Filings detail Santa Fe High School students’ statements on sex incident
At least two Santa Fe High School male students told police they knew that a female classmate did not consent to let others secretly watch on a cellphone video call while she had consensual sex with three boys, according to court affidavits made public Wednesday.
Documents filed in state District Court say a detective collected web browser histories, text messages, images, video files, call logs and other internet-use data from the cellphones of the two boys, who were members of the Santa Fe High basketball team at the time of the incident.
No one has been charged in the case, which stems from the 14-year-old girl’s complaint in January to school officials that a sexually explicit photo or video recording of her may have circulated among students.
But police are investigating a potential charge of voyeurism involving a minor, a fourth-degree felony, according to Jan. 27 police reports and search warrant affidavits unsealed Wednesday. The charge involves an allegation of intentionally viewing, photographing, videotaping, filming or webcasting the intimate areas of a person without his or her knowledge or consent.
The police reports show that officers spoke with parents of six male students, at least five of whom were members of the basketball team, according to team rosters. The reports do not provide any details about officers’ conversations with the parents.
The school district confirmed in late
January that two members of the team had been suspended for the remainder of the season, but officials didn’t give a reason.
The New Mexican is not identifying any of the students involved in the case because they are all minors.
Santa Fe police on Wednesday declined to release the specific cellphone records seized as part of the search warrant because the case is still under investigation by the department’s Crimes Against Children Unit, a department spokesman said.
Citing a section of state public-records law known as the law enforcement exception, spokesman Greg Gurulé said the department would not release “evidence and other records that, if disclosed, would alert potential defendants to destroy evidence, coordinate stories or flee the jurisdiction.”
The case spotlights the challenges educators and police face as they try to monitor and control teens’ use of telecommunications technology, particularly when it comes to transmitting sexual content and violating laws governing the distribution of child pornography. In October, two high school students in Lubbock, Texas, were arrested after a video of them having sex with another student inside the school was distributed on social media.
Affidavits in the Santa Fe High case say the girl told Assistant Principal Kelly Rinaldi that she had agreed to have sex with three boys on Jan. 24 at the home of one of the students, and a photo or video of her having sex with one of the boys might have been shared with classmates through text messages or social media. According to police reports and court documents, the girl said she consented to have sex with the boys but did not consent to video or photos of the activity.
Court documents say at least two boys who didn’t have sex with the girl were at the house at the time. One of them hid his iPhone inside the room where the girl was, the affidavit says. The second boy told police he had received a FaceTime call from the hidden iPhone and saw the girl having sex with one of the boys. FaceTime is a video call feature on iPhones and other Apple devices.
One of the teens involved in the incident told police that the boy who received the FaceTime call took a screen shot of him having sex with the girl and sent him the photo in a text message, the affidavit says.
That boy said he deleted the text that contained the photo and told the other boy to delete the photo on his phone.
But another boy who had sex with the girl told police he was aware that at least one photo had been shared with other students, the document says.
The boy who hid his iPhone and made the video call told police that everyone involved in the incident except the girl was aware ahead of time that the sexual acts were going to be viewed in another room, according to the affidavit. The girl’s mother spoke to
The New Mexican in February, saying, “Clearly, some harm was done. We are working on healing.” She also said, “The school responded appropriately.”
On Wednesday, the woman declined to comment on the newly released information.
Santa Fe High Principal Carl Marano sent an email to school staff in late January saying he couldn’t provide information about the removal of basketball players from the team because of federal laws on student privacy.
“However, I can assure you that the incident did not happen on campus and please refrain from believing rumors or stories about the situation,” Marano wrote.