Names and faces
■ A Nevada judge has thrown out a drug trafficking charge against actor Nathan Chasing Horse but upheld a Las Vegas grand jury’s indictment on 18 sexual abuse-related felony crimes. In an order issued Friday, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said state prosecutors presented enough evidence for “a reasonable grand juror to conclude that the sexual assaults occurred” but found that there was no substantive testimony connecting the former “Dances With Wolves” actor to the psilocybin mushrooms investigators found while searching his home. Public defender Kristy Holston said she had no comment on the judge’s ruling. Chasing Horse, 46, was indicted in February on charges of sexual assault of a minor, kidnapping, child abuse, lewdness and drug trafficking. He has been held on $300,000 bail at a county jail since Jan. 31. Clark County prosecutor Stacy Kollins declined to comment Friday on the judge’s decision. A trial in the state case is scheduled to begin May 1. Chasing Horse has pleaded innocent and invoked his right to a trial within 60 days of his indictment. He is due back in court this week for a hearing on another motion asking the judge to grant him separate trials.
■ Mick Mars, lead guitarist of Motley Crue for 41 years, is suing the Grammy Award-nominated heavy metal band for trying to “gaslight” and oust him from the business. Legal documents were filed Thursday in Los Angeles County’s Superior Court by Mars’ attorney alleging band members withheld information about businesses in which he has a 25% ownership share. Motley Crue has been mostly made up of bassist Nikki Sixx, lead singer Vince Neil, drummer Tommy Lee and Mars since forming in 1981. In the lawsuit, Mars — whose real name is Robert Deal — claims Motley Crue ordered him to sign a severance agreement that would strip him of his sizable stake, in exchange for a 5% stake in a 2023 tour he’s not performing in, Variety reported. The documents, filed by Mars’ lawyer Edwin McPherson, stated that “when he did not go away quietly, they purported to fire him from six additional band corporations and LLCs.” “During much of the band’s recent tenure, Sixx continually ‘gaslighted’ Mars by telling him that he [Mars] had some sort of cognitive dysfunction,” the lawsuit read.