Las Cruces school teacher arrested, charged with molesting students

Las Cruces police arrested a local elementary school teacher on more than 50 felony counts of inappropriate behavior with fourth-grade students.

Jesus L. Solis, 46, of the 2100 block of Sedona Hills Parkway, is charged with 52 counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor. The charges are all third-degree felonies.

The charges against Solis involve three girls who were students in his fourth-grade class at Desert Hills Elementary School. Las Cruces Police learned that Solis was the girls’ teacher and supervised at least two of the students during an after-school program this past academic year.

Detectives learned from the girls that Solis touched them inappropriately, over their clothing, multiple times. Detectives have reason to believe that the incidents occurred between the dates of Aug. 15, 2011, and May 2, 2013.

ABC-7 first broke this story on July 1. Parents of one of the alleged victims told ABC-7 they were devastated by what happened.

“At that point I was just blown away. I immediately wanted to know where he was and where she was. I knew he was still at the school when we found out,” the girl’s father told ABC-7.

“You could just tell that she’s scared now that he knows. She just wakes up and says, ‘He knows I’ve told.’ In her dreams he’s telling her, ‘Why did you tell?’ He took her innocence away,” the girl’s mother said.

The parents told ABC-7 they’re relieved he is behind bars now.

Solis was arrested Friday afternoon and booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center with a cash-only bond set at $80,000.