{"id":80980,"date":"2024-04-12T08:33:52","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T12:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=80980"},"modified":"2024-04-12T08:33:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T12:33:52","slug":"lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake St. Martin chief declares innocence after being charged with sex assault"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0By Dave Baxter \u00a0Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A First Nations chief charged with sexually assaulting a child is proclaiming he is innocent and said he has no plans to voluntarily walk away from his leadership position. Charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and child pornography charges against Chief of Lake St. Martin First Nation Christopher Traverse were announced Wednesday. The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) confirmed the chief of the community located in the Interlake, about 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg, was arrested in February and court records say alleged offences happened on Dec. 29, and involve an elementary-school-age child. Traverse was released on bail. Traverse took to Facebook on Wednesday to state his innocence and said that he has and will continue to be cooperative with police, even now that&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2024%2F04%2F12%2Flake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0By Dave Baxter \u00a0Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A First Nations chief charged with sexually assaulting a child is proclaiming he is innocent and said he has no plans to voluntarily walk away from his leadership position. Charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and child pornography charges against Chief of Lake St. Martin First Nation Christopher Traverse were announced Wednesday. The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) confirmed the chief of the community located in the Interlake, about 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg, was arrested in February and court records say alleged offences happened on Dec. 29, and involve an elementary-school-age child. Traverse was released on bail. Traverse took to Facebook on Wednesday to state his innocence and said that he has and will continue to be cooperative with police, even now that... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2024%2F04%2F12%2Flake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lake St. Martin chief declares innocence after being charged with sex assault - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lake St. Martin chief declares innocence after being charged with sex assault - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0By Dave Baxter \u00a0Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A First Nations chief charged with sexually assaulting a child is proclaiming he is innocent and said he has no plans to voluntarily walk away from his leadership position. Charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and child pornography charges against Chief of Lake St. Martin First Nation Christopher Traverse were announced Wednesday. The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) confirmed the chief of the community located in the Interlake, about 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg, was arrested in February and court records say alleged offences happened on Dec. 29, and involve an elementary-school-age child. Traverse was released on bail. Traverse took to Facebook on Wednesday to state his innocence and said that he has and will continue to be cooperative with police, even now that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-12T12:33:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/12\\\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/12\\\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Lake St. Martin chief declares innocence after being charged with sex assault\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-12T12:33:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/12\\\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":507,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/12\\\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/12\\\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/12\\\/lake-st-martin-chief-declares-innocence-after-being-charged-with-sex-assault\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lake St. Martin chief declares innocence after being charged with sex assault - 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