A U.S. District Court judge has sentenced a McLaughlin, South Dakota, man convicted of Failure to Register as a Sex Offender.
Patrick Red Legs, age 31, was sentenced to one year and 11 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.
Red Legs was indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2024. He pleaded guilty on May 15, 2025.
Red Legs is required to register as a sex offender under federal law for sexually abusing a 13-year-old-girl. This is his third conviction for failure to register as a sex offender. Following his last release from prison on June 10, 2024, Red Legs registered a McLaughlin, South Dakota, address with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. On or about July 1, 2024, Red Legs moved to his girlfriend’s home in Little Eagle without updating his registration. Because her children also lived there, Red Legs was prohibited from visiting his girlfriend’s house, much less living there. Red Legs only updated his address following his arrest for violating his supervised release on August 12, 2024.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
This case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Thunem prosecuted the case.
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