Federal officials in Minneapolis indicted a Red Lake, Minn., man Tuesday for domestic assault of a woman on the Red Lake Indian Reservation last month.
According to a news release from U.S. Attorney Todd Jones in Minneapolis, Jamie Allan Greene, Sr., 38, grabbed the woman by the hair Aug. 2, "threw her against the wall and then stomped on her face while she lay on the ground."
The investigators' affidavit said the woman's face was swollen when she reported the incident.
If convicted in federal court of the charge, Greene faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Unlike most Indian reservations in Minnesota, Red Lake is under primary federal jurisdiction, meaning the FBI and the federal courts take charge of most serious crimes, while local county law enforcement and prosecutors and state district courts have no jurisdiction.
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The Red Lake tribal police department assisted the FBI in the investigation of the alleged assault.
According to Jones, this charge illustrates the "epidemic" of violence against American Indian women. In 2005, Congress found that one in three American Indian women is raped during her lifetime, and American Indian women are three times more likely than white women to be battered Jones said.
His office is part of the new Violence Against Women Federal and Tribal Prosecution Task Force addressing the issue, Jones said.
