Former volunteer coach faces second child molestation trial

Carlos Juarez is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 28 for child molestation after his attorney failed to get the case dismissed because the prosecution did not comply with court orders for discovery.

A former volunteer coach for Gallup-McKinley County Schools, Juarez, 42, is facing two counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor under the age of 13.

His attorney Linda Hollander filed a motion Oct. 30 asking 11th Judicial District Court Judge Lyndy Bennett to dismiss the case or exclude any testimony from the alleged victim because of the failure of the McKinley County District Attorney's Office to provide certain documents the defense needed in a timely manner as ordered by the court.

At a previous hearing, Hollander told Bennett that failure to provide these documents was affecting her defense because she wanted to examine these documents before interviewing the accuser.

Without the documents, she said, her client's right to a fair trial "will be violated."

Bennett has scheduled a hearing on this motion for Nov. 17.

This is the second time Juarez has faced these kinds of charges in district court.

In a plea agreement reached with the 11th Judicial District Attorney's Office in 2016, Juarez pleaded no contest to the earlier charge and was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation.

Juarez's attorney in that case, Theresa Gomez, argued that the previous allegations were not true and if it had gone to trial, the charges would have been proven to be false.

"However, for purposes of this plea, it does contain sufficient facts to allow (my client) to enter this plea and the child's mental health and emotional health has been put in jeopardy," she said.

His probation was not affected by the current charge, since the criminal complaint filed a month after he was put on probation alleges that the new charge occurred six or seven years ago and stems from allegations that were first brought to the attention of the Gallup Police Department in April 2016.

The two cases have a number of similarities, the biggest being that Juarez was accused of molesting the children when they were asleep. In both cases, the accusers said the molestation occurred at regular intervals for a period ranging from several months to more than a year and then ceased.

In the latest case, the accuser said she was also molested by Juarez and was afraid to bring it up before because "she feared no one would believe her either," according to Juarez's arrest warrant.

She told counselors at a safe house interview that she "cannot sleep due to nightmares, flashbacks and depression" because of the alleged sexual abuse, which also occurred when she was between the ages of 6 and 7 when Juarez would come into her room when she was asleep and sexually assault her.

In the original case, the accuser said Juarez touched her inappropriately.

In the new case, the accuser said she was sexually assaulted on one occasion and was touched inappropriately on the second occasion.

Juarez is out on $10,000 cash-only bond.