How Could You? Hall of Shame-Sevedeo Lujan Updated

Five other females, who are now adults, have come forward during the course of the investigation to say they also were sexually assaulted, according to Santa Fe Police Department Sgt. Andrea Dobyns. Dobyns said police are trying to determine if there are other possible victims, given the fact that Lujan worked extensively with children over the past 30 years.

“This is a very big case and we do expect it’s going to get bigger,” Dobyns said.

Lujan is being held at the Santa Fe County jail in lieu of a $100,000 cash-only bond on two charges charge of criminal sexual penetration of a minor (one a first-degree felony and the other a second-degree felony) and a third-degree felony charge of criminal sexual contact with a minor in connection with his alleged victimization of the 11-year-old and another female, now an adult, who claims he abused her sexually over a number of years when she was between the ages of 6 and 13.

Dobyns said New Mexico State Police are investigating the complaint of a third victim — who is now 20 years old — because the alleged abuse in that case took place in San Miguel County. Dobyns said three other females who have also alleged that Lujan abused them have not yet been interviewed.

Dobyns said Lujan confirmed to police when he was arrested at his Santa Fe home Thursday that he had committed the alleged acts for which he is currently incarcerated.

Children Youth and Families Department spokesman Henry Varela confirmed Monday that Lujan was licensed as a foster parent for a one-year period from 2004 to 2005, and fostered six children during that year. Varela said he couldn’t provide the ages or sex of those foster children, or provide any information about whether those children had reported any sexual abuse.

Varela said the department does criminal background checks at the federal, state and local level when interviewing prospective foster parents, and nothing in Lujan’s record at the time indicated that Lujan should not be a foster parent.

According to online court records, Lujan has been charged twice with drunken driving, once in 1997 and once in 2012.

Dobyns said none of the alleged victims Lujan is accused of abusing were his foster children, but she said one of the children Lujan fostered did report being sexually abused by someone else — “not by him” — while living with Lujan, who was married at the time he was serving as a foster parent.

According to police, Lujan coached a youth football league in Pecos — where he used to live — and youth basketball in Santa Fe.

Ruben Lovato, president of the Santa Fe Young American Football League, said Lujan coached in Pecos about a decade ago. Newspaper accounts list Lujan as the coach for the Pecos Texans as recently as 2006. But Lovato said the Pecos league is no longer affiliated with the Santa Fe group and Lovato said he “hardly” remembers Lujan.”

Lujan, who has denied the accusations, did not take the stand; nor did his attorney, Santiago Juarez, present any witnesses in the case.

The alleged victim told jurors that in 2012, when she was 10, Lujan, 54, came to her house while her mother was out and her older and younger sisters were sleeping, and that he rubbed her and digitally penetrated her more than once.

She said she was wearing a yellow dress with sunflowers on it when she asked Lujan to scratch her back. She said he started doing as she asked, but then his hand moved lower and lower, until he was “tickling” her behind. She said he eventually slipped his hand inside her clothing and violated her, despite her repeated attempts to close her thighs.

The girl testified that “it hurt,” and that “it doesn’t seem to be tickling when you are touching somebody in a certain spot.”

She said she didn’t tell anyone until a year later, when her father pressed her about why she’d been so sad and withdrawn for the previous six months.

The only time jurors heard Lujan address the accusations was when prosecutors showed a video of him being interviewed by a Santa Fe Police Department detective in 2013. In the video, Lujan initially denies having touched the child inappropriately at all, saying he was only having fun with her and never got aroused when he was around her or her sisters.

But later in the interview, in response to rapid-fire questions and suggestions from Sgt. Judah Montaño, Lujan appears to agree that perhaps he became aroused by inadvertently touching the girl, but that his morals made him stop before he went as far as having intercourse with her.

“Did something inside of you say, ‘I want to have sex with [the child]?’ ” Montaño asks.

“It could have, yes,” Lujan replies.

In closing statements to the jury, Juarez focused on the lack of physical evidence in the case and the state’s burden to prove Lujan’s guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt,” noting that the exact date of the alleged incident is unclear, that the girl didn’t say anything about Lujan threatening her or telling her to keep the episode secret, and that instead of being defensive in his interview, Lujan stuck up for the child, saying she had no reason to lie.

“He said he never intended to touch her in a bad way,”Juarez said. “He didn’t say, ‘she’s a liar, she’s a tart, she seduced me.’ ”

Juarez warned the jurors against making a decision based on sympathy or prejudice, directing them to follow the law in presuming his client is innocent unless the state presented enough evidence to prove him guilty.

Assistant District Attorney Susan Stinson told the jury that many of the issues Juarez raised — such as the fact that the child hadn’t told a doctor or school counselor about the incident — were irrelevant. She told the jurors they should focus on whom they find credible.

“To find the defendant not guilty,” she said, “you would have to consider [the child] a liar. There is no compromise on that. She would have to be a cold, calculating, deliberate, 11-year-old liar when she told her father, a 13-year-old liar when she sat here today.”

Before leaving for the evening, the jury asked to view the video again and asked if there was a written transcript of the interview. None was admitted as evidence during the trial. The jurors also asked for the legal definition of “intent.”

The jury was expected to resume deliberations at 8:3o a.m. Wednesday.

Police have said Lujan coached in a youth football league in Pecos — where he used to live — and youth basketball in Santa Fe. A state Children, Youth and Families Department spokesman has said that Lujan was licensed as a foster parent for a one-year period from 2004 to 2005, and fostered six children during that year.”

Girl takes stand in child rape case against former coach, foster parent[Sante Fe New Mexican 6/24/15 by Phaedra Haywood]