ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – KRQE News 13 has learned a state worker was arrested for kissing a patient at a center for mentally ill teen criminals. Investigators found that state worker, Amber Lucero, 35, was having an ongoing relationship with Nehemiah Griego, 19, who murdered his parents and three of his siblings.
Lucero is a psych tech the Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center, an in-patient facility for boys 13 to 17-years-old. Her job is to make sure teens are following their treatment and doing what they’re supposed to do, but police say she was busy falling in love with a teen killer.
Nehemiah Griego’s family learned of the relationship and reported it. When officers questioned Griego, the now 19-year-old admitted he and Lucero would take walks and find secret spots away from the cameras to hold hands, kiss and touch each other over their clothing.
Police say Lucero told them she loves him.
Tuesday, Lucero was in court where she was charged with criminal sexual contact of a minor.
The judge released her but not before informing her that she is not to have any contact with Nehemiah Griego saying, “Ms. Lucero you are going to be released on your own. You can’t go back to this place either. I know you work there but you can’t go back to this place. (You) can’t have any contact with the alleged victim.”
This isn’t the first female state worker accused of having a relationship with a teen patient at Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center.
Back in February, On Special Assignment reporter Kim Holland told you about another psych tech that was investigated for having a sexual relationship with a teen. She resigned.
Now Griego is back at the state’s juvenile jail where he will stay until he’s 21. Greigo is serving his sentence for shooting and killing his parents and three younger siblings one by one in the middle of the night at their South Valley home when he was 14.
Prosecutors wanted him sentenced to life, but a judge ruled he should be sentenced as a juvenile.
The state has suspended Amber Lucero with pay.
