Trial Begins In LC Molestation Case

LAS CRUCES, NM. – A Hatch man is on trial for sex crimes he allegedly committed more than ten years ago.

The man’s accuser says he raped and molested her throughout her childhood and scared her silent for so long. It was only recently did she come forward and share her chilling story which accuses 50 year-old Cipriano Botello, of molesting her when she was just 7 years old.

The accuser, a relative of Mr. Botello, is 20 years-old and married. Despite the amount of time that has passed, she was still able to recount vivid descriptions of the sexual acts Mr. Botello allegedly performed on her and taught her to perform on him.

According to the accuser, Mr. Botello only stopped, she said, when she began menstruating, because he did not want to get her pregnant.

In court Monday, the accuser could not remember how often Mr. Botello allegedly molested her. But she clearly remembers the one day he allegedly raped her.

Botello’s accuser recounted one incident to a hushed courtroom, “He told me to go down the canal…down to where they won’t see us, and I kept telling him, I want to go home. And then he told me, ‘pull down your pants.’ he unbuttoned his pants and said i was gonna like it.”

The trial is expected to last through Wednesday. If convicted, Mr. Botello could go to prison for 225 years.