By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – In August 2024, Bevier Hasbrouck Sleight III, then 78, who was employed as Santa at Santa’s Land Fun Park & Zoo in Cherokee, was arrested by Cherokee Indian Police Department on 13 child abuse charges including two counts of aggravated sexual abuse; two counts of sexual abuse; two counts of abusive sexual contact; three counts of offensive touching; two counts of contributing to the delinquency, undiscipline, neglect, or abuse of minors; and two counts of child abuse in the first degree.
Sleight is not yet set for trial. His next court date is scheduled for March 23 in Cherokee Tribal Court.
The mother of the minor victims, Caroline Roland, was subsequently charged federally with child abuse, child neglect, and assault in Indian country. The prosecuting attorney is Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Scott, and Roland’s trial is set for April 6 in federal court in Asheville, N.C.
The One Feather will continue to follow the cases of Sleight and Roland.
