Sexual Victim: Officials Failed to Report Abuse

The teenage victim in a high-profile Santa Fe sexual abuse case claims in a court filing that his own lawyer, a prosecutor, a judge and juvenile probation officer all had copies of, or were aware of, a video of the abuse but failed to report it to police.

District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco and a spokesman for the state Children, Youth and Family, which includes juvenile probation and parole operations, both denied the allegations made in the emergency petition filed Wednesday in state District Court.

The abuse case, in March, resulted in charges against Jacob Pinto, 43, of Santa Fe. Police said at the time that Pinto may have sexually exploited boys, dating back as far as 1989, judging from photos and other possible videos recovered from Pinto’s home at the Villa Teresa Apartments on Montano Street.

Pinto was charged not with rape but with criminal sexual contact of a minor, kidnapping and other counts for his encounter with the youth who is the subject of Wednesday’s court petition.

“Numerous persons and entities possessed duties under New Mexico law to report Pinto’s abuse and rape of A.A. (Pinto’s victim in the March case) to appropriate authorities,” states the court petition filed by Albuquerque lawyers Carolyn “Cammie” Nichols, Brendan Egan and Kristina Martinez.

The boy at the center of the case is now 18 years old, the court filing states.

The police said in March that in 2010 Pinto hired the boy for gardening chores, then started videotaping the youth with his shirt off after he went inside to help move furniture. At some point, Pinto lay on top of the boy “bare chest to chest” and made noises like he was having sex, according to a police report. The boy said Pinto gave him $100 and offered $4,000 if he didn’t go to police.

The police said in March that a CYFD juvenile probation officer had turned over “a disturbing video” in January. It showed the boy, shirtless and with an expression of disgust, with possible sounds of a sexual act off camera.

The film was on a video card that also included photos taken of boys at a Santa Fe swimming pool.

The alleged victim in the case is now himself in state custody, at an adolescent treatment center in Albuquerque. He was sentenced to a one-year commitment in January for a probation violation for graffiti tagging. A count of possession of marijuana was dropped.

Wednesday’s petition maintains that the teen is being unlawfully detained and seeks his release from his current “penal environment” so he can receive out-patient counseling in Santa Fe.

Filing alleges rape

The petition maintains that Pinto raped the boy in the 2010 encounter and that four days later, the youth broke into Pinto’s place to retrieve the film of the assault. The boy found Pinto’s camera in a box with “numerous questionable photographs of children” and took it. The youth wanted the recording due to shame and outrage and because he wanted Pinto held responsible, the filing says.

The camera’s memory card contains 21 video clips of children, mostly boys, three photos and the recording of Pinto’s encounter with the teen who broke in and took the camera, the petition says.

About three weeks later, the boy went back to Pinto’s apartment to recover additional evidence, but he was seen by a neighbor going through a window and police caught him nearby, according to the petition.

It says the boy tried to explain that Pinto was a sexual predator but officers ignored him. Pinto arrived at the scene and told the officers he didn’t want the boy arrested, but he was also ignored. The boy was charged with burglary and concealing his identity, the petition says.

As the case went to juvenile court, the boy’s mother gave the memory card with videos and pictures to his attorney, Brooke Gamble, the petition says. It says that “upon information and belief,” Gamble shared Pinto’s recordings with a prosecutor — Assistant District Attorney Sarah Piltch — and the presiding judge, identified by DA Pacheco as District Judge Michael Vigil.

The petition says Gamble did not “raise the sexual abuse or the video as mitigating evidence” during the youth’s sentencing and that she and Piltch “failed to take the appropriate steps (to) report the sexual abuse.”

Pacheco said Wednesday night that the allegations about Piltch are false. “Sarah Piltch never saw anything, and she as far as she knows Judge Vigil never saw anything,” she said. Gamble couldn’t be reached for comment.

The petition says the boy’s mother also gave the memory card to a juvenile probation officer, who also didn’t report the abuse.

That allegation was denied Wednesday night by CYFD spokesman Enrique Knell, “We’ve looked into it, and there is no evidence he told juvenile probation about the tape” at that point, Knell said.

In January 2011, the boy received a sentence of probation on reduced charges, but “wounded” by Pinto’s assault and feeling “betrayed” by those in authority who hadn’t taken action, he began “selfmedicating” with alcohol and drugs and committed probation violations that resulted in detention or commitment to treatment centers, the petition says.

It was only in December that a juvenile probation officer “paid attention” to his allegations, got a copy of the Pinto video card from his mother and turned it over to Santa Fe police. That led to a search of Pinto’s house and Pinto’s arrest.

The petition maintains the boy’s continued detention is unconstitutional and “unconscionable” based on why he broke into Pinto’s apartment and because his other offenses resulted from him “being sexually abused, raped, and then ignored by the law enforcement and judicial officers to whom he turned for help.”