Security guard charged with allegedly raping woman in New Mexico recovery program

A security guard who worked for a contractor at a state-run treatment facility is accused of repeatedly raping a woman last month.

Jose Rodriguez-Ortiz, 56, has been charged with six counts of criminal sexual penetration of an inmate. He was arrested and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday.

“It’s early in the case and we will need time to examine whatever evidence the state says they have against Mr. Rodriguez-Ortiz,” said Colin O’Neil, attorney for Rodriguez-Ortiz.

Rodriguez-Ortiz, employed by state contractor GEO Group, worked at Women’s Recovery Academy — a reentry treatment program run by the New Mexico Corrections Department. Inmates are required to complete the program or be considered in violation of probation and sent to jail.

In a statement, NMCD spokesperson Brittany Roembach stressed that Rodriguez-Ortiz was not a state employee.

“He was a GEO Group employee, vetted and hired by them, to staff the Women’s Recovery Academy. Upon learning about these serious allegations, our staff did the right thing and pulled his security clearance and alerted the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office,” she said.

Roembach said GEO Group is also contracted with the Men’s Recovery Academy in Los Lunas.

Officers were dispatched Sept. 8 to the Women’s Recovery Academy at 6000 Isleta SW, north of Pajarito, to speak to a woman who reported being raped by an employee while at the treatment facility, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

The woman — who was court-ordered to participate in the program for six months — told police that on Sept. 1, Rodriguez-Ortiz entered her room and attempted to force her to touch him sexually, the complaint states.

On Sept. 2, the woman told deputies she was on the phone when Rodriguez-Ortiz allegedly unzipped his pants and told her to “put it in your mouth,” the complaint states. The woman said she did what Rodriguez-Ortiz asked in order for him to leave her alone.

The woman told deputies that, later that night, Rodriguez-Ortiz lured her into an empty room and told her “I know you are probably sexually frustrated from being locked up and you probably need to get that urge fixed.” The woman said Rodriguez-Ortiz attempted to persuade her to do sexual things with him before he raped her, according to the complaint.

Deputies said the woman told them that, on Sept. 3, she told Rodriguez-Ortiz to stop and he told her “he was going to get her that night,” the complaint states. The woman said Rodriguez-Ortiz came into her room that night, took her to another room and sexually assaulted her.

The woman told deputies that she felt she had to do what Rodriguez-Ortiz said or face consequences.

“I’m in the eyes of the authority,” she told police. “I can go to jail for any write-up or mishap.”

Deputies spoke with the woman’s roommates, who told them Rodriguez-Ortiz regularly went into their room and tried to talk to them. The roommates said the woman spent many sleepless nights trying to hide from Rodriguez-Ortiz, the complaint states.

The roommates told deputies Rodriguez-Ortiz would pull on the woman’s covers and shake her bed to wake her up. Rodriguez-Ortiz and the woman would leave the room together and come back 20 to 30 minutes later, according to the complaint.

Deputies said they reviewed facility surveillance footage from Sept. 2 and saw Rodriguez-Ortiz rape the woman three separate times within the same day.

Prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday to keep Rodriguez-Ortiz in custody until trial.

“The defendant is a danger to the community because he used his position of power as a security monitor to target and prey on the vulnerability of a Women’s Recovery inmate,” prosecutors wrote in the motion.

In a statement, Roembach said the NMCD holds staff “to the highest standards with zero tolerance for any misconduct.”

“We expect those contractors that we work with to do the same,” she said. “We remain fully committed to continuing to work closely with our law enforcement partners in their investigation into this case.”