Therapist convicted of abusing boys in front of parents in New Mexico gets prison

An occupational therapist is going to prison after being convicted of sexually abusing young boys in their homes, New Mexico officials said.

In May 2024, Clovis officers got reports of sexual abuse by parents who’s kids were “patients” of Jared Cordum, an occupational therapist, McClatchy News reported.

The reports came from a school therapist at a local elementary school after a student’s foster parent told them Cordum had come to the home for an appointment and inserted something into the child’s rectum, according to a July 2024 news release by the state’s Department of Justice.

The appointments were described by parents as “odd” and “uncomfortable,” officials said.

Other parents, some even being in the room during the abuse, described the appointments as “bizarre and sexual in nature,” according to a Sept. 15 news release by the Department of Justice.

Cordum was recommended to parents by local day care centers and pediatricians, but officers said his “actions clearly violated the standard of care for occupational therapy” when he’d have them remove their swim trunks during bathing and showering routines, prosecutors said.

In June, Cordum pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact of a minor, manufacturing a visual medium of sexual exploitation of children and voyeurism, officials said.

“Cordum is being held accountable for his despicable actions against vulnerable children and their families,” Attorney General Raul Torrez said in the release. “Cordum abused his position as a licensed occupational therapist to gain access to these children, and this lengthy prison sentence reflects both the severity of his crimes and the lasting impacts of those violations of trust.”

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Clovis is about a 220-mile drive southeast from Albuquerque.