McNeilly in the release.
“The Department of Justice will work relentlessly to take predators out of our tribal communities and put them behind bars.”
“Female tribal members came to this defendant for spiritual healing,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Amanda Koldjeski in the release. “They trusted him to help them in the ways of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, of which he was a leader. Instead of helping them, he took advantage of them, a sickening betrayal that has lasting implications for the survivors of his sexual assaults. The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate sexual assaults on tribal lands to identify and remove perpetrators like this one, who now faces the consequence of his treachery.”
Wall also faces two separate allegations of sexual assault in Colorado state court, according to the release. Those charges are pending.
