Mescalero Apache Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Assault Charge

Defendant Prosecuted as Part of Federal Initiative to Address the Epidemic Incidence of Violence Against Native Women

ALBUQUERQUE – Timothy Gregg Enjady, 54, an enrolled member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who resides in Mescalero, N.M., pled guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to an assault charge.  Enjady’s plea agreement recommends an 18-month term of imprisonment followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.

The BIA arrested Enjady in Aug. 2017, on a criminal complaint charging him with assaulting a Mescalero Apache woman on June 7, 2017, on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in Otero County, N.M.  According to the complaint, Enjady assaulted the woman by hitting her in the face with his fist, hitting her with an object and placing his thumb in her eye.

Enjady was subsequently indicted on Jan. 17, 2018, and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, an aluminum crutch, with intent to do bodily harm.

During today’s proceedings, Enjady pled guilty to the indictment and admitted that on June 7, 2017, he assaulted the victim by striking her in the face and head with an aluminum crutch.  Enjady further admitted that the victim suffered facial contusions, head lacerations and a corneal abrasion as the result of the assault.  A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.

The case was brought pursuant to the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project in the District of New Mexico which is sponsored by the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women under a grant administered by the Pueblo of Laguna.  The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project seeks to train tribal prosecutors in federal law, procedure and investigative techniques to increase the likelihood that every viable violent offense against Native women is prosecuted in either federal court or tribal court, or both.  The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project was largely driven by input gathered from annual tribal consultations on violence against women, and is another step in the Justice Department's on-going efforts to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in tribal communities.