Girl, 12, testifies in sexual abuse trial of former second-grade APS teacher

Jurors heard testimony Tuesday from a 12-year-old girl who alleged that her former second-grade teacher sexually abused her at an Albuquerque elementary school.

Danny Aldaz, 47, a former Albuquerque Public School teacher, faces a total of 32 felony counts for allegedly abusing five girls from 2013 to 2019.

Aldaz is on trial this week on five felonies pertaining to one of the girls, who was 7 years old when Aldaz allegedly abused her in her classroom at Valle Vista Elementary School.

Aldaz is scheduled to face five trials through February — one for each of the alleged victims, prosecutor Rebekah Reyes said.

In this trial, Aldaz faces two counts of criminal sexual penetration, two counts of criminal sexual contact, and one count of bribery of a witness, all related to a child under 13. The trial is scheduled through Wednesday before 2nd Judicial District Judge Joseph Montano.

Aldaz’s attorney, Alexandra Jones, told jurors that prosecutors will offer no physical evidence or eyewitness testimony supporting the allegations.

“Inconsistencies” in the girl’s account raise questions about the truthfulness of her accusations, Jones said in opening statements.

“This case is ultimately going to come down to whether (the girl’s) version of events makes sense,” she said.

Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman said in opening statements that the prosecution will show that Aldaz ordered the girl into a closet where he repeatedly abused her. Aldaz also is charged with one count of bribery for warning the girl not to tell anyone about the attacks, he said.

“We will provide you with more, more than enough evidence to convict (Aldaz) of these despicable crimes,” Bregman told jurors.

“Instead of being with her classmates when she was in second grade during class, (the girl) will tell you what the defendant did when he ordered her into the closet,” he said.

The girl described the alleged abuse in a soft voice that at times was difficult to hear in the courtroom.

Aldaz listened attentively but showed little reaction as the girl testified that Aldaz regularly told her to enter a supply closet in her second-grade classroom where he would “put his hands down my pants” and touched her “private area.”

Another time, Aldaz forced her to touch his genitals, she told jurors.

All the incidents allegedly occurred between August 2018 and February 2019.

At the time, the girl told only a friend and an older cousin about the abuse, the girl testified. Much later, the girl also told her mother at the prompting of her cousin, she said.

Jones, Aldaz’s attorney, told jurors that the girl waited nearly three years before she “suddenly made a disclosure that Mr. Aldaz touched her inappropriately.”

Aldaz had the girl in his class only for half a day, yet he supposedly was able to abuse her “every single day” without detection, despite frequent “unannounced” appearances in the classroom by the principal and other staff, Jones said.

Aldaz began as a substitute teacher in 2004, working at Edward Gonzales Elementary School and Helen Cordero Elementary School. He also taught children at Blissful Spirits yoga studio beginning in 2015.

He was teaching at Valle Vista Elementary School when the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office began investigating him in January 2020, and subsequently fired by APS.