Editor’s Note: This story contains court testimonies and language regarding allegations of sexual assault and rape. If you or someone you may know has experienced an assault or rape and would like help, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at (800) 656-4673 or contact SASO Durango, the Sexual Assault Services Organization offers a 24-hour, confidential support line at 970-247-5400.
During a full day of testimony Monday in Durango federal court, a fifth woman tearfully testified for the prosecution that former Ute Mountain Ute councilman Lyndreth Wall sexually assaulted her multiple times while she trusted him as a spiritual healer.
Defense attorneys seized on her continued contact with Wall and have portrayed her as a central link among other women in the case, suggesting she helped coordinate their allegations.
In a small community like Towaoc, the case seemed to drag on for years without charges, she said.
“Why did you give Mr. Wall a shoutout on his Facebook page?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Graves during redirect.
“Because we feel members of the tribal council should come and celebrate the kids (of the school district graduating.) At the time, I just had to forgive. I had to forgive him. Nothing was coming out of this case, and when you live where you live in Towaoc, some choose to hate and some choose to forgive,” she replied on the stand.
The defense sought to nail down invalidity within her story by highlighting repeated friendly exchanges after the alleged assaults, inconsistent statements to police and social media posts showing the two hanging out and taking a trip together.
The fifth woman to testify in the sex-abuse case for the government is connected to three other women accusing Wall, who stands trial for the sixth day for 20 felonies of sexual assault and sexual contact. The woman is the mother of one, related by marriage to another and former housemate of a third.
Because she remained in contact with both Wall and with these women, the defense has implied she could have influenced, or even encouraged, their stories.
“You said ‘We can report it, or we can just let karma deal with it.’ You claimed your daughter is sexually abused as a young teenager, and said, ‘We can report it or we can just let karma deal with it?” asked Woods during cross-examination.
“No, I don’t recall all that,” the woman replied.
While on the stand, the woman recounted that Wall conducted healing ceremonies. She was accustomed to spiritual ceremonies with feathers from eagles, hawks, woodpeckers, and crystals, arrowheads or smudges of cedar — elements tied to the Ute spiritual practices she grew up with.
Unlike prior healers, she alleged Wall’s version included non-consensual sexual acts. She said he told her to “exchange energies” with him, asked her to lie down, to pull her pants down, held her, blew air into her mouth while continuing the sex-abuse for what she believed was a spiritual healing ceremony. She stated on the stand, Wall told her not to tell his wife and “to not tell anyone,” which she found odd, but trusted him.
Graves asked how the experiences affected her life.
She said she later learned that other women, her daughter, her relative and family acquaintance, also reported being assaulted by Wall. She realized all of them had gone to him because she had told them he was a reputable medicine man.
Her testimony ended with visible emotion: “It has made me not trust myself. … I am the one who said he was a good person.”
The woman first reported the abuse alongside her daughter’s to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2017. She met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors throughout 2023-25. Wall was charged in early 2024.
Defense attorney Summer Woods spent nearly four hours examining the woman’s testimony, aiming to question her credibility and motive, which the defense has suggested is tied to personal relationships and tribal politics. Woods pointed out that both she and Wall both ran for Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council multiple times over the years.
But Woods mostly focused on a continued friendship the woman maintained with Wall after the alleged assaults took place in 2017 and until Wall’s indictment.
Woods questioned her about a 2022 trip to Wyoming, where they drove 10 hours together, shared a hotel room and appeared in one photo smiling together on top a parade float. Woods said, “That’s you, smiling,” to the parade photo published on a court TV screen and “You certainly weren’t put on that float against your will,” she added.
Woods pointed to text messages after the alleged assaults where the woman and Wall chatted about council gossip, sent a meme and discussed other personal matters, calling this “more than tribal business matters” which is what the woman told prosecutors.
“Why did you decide to go with Mr. Wall?” asked Graves on redirect.
“Because he asked, and I didn’t hear anything else going on with the case,” she said.
Graves then asked: “Is your report a conspiracy as part of a plan to get rid of Mr. Wall?”
“No,” she replied.
The trial resumes Tuesday when the prosecution calls another witness to the stand. The prosecution said it hopes to rest by midweek, allowing the defense’s case to begin Thursday or Friday.
