ABERDEEN – United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced today that U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann has sentenced a Little Eagle, South Dakota, man convicted of Sexual Abuse of a Minor. The sentencing took place on September 22, 2026.
Arthur Lane Taken Alive III, age 23, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.
Taken Alive was indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2025. He pleaded guilty on March 25, 2026.
Around 11:00 p.m. on December 27, 2024, a 15-year-old girl was walking home across the footbridge in Bullhead, South Dakota when Taken Alive accosted her. When the girl declined his invitation to come with him, Taken Alive dragged her to a nearby root cellar and raped her. Bullhead is a community in the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation.
This matter was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office because the Major Crimes Act, a federal statute, mandates that certain violent crimes alleged to have occurred in Indian Country be prosecuted in Federal Court as opposed to State Court.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs – Office of Justice Services and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Thunem prosecuted the case.
Taken Alive was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to serve his federal sentence.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — South Dakota — U.S. Department of Justice press release.