SF sting operation leads to arrest of ‘shaman’

Store owner accused of assault during ‘healing’

SANTA FE — A self-described shaman’s healing rituals came to an end when he grabbed a plainclothes cop and tried to unzip her jeans during an undercover operation on Tuesday, a police report says.

Ricardo Perzábal-Ibanez is now a suspected sexual molester after the sting operation at the small curio shop he and his wife operate in downtown Santa Fe.

Perzábal-Ibanez, 60, on Tuesday was charged with two misdemeanors: criminal sexual contact and attempt to commit fourth-degree felony criminal sexual contact. He has since been released from the Santa Fe county jail on $2,500 bail.

According to a criminal complaint, Santa Fe police officer Jacqueline Rowell used the word “plaza” to alert a team of officers listening in on her interaction with PerzábalIbanez that he had committed a crime against her at Mexican Curios. The store is in the Santa Fe Village shopping mall in the 200 block of Don Gaspar Avenue, about two blocks from the city’s historic Plaza.

The sting operation came after three women had reported incidents to police, including one a week earlier.

In at least two of those cases, women reported paying Perzábal-Ibanez for performing his “healing” rituals before they left, despite their allegations of improper groping.

According to police reports, shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday, officer Rowell began browsing in the store and was approached by Perzábal-Ibanez, who had her try on a bracelet.

He told her he could tell she had a “good energy” and asked her if she knew anything about chakras, energy centers in the body that are sometimes part of meditation or yoga.

He then allegedly led her to a back room, and had her close her eyes and hold out

her hands. While whispering a mantra and saying things relating to Mother Earth, according to the complaint, he began rubbing smooth rocks on her hands and brushed her palms with a feather.

Later, he allegedly forcefully grabbed her rear end, leaned into her and went after the jeans zipper, according to the complaint. That’s when Rowell alerted her fellow officers by saying “plaza,” and they swooped in.

“Officer Rowell said she thought the male was going to unclothe her and was frightened at that point. Officer Rowell said she was extremely disturbed by the male’s actions and was scared he was going to try to penetrate her once he unzipped her pants,” the complaint says.

The complaint details three previous reports of incidents involving Perzábal-Ibanez, the first allegedly occurring in August 2017.

A woman reported that a man working at the shop and matching Perzábal-Ibanez’s description portrayed himself as a shaman and allegedly performed acts similar to those described by Rowell. She began crying and began to leave the store, but “he insisted she owed him money. … He told her he charged $20.00 to her credit card and she left the store,” the complaint says.

She told an officer that she didn’t want to pursue charges but wanted police to be aware of the incident.

In July, another woman went to the store, apparently seeking the services of a healer. A man matching Perzábal-Ibanez’s description performed a similar ritual on her, and it made her feel uncomfortable. When a customer walked in, the so-called shaman left the room, giving the woman an opportunity to send a text message to her husband: “Almost done come save me.” When her husband showed up, she said she had to leave and did, but only after she paid the healer $100.

Another report came on Sept. 11, one week before the sting operation. A woman said that with her eyes closed and her head tilted back, the man at the shop grabbed her hands and began rubbing them on what she believed were his private parts. She opened her eyes and her suspicions were confirmed.

The woman told police she was “tricked” and was “in shock” after the incident. But after she had time to reflect and discuss the incident with her mother, the woman decided not to pursue charges, but reported it to police “to prevent the male from violating other females in the future.”

Efforts to reach Perzábal-Ibanez and his wife, Cynthia Kiecker, were unsuccessful.

According to various news reports, the couple were accused of murdering a 16-year-old girl in Mexico in 2003. They had been held in jail in the city of Chihuahua for 18 months before a judge dismissed the charges.

Their case was featured in “Paradise Lost,” a documentary-style television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2008.