UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS December 17, 2024

Christopher M. Wolpert FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court _________________________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v. No. 23-7022

JOSEPH STANLEY HARJO,

Defendant - Appellant. _________________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma (D.C. No. 6:21-CR-00022-RAW-1) _________________________________ Sandy D. Baggett, Spokane, Washington, for Defendant-Appellant. Linda A. Epperley, Assistant United States Attorney (Christopher J. Wilson, United States Attorney, and Anthony C. Marek, Assistant United States Attorney, with her on the brief), United States Attorney’s Office, Muskogee, Oklahoma, for Plaintiff-Appellee. _________________________________ Before TYMKOVICH, BALDOCK, and ROSSMAN, Circuit Judges. _________________________________ TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge. _________________________________

Joseph Harjo was tried and convicted by a jury in Oklahoma federal court for aggravated sexual abuse in Indian Country under the Major Crimes Act. 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153, 2241. The district court sentenced him to life in prison. Mr. Harjo now challenges his conviction, arguing (1) § 1153 is unconstitutional, and (2) the district Appellate Case: 23-7022 Document: 60-1 Date Filed: 12/17/2024 Page: 2

court abused its discretion in admitting certain evidence of prior child abuse at trial under Federal Rule of Evidence 414.

We affirm. Controlling Supreme Court precedent establishes the constitutionality of the Major Crimes Act, which permits the prosecution of sex abuse felonies in Indian Country. And the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the testimony of five child witnesses under Rule 414, each of whom testified about their prior experiences of sexual abuse by Mr. Harjo.

I. Background

In 2016 Mr. Harjo sexually molested his then-six-year-old daughter, J.B., during her overnight visit to his home. [RIII.69-70, 72-75.] Mr. Harjo’s home was in Muskogee, Oklahoma. At the time, Oklahoma understood itself as having jurisdiction over Muskogee. Consistent with that understanding, Oklahoma charged Mr. Harjo with child sexual abuse in violation of Okla. Stat. tit. 21, § 843.5(E) later that year. A state jury subsequently convicted him, and on August 23, 2017, the court imposed a life sentence. [RII.46.]

In 2020, McGirt v. Oklahoma upended that conviction by holding Muskogee was situated in the Muscogee Creek Nation. 591 U.S. 894 (2020). This meant Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to prosecute offenses like Mr. Harjo’s. Instead, he should have been prosecuted in federal court under the Major Crimes Act. Mr. Harjo’s conviction was set aside and in 2021 a federal grand jury indicted him on one count of aggravated sexual abuse in Indian Country. [RI.17-18.]

2 Appellate Case: 23-7022 Document: 60-1 Date Filed: 12/17/2024 Page: 3

Before trial, the federal government sought to introduce evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 414 that Mr. Harjo had molested five other children: A.B., R.B., L.L., C.L., and M.P.1 Rule 414 provides that “[i]n a criminal case in which a defendant is accused of child molestation, the court may admit evidence that the defendant committed any other child molestation.” Each child was to testify live to their abuse allegations, which occurred when they were between four and t