A former federal law enforcement officer pleaded guilty Thursday to sexual abuse after prosecutors said he raped an intoxicated 14-year-old girl on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation and tried to cover it up. Prosecutors said defendant Murrell Deela, who was then an officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, encountered the girl at a gas station on the reservation in southern Montana in August 2024. After Deela was asked by investigators to download video footage from his patrol car from the night of the assault, he reported that his patrol car had burned in a fire, the documents said. The Bureau of Indian Affairs conducts law enforcement on Native American reservations across the US. Gerken described Durrell's actions as "a betrayal of everything law enforcement stands for."

Source: The Telegraph April 03, 2026 05:58 UTC