An employee at an Arizona facility for unaccompanied migrant children was arrested after police say he molested and sexually abused a 14-year-old at the shelter.
Fernando Magaz Negrete is a 32-year-old employee at a Phoenix facility for Southwest Key Programs, an organization that oversees shelters for migrant children in California, Texas and Arizona. He was arrested Tuesday and charged with sexual abuse, aggravated assault and molestation of a child, according to KTAR.
Court documents allege that a roommate of the 14-year-old victim saw Negrete go into their bedroom and touch the genitals of the teen in late June, according to ABC15. He’s also accused of kissing the girl, and police say security footage shows him going in and out of the bedroom multiple times during the night.
Court records indicate that the surveillance footage doesn’t show what happened inside the room, AZ Central reported. A roommate of the teen reported the alleged abuse July 25, police say, and Negrete admitted to the sexual abuse.
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An email and phone call to a Southwest Key spokesperson was not immediately answered, according to AZ Central.
Negrete faces a bond of $150,000, according to KTAR, and he has a preliminary hearing on Aug. 10.
Back in June, Melania Trump visited the same facility that Negrete worked, as noted by ABC15.
The Nation reported that a 6-year-old, who was separated from her mother at the U.S. border, was sexually abused by another child in a Southwest Key facility located at Casa Glendale, Arizona.
Eight days after she was sexually abused, the girl was told to sign a form that told her to “maintain (her) distance from the other youth involved,” according to Southwest Key Programs documents obtained by The Nation.
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