False Statement Conviction Overturned in Pine Ridge Assault Case

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A federal judge has overturned the conviction of a Pine Ridge man accused of making a false statement in an assault case.

A jury convicted Weldon Two Bulls last month after he told a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent that he was too drunk to remember what happened to Sheena Between Lodges who was found with a brain bleed and bruises to her body in an assault last November. No one has been charged in the attack.

The Rapid City Journal says Judge Roberto Lange this week overturned the conviction saying jury instructions were flawed, but that even with the correction instructions no reasonable jury could find that Two Bulls lied when he told the agent he was too drunk to remember what happened to Between Lodges.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.