Eagle Butte Man Sentenced for Threatening Federal Official

PIERRE - United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced today that U.S. District Judge Eric C. Schulte has sentenced a man from Eagle Butte, South Dakota, convicted of Threatening a Federal Official. The sentencing took place on April 20, 2026.

Joseph Lafferty, age 68, was sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.

Lafferty was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2025. He was convicted following a jury trial in federal district court in January 2026.

The evidence presented at trial established that on July 21, 2025, Lafferty threatened to get his gun and kill a federal official employed by Indian Health Service, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The Defendant made the threat in Eagle Butte, in the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation.

This case was investigated by the FBI and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Venhuizen prosecuted the case.