Alison J. Ramsdell U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota
A Timber Lake man has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for abusive sexual contact without consent. The sentencing of Jaren Loren Lane Mellette, 27, took place on August 25, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann in Aberdeen.
Mellette will also serve five years of supervised release following his prison term and must pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2024 and pleaded guilty on June 3, 2025.
According to court records, Mellette groped a 13-year-old girl without her consent during the summer of 2023. The incident occurred in Corson County, South Dakota, within the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case under the Major Crimes Act, which allows certain crimes committed in Indian country to be handled in federal court rather than state court.
"This case was also brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc."
The FBI investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Thunem prosecuted it.
Mellette was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
