Las Cruces man accused of molesting young family member

Justin Garcia, Las Cruces Sun-News
·2 min read
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A Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department vehicle is seen in this January 2019 file photo.

This article contains a discussion and description of sexual assault and sexual violence. If you or someone you know experienced sexual violence, you can call La Piñon's 24-Hour Crisis Hotline at 575-526-3437 or go to www.lapinon.org/contact

LAS CRUCES - Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man they say molested a child family member multiple times over the last three years.

Luis Angel Salomon, 26, was booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center on July 22. Salomon stands charged with three counts of criminal sexual contact of an unclothed minor.

According to an affidavit penned by Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Deputy Eduardo Flores, a 7-year-old girl told her mother that a male family member who lived in the house had molested her.

During a forensic interview at La Piñon, Flores wrote in the affidavit that the girl said Salomon molested her on three occasions. She told the interviewers that the first incident occurred when she was 4 years old. She added that another incident occurred when Salomon picked her up from elementary school.

The girl’s mother told Flores that she and her daughter moved into a home after the girl’s father died. She said that she regularly entrusted Salomon to babysit her daughter while she worked. In recent weeks, the girl began to confide in her mother about the assault, according to Flores.

According to statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Justice, children experience sexual abuse at a much higher rate than adults. About 90% of children who experience sexual assault in the U.S. know their abuser, according to a study conducted at the University of New Hamshire's Crimes against Children Research Center.

No more than 8 percent of sexual assault claims are fabricated, according to research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. According to the same research, most fabricated reports of sexual assaults are made by adults involved in custody disputes.

As of the publication of this article, Salomon remained in jail.

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Justin Garcia is a public safety reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Las Cruces man accused of molesting young family member