Northern Cheyenne Woman Wins $1.6 Million After BIA Officer Raped Her During Welfare Call

In October 2015, Bureau of Indian Affairs officer Dana Bullcoming responded to a welfare check on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. After finishing that call, he went to a neighboring home where L.B. lived with her children. He administered a breathalyzer test, then threatened to arrest her and report her to child protective services unless she had sex with him. She complied. L.B. became pregnant from the assault.

Bullcoming pleaded guilty to rape in December 2017 and received a three-year federal prison sentence. L.B. then pursued a civil lawsuit against the United States government, arguing the BIA was liable because Bullcoming had used his official authority, his badge, his threat of arrest, and his power over her children to carry out the assault.

The litigation was long and contested. A federal district court initially refused to hold the government liable, ruling that Bullcoming had stepped outside the scope of his employment. In 2020, L.B. was awarded $1.6 million in damages, but the payment was blocked while the government's liability remained in dispute. The case traveled to the Montana Supreme Court, which ruled 5-2 in August 2022 that the BIA could be held responsible because the officer had used employer-conferred authority throughout the encounter. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later ordered a retrial on the scope-of-employment question.

On February 25, 2025, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy ruled in L.B.'s favor, finding that the sexual assault occurred within the scope of Bullcoming's official duties during a criminal investigation. The ruling confirmed the federal government's liability for the $1.6 million judgment.

John Heenan of Heenan and Cook represented L.B. throughout the case, from the initial filing through the final ruling. He argued that residents of Indian Country deserve the same legal protections as anyone else in the United States, and that officers who exploit federal authority to commit crimes do not shed government accountability simply by acting for personal motives. L.B.'s child from the assault was eight years old at the time of the 2025 ruling.