LAS CRUCES – A man accused of kidnapping and then sexually abusing an Organ Mountain student was granted an unsecured loan after his attorney argued that discrepancies raised questions about the facts of the case.
Jorge Luis Claro Quezada, 45, was arrested on September 3 and sent to Doña Ana County Detention Center. He is charged with kidnapping with intent to commit sexual offenses, triple criminal sexual penetration of a minor and double criminal sexual contact of a minor.
Police said Quezada approached a student at Organ Mountain High School at around 12:40 p.m. on August 27 when she was at McDonald’s near the school. They said he offered to take the girl back to campus. She declined, but Quezada made a second offer and she accepted.
When she was in the car, police said Quezada sexually assaulted her and prevented her from getting out of the vehicle.
During the pre-trial detention hearing on Thursday, Detective Dianna Renteria of the Las Cruces Police Department provided the court with further details of the incident.
Renteria said the video from the surveillance camera at McDonalds shows Quezada and the alleged victim getting into Quezada’s car. She said the two got out of the car about 15 minutes later. The alleged victim then went back to the high school campus.
When Quezada’s defense attorney cross-examined Jose Coronado Renteria, he asked several questions about the schedule that Renteria had established and the schedule that was outlined in an LCPD press release.
Before Quezada was arrested, the LCPD issued a press release asking the public for help in finding Quezada. Information from the press release, some of which was found to be incorrect, was used as the basis for news articles and television news.
The press release said Quezada held the alleged victim against her will for about an hour. However, Renteria said the McDonald’s surveillance video showed Quezada and the alleged victim in Quezada’s vehicle for about 15 minutes.
“The press releases we send are not always correct because we don’t want to publish too much information,” said Renteria.
Dan Trujillo, LCPD public information officer and author of the press release, told Sun News that some information is excluded from press releases and Facebook posts in order to protect an individual or to protect the investigation.
However, Trujillo said the information in Quezada’s press release was in error.
“It was an unfortunate mistake, but it doesn’t take what supposedly happened,” Trujillo told Sun News.
During the hearing, Coronado said he asked about the press release because it highlighted a discrepancy between the alleged victim’s statements and the police officer’s account of what happened.
Coronado also cast doubts on the allegations, saying that Quezada’s car needed repairs during the incident. Coronado said Quezada stayed in the McDonald’s parking lot to continue working on his car after the alleged incident.
“You have to ask yourself why Mr Quezada, who has now committed a violent crime, is only casually working on his vehicle when he has reason to believe the police will be arriving?” Coronado said.
Third judge’s judge, Conrad Perea, eventually ruled that an unsecured loan would ensure Quezada goes to court and would not collect additional fees.
During an investigation in custody, prosecutors must prove that the defendant is dangerous in a case and that no conditions or dismissals can guarantee the safety of the community or certain members of the community.
Coronado said prosecutor Jason Galbirth has provided no evidence that Quezada knows the alleged victim or her family, or has had a history of violent behavior. According to court records, Quezada has never been charged with a violent crime.
“He has a good family behind him. He has a job. He has no mental health problems. He has no substance abuse problems. He is fully employed,” said Coronado.
Judge Perea determined, based on the evidence presented at the hearing, that Quezada was a threat. However, he said that prosecutors had failed to prove that the conditions of the release could not ensure the safety of the public.
Perea granted Quezada an unsecured loan of $ 25,000, which meant he would have to pay if a judge ruled that he had violated his release order. Perea also ruled that Quezada could not return to McDonald’s, where the alleged incident occurred.
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Justin Garcia is a public safety reporter for Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 575-541-5449 or on Twitter at @ Just516garc.
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