Jicarilla Apache police officer accused of punching, raping child relatives

A Jicarilla Apache police officer could spend the rest of her life in prison after allegations surfaced that she raped and physically abused underage relatives.

Lory Muniz, 48, of Dulce, is facing federal charges of aggravated sexual abuse and abandonment or abuse of a child. She is being held at the Cibola County Correctional Center. She faces up to life in prison if convicted. Her attorney was not available for comment.

The Jicarilla Apache Police Department placed Muniz on administrative leave pending the investigation, Police Chief Joseph Schake said in an April 17 social media post.

“I am deeply disappointed with the breach of trust that the charges imply,” he said. “The charges that were filed are not consistent with the values of the Jicarilla Police Department ... Anyone that will dishonor the badge and this noble profession will not have a place at the table with us and will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Muniz was previously charged with child abuse in 2023 in Jicarilla Apache Tribal Court, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico. The release states Muniz “had not been permitted to see the minors since that incident.”

Tribal prosecutors made a deal to give Muniz a deferred sentence, USAO spokesperson Tessa DuBerry told the Journal. She did not elaborate further and said the USAO does not have access to the case information.

Muniz returned to duty as a police officer on March 31, 2025, according to the news release. When asked by the Journal on Wednesday why Muniz returned to the force, Schake did not comment.

On April 4, a teenage boy told the FBI that Muniz abused him from when he was 7 to 11, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court of New Mexico. He told agents Muniz abused him multiple times, the complaint states.

One time, the boy told agents, she threw him against a wall and punched him in the face, agents said. Muniz would do this every few days, the boy told agents, according to the complaint.

The boy also told agents Muniz raped him multiple times between the ages of 6 and 12, the complaint states. If he did not do what she wanted, the boy told agents, she would slam him onto the bed and slap or punch him, agents said.

A 19-year-old woman, another relative, came forward days later and told agents Muniz physically abused her several times between 2010 and 2021, according to the complaint. When she was about 5, she told police, Muniz hit her and pushed her hard into a toilet bowl, resulting in a broken arm.

The boy and girl’s sister told agents she witnessed the abuse but was also abused herself by Muniz, according to the complaint. The sister told agents her sibling would take the blame for something because she was worried the sister would get hurt by Muniz.