A box once stuffed with files in the multi-year criminal prosecution of pediatrician Stanley Patrick Weber sits alone at the South Dakota U.S. Attorney’s Office just minutes after the jury went into deliberation on the case at 11 a.m. on September 27, 2019. Photo by Talli Nauman / Native Sun News Today

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IHS doctor found guilty

Monday, October 7, 2019

11 counts of sexually abusing 4 boys

By Talli Nauman

Native Sun News Today

Health & Environment Editor

nativesunnews.today

RAPID CITY – A federal trial jury here convicted former Pine Ridge Indian Health Service pediatrician Stanley Patrick Weber on September 27 of all 11 criminal counts charging him with sexually abusing four boys while employed as a physician at Pine Ridge Indian Health Service from 1995 to 2011.

Prosecuting Assistant U. S. Attorney Sarah Collins told the jury that Weber’s “prolific sexual abuse of young men for 18 years” was due to “a perfect recipe:”

He carefully selected boys facing problems, isolated them alone, knowing they were susceptible to shame and embarrassment, and groomed them to meet his needs, she said. This was a case of “a doctor versus patients, an adult versus children, the powerful versus the weak,” Collins said in closing statements. “When he got to Pine Ridge,” Weber “was emboldened” by his previous activities in Montana, she said.

A separate federal trial jury there convicted him in 2018 of crimes stemming from his engagement in sexual acts with two boys, beginning in 1992 when he was working for Indian Health Service in Browning, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

A 'pedophile': Stanley Patrick Weber, a former Indian Health Service pediatrician, has been convicted of abusing Indian children on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana and is facing a trial for abusing children on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office

The Rapid city jurors, a panel of eleven, reached a unanimous verdict of guilty on each count of the 2017-2018 federal indictment within four hours after closing statements ended at 11 a.m. in Chief Judge Jeffrey L. Viken’s South Dakota U.S. District Court.

The verdict followed two days of testimony in which survivors from both the Blackfeet and Lakota nations, now adults, repeatedly broke down on the stand as they responded to attorneys’ questions about what Collins called “the sex they were subjected to when they were kids.”

Witnesses and attorneys painted a picture of Weber as a masochist who preferred sex and violence perpetrated upon him, but who forced himself upon the minors in order to achieve his ends, after luring them with money, alcohol, drugs, and other rewards.

Defense attorney Harvey Steinberg noted, however, that each case was different. He claimed that investigators did not exhaust the means of corroboration or conduct the interviews necessary to verify and prove each charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

Conducting the investigations were the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services, the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, the Rapid City Police Department, the Spearfish Police Department, and Montana authorities.

Weber, 70, is in prison serving an 18-year sentence meted out by Montana U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in January for the conviction there. He faces up to a life sentence for the one in South Dakota.

Steinberg is appealing the Montana conviction and sentence. He could not be reached before press time regarding whether he will appeal the South Dakota guilty verdict.

Unlike the subjects in the Blackfeet case, those in Lakota Territory are qualified to seek monetary reparations from the federal government, because they have the protection of the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty, according to Rapid City Indian law practitioner James D. Leach.

If they press charges within a certain timeframe specific to each one, “Any person, including a child who was abused sexually by Dr. Weber, may have a substantial claim against the federal government for monetary compensation under the 1868 treaty,” Leach told the Native Sun News Today.

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'Stanley Weber is a pedophile'

From the sentencing memorandum in Stanley Patrick Weber's case in Montana:

Stanley Weber is a pedophile. For over two decades, he used his position as a pediatrician with the Indian Health Service to gain access to vulnerable prepubescent males, and subsequently committed terrible acts of sexual abuse upon his victims under the guise of providing them with “medical treatment.” While living and working on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Weber lured young juvenile males to his home by providing them with alcohol, pizza, soda, ice cream, video games, money, clothing, and overnight trips both on and off the reservation. Once isolated with these children, Weber seized his opportunity to act upon his deviant sexual desires by engaging in forced or coerced sexual activity with them. Weber leveraged his position within IHS and the communities where he worked and lived to gain the trust of many of his coworkers and supervisors, allowing him to survive multiple allegations and investigations into his suspicious behavior.
Although the crimes at issue in this case occurred more than 20 years ago, Weber has never had to face the consequences of his actions. In fact, when questions were raised about his behavior, he simply moved to a new community where he continued his pattern of criminality. Meanwhile, his victims grew up, saddled with confusion, shame, and fear that they could not reveal what happened to them as children, lest they face further embarrassment and ridicule from members of their community. The impact of Weber’s crimes ultimately manifested in his victims in the form of legal problems, drug and alcohol abuse, the inability to maintain stead
Even after his conviction, Weber continues to be unapologetic for his actions and shows no remorse for his victims or the harm he inflicted upon them. In fact, it is doubtful that he views his actions as criminal at all. His decades of predatory sexual abuse of children are among the most heinous and serious crimes cognizable by federal criminal law. At nearly 70 years of age, and with no sign of remorse, there is no reason to believe that Weber either recognizes the severity of his crimes or any realistic hope that he can ever be rehabilitated. Accordingly, justice demands that Weber face a severe sentence despite the age of his misconduct in this case.

'Predator on the Reservation'

Former IHS pediatrician Stanley Patrick Weber also awaits trial in South Dakota for allegedly abusing boys on Pine Ridge Reservation. He was subject of @frontlinepbs + @WSJ expose "Predator on the Reservation" https://t.co/DzNxaCNIbf
— indianz.com (@indianz) February 13, 2019