Former Española Middle School security guard accused of child rape
Española, NM Aug 1 2021
The First Judicial District Attorney’s Office has obtained an arrest warrant for a former Española Middle School security guard accused of having criminal sexual contact with a student over the course of several years, beginning in 2019 when the girl was in the eighth grade.
The former guard, Chantell Gallegos, 24, is a member of the Army National Guard and is on deployment in Kuwait, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed July 23 by the District Attorney’s Office.
The affidavit accuses Gallegos of three counts of criminal sexual penetration, four counts of child solicitation by electronic device or contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The incidents — including physical contact and sexually explicit text messages — are alleged to have taken place between August 2018 and October 2020.
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said a concerned citizen alerted her office to the alleged crime.
The student’s mother told an investigator in April her daughter told her she and Gallegos were “in a relationship” and had been seeing one another since at least February 2019, when the student was 14 and Gallegos was 22.
The girl, now 16, told investigators in June she and Gallegos had sexual encounters at “the fields” during a baseball game in 2019 and at each of their families’ homes during and after Gallegos’ employment at the school, which lasted from August 2018 through October 2019, according to the affidavit.
Three staff members at the school told investigators Gallegos frequently pulled the student out of class during the 2018-19 school year.
Attempts to reach Española Middle School officials were unsuccessful Monday.
The student and guard exchanged at least 4,605 pages of text messages between June 2020 and their last exchange in April 2021, according to the affidavit. At least 20 of which were sexually explicit, the affidavit stated.
The National Guard was advised of the accusations in June, according to the affidavit.
Assistant District Attorney Haley Murphy said Monday that to her knowledge Gallegos has not been arrested on the warrant, adding it was her understanding Gallegos was set to return to the U.S. next month.
New Mexico National Guard spokesman Joe Vigil said Monday the agency was aware of the warrant and has notified the U.S. Army, which is working with local authorities “to facilitate the process of returning her to New Mexico.
“It becomes the local authorities jurisdiction and responsibility when she gets here,” Vigil said.
Vigil said Gallegos is a mechanic assigned to a transportation unit.
sfnewmexican.com
