NMSU to pay $1 million, provide new training , to settle suit alleging 2022 campus rape

New Mexico State University has agreed to pay $1 million and implement sexual assault training for students under a settlement with a former student who alleged she was raped in her dorm room in 2022.

The settlement concludes a lawsuit filed last year alleging that an entering freshman at NMSU was raped after she and a group of friends attended an NMSU football game on Sept. 10, 2022.

The settlement also avoids a jury trial that had been scheduled in February in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, where the woman was living at the time the suit was filed.

Judge Denise Barela Shepherd dismissed the lawsuit earlier this month at the request of attorneys for NMSU and the plaintiffs, who are identified only as SA Survivor and her parent.

The woman’s attorneys said the intent of the lawsuit was to bring about changes at the Las Cruces university that better protect students from sexual attacks.

The settlement calls for NMSU to pay $1 million in damages “on account of personal injuries arising from an occurrence.”

NMSU also agreed to “implement mandatory consent and sexual assault training for all students beginning in the Fall of 2025” and continuing in subsequent years.

The woman’s attorneys said in a statement the woman’s demand for sexual abuse training for all students was a key goal of the lawsuit.

“Her courage in demanding this training is critically important to every current and future student at NMSU,” said Elicia Montoya, partner at McGinn, Montoya, Love, Curry & Sievers. “She has turned her painful and traumatizing experience into advocacy for a safer campus environment.”

NMSU spokeswoman Amanda Bradford said in a written response Monday that NMSU takes sexual assault allegations seriously and is committed to reducing the number of attacks on campus.

“Beginning with the fall 2025 semester, NMSU is enhancing its sexual assault prevention and awareness programming for students with a required annual online consent and sexual assault prevention course for all enrolled students,” Bradford said in the statement.

The online course, called RespectEdu for College, includes mandatory consent and sexual assault training for all students, Bradford said. Vector Solutions, the company that offers RespectEdu for College, lists on its website topics including defining consent, avoiding assumptions, managing rejection and being a good bystander.

Students who miss the deadline for completing the course may face a hold at registration until the requirement is met, Bradford said.

The $1 million settlement will be paid and managed by the New Mexico Risk Management Division, she said.

The attack

The lawsuit alleges that the victim was a freshman and had recently enrolled at NMSU at the time of the attack on Sept. 10-11, 2022. She and several friends had attended an NMSU football game on Sept. 10, 2022, and the alleged attacker was part of the group, it said.

After the group attended an off-campus party following the game, the attacker walked the woman back to her dorm room where the attack occurred over a period of about two hours, the suit said.

The attacker later told the woman that she should take Plan B, an emergency contraceptive, it said.

The suit identifies the attacker as Aizen Saucedo, 21, who was charged by NMSU police in October 2022 with three counts of criminal sexual penetration, court records show. Saucedo was an NMSU student at the time.

A jury acquitted Saucedo of all three charges in July 2024 following a two-day trial in 3nd Judicial District Court in Las Cruces, court records show. The woman reported the attack to NMSU police and later obtained a restraining order against Saucedo, the suit said.

The suit also alleges that despite the order of protection, Saucedo’s arrest and criminal charges, NMSU allowed him to remain in school, failed to enforce the protection order and turned down the woman’s request to change dorm rooms.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2024 in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, identified Saucedo and the NMSU Board of Regents as defendants. The plaintiffs are identified only as S.A. Survivor and a parent.

The suit alleged that NMSU had known of at least 22 reports of rape on campus from 2019 to April 2022.

“NMSU was a hot zone of criminal activity, including sexual assaults, well before September 2022,” the suit alleged.

The suit also claimed that NMSU had not implemented safety policies on campus, including the presence of security officers in and around student housing, training resident assistants for signs of intoxication and requiring nonresidents to sign in and out of residence halls.

Bradford said student safety is a high priority for the university.

“New Mexico State University takes allegations of this kind very seriously. The safety and well-being of all our students is our highest priority,” she said.

In addition to the mandatory training, NMSU “has long offered training, guidance, screenings, and resources related to sexual assault and violence prevention, bystander intervention, intimate partner violence, and other health and well-being topics through its Office of Health Promotion,” Bradford said in the statement.