Former Las Vegas NM teacher arrested on charges of sex assault of minor

The state Department of Justice has charged a former science teacher at Memorial Middle School in Las Vegas, New Mexico, with sexually assaulting a female eighth grade student over a period of months in 2022.

Leonard Joey Romero, who no longer works at the school, is charged with five counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor by a school employee, child solicitation by electronic communication device (child 13-16), and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

In January 2023, the allegations of sex abuse came to light when a school employee overheard students discussing Romero having an inappropriate relationship with the victim.

The Las Vegas City Police Department began an investigation, and the victim came forward and disclosed the sexual abuse to a police detective, according to the NMDOJ.

A separate civil lawsuit filed against Romero and Las Vegas City Schools in October alleges Romero began “an open and blatant sexual relationship” with the girl and started sexually “grooming” her during school-sponsored trips of the Memorial Middle School Ski Club. Romero was a school representative for the club, and the student joined the club in January 2022.

Romero is alleged to have furnished the student with this personal cellphone and began to message her on Snapchat, escalating the sexual nature of his messages to the point that he allegedly “coerced” her into sending him nude photos of herself. He would allegedly tell her to delete all of their messages.

The civil lawsuit contends school officials knew or should have known that the girl, by then a freshman at Robertson High School, was leaving the high school campus to go to the Memorial Middle School campus to see him because of her excessive tardiness to class.

The lawsuit, which is still pending, alleges that news of Romero’s “very public exploits” with the girl began to circulate among students at the high school and the middle school. He was placed on leave after Las Vegas Schools received an anonymous report that he had “inappropriate contact with a minor.”

Romero, 28, was arrested on the charges at his home Friday and is jailed on a “no bond” hold for now at the San Miguel County Detention Center. State Attorney General Raul Torrez’s office has filed a motion seeking pretrial detention for Romero. No hearing date on the motion had been set as of Friday.

It wasn’t clear on Friday whether Romero has a defense attorney.