Document: Cheerleading coach did not plan to have sex with student, ‘it just happened’
Detectives with the Doña Ana County Sheriffs arrested an 18-year-old cheerleading coach on charges of criminal sexual penetration of a minor.
Officials with the sheriff’s office said Alvaro Omar Nuñez, a cheer coach at Hatch Valley High School, allegedly engaged in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl on Friday, January 12, 2018.
The two were reportedly in a vehicle approached by a Hatch Police officer patrolling Spring Canyon Road in Hatch. A court document states the officer approached the vehicle because it was parked next along the desolate road and its windows were “foggy.”
The officer allegedly found Nuñez in the backseat with the girl, reportedly wearing her cheerleader uniform, court documents state. When the police officer told Nuñez he shouldn’t be having sex with a 14-year-old, Nuñez allegedly said he did not plan to do it, “but it just happened.”
As the officer was driving the girl home, she allegedly told the officer this was her first time having sex and pleaded with him not to tell her mother.
Court documents state Nuñez and the girl first met when the victim was a 13-year-old middle school student and Nuñez was a senior in high school. When interviewed by detectives, the girl said she and Nuñez planned to have sex the night of January 12th.
Nuñez was arrested Thursday, January 18, 2018. He was transported to the Doña Ana County Detention Center where he is being held without bond on three counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor.
ABC-7 spoke with Linda Hale, the superintendent of the Hatch Valley School District. Hale said the arrest puts “a really dark cloud over a really successful program.” Hale further stated, “Hatch Valley High School Cheerleaders are state champions. This puts a really bad image on it, which it doesn’t deserve.”
