Rape case against APS teacher detailed

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque Public Schools middle school teacher has been charged with rape over accusations she had sex with one of her students, a 13-year-old boy, police said Wednesday night.

Kristy Sanchez-Trujillo, 33, was terminated Wednesday for employee misconduct, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta said during an evening news conference.

Sanchez-Trujillo taught 7th grade social studies at Jimmy Carter Middle School, and the boy was one of her students at the school, she said.

Albuquerque Police Department Officer Nadine Hamby later told KRQE News 13 Sanchez-Trujillo had been arrested and charged with rape.

"Miss Sanchez-Trujillo confided in another teacher that she was having an inappropriate relationship with a student," Hamby said. "That teacher thankfully came forward immediately, told police, and APS police contacted Albuquerque police."

 

According to the criminal complaint the pair had sex two times in the past week but never at school. Police said Trujillo told them she picked the boy up twice from his home, took him to the movies and then out to the petroglyphs, which she referred to as “our spot.” She told police that is where they had sex in the back seat of her car.

 

She told police that the sex was "loving and caring" and that the boy “was more experienced than any man she's had sex with.” Sanchez-Trujillo described him as “a 25-year-old in a 13-year-old's body.”

Parents at Jimmy Carter Middle school said it's sick but their bigger concern is what to tell their kids.

"A little bit confused, “ parent Lawrence Rambes said,” it's hard to explain that to your kid."

“You don't know what to say. How sick can people be? That would be like her own child,” Grandmother Joanna Salcido said.

Police said the two times Sanchez-Trujillo took the boy home it was well after midnight. The first time it was 5 in the morning. Another teacher reported the crimes to school officials after she said Sanchez-Trujillo confided in her.

The other teacher said Sanchez-Trujillo was worried after the boy's older brother saw them together at the movies.

 

According to APS, Sanchez-Trujillo's started working in the district as an educational assistant at Atrisco Elementary School in 1998 and, after taking two leaves of absence, took the teaching job at Jimmy Carter in December 2007.

Her online page at Facebook.com describes her as single with three children.

Sanchez-Trujillo's father is Cris Sanchez, a retired lieutenant with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department and one of the leading candidates to be appointed sheriff when current Sheriff Darren White moves to City Hall with the administration of Mayor-elect Richard Berry.

Sanchez declined comment on the charges against his daughter when contacted at home by News 13.

Sanchez-Trujillo spent the night in the Metropolitan Detention Center and bonded out Thursday.