Coach charged with sex crimes
Pecos basketball assistant arrested after accusations of sex with teen girls
A Pecos High School assistant boys basketball coach was arrested Tuesday on suspicion that he engaged in sexual acts with two female students in the past 14 months.
Dominick Baca, 29, was charged in San Miguel County Magistrate Court with three counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor by school personnel and two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor by school personnel.
According to an arrest warrant, Baca engaged in sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl in February 2017 and a 17-year-old girl from February to March of this year in his school office and at his home. Baca also allegedly sent lewd photographs to the students.
Baca has been an assistant coach at the school since 2015, helping guide the Panthers to Class 3A championships in 2017 and 2018. He was featured in a New Mexican article on Thanksgiving Day about how he and a Pecos boys basketball player had become roommates in 2015 after the death of the player’s grandfather.
At Pecos High School, Baca also has been coordinator of GEAR-UP, a program designed to increase the number of graduates who attend college.
Pecos Independent School Superintendent Fred Trujillo said Baca was placed on administrative leave more than two weeks ago and that the district has cooperated with the state police, which is in charge of the investigation.
Ira Harge Jr., Pecos’ head boys basketball coach, said he was not aware of any investigation involving Baca and deferred comment to Trujillo.
Baca did not return a telephone message left by The New Mexican, but he denied the allegations to a state police investigator, according to the arrest warrant.
State police said Baca was arrested about noon Tuesday at his Pecos residence. He was jailed at the San Miguel County Detention Center in Las Vegas, N.M., pending court arraignment.
Baca is a 2007 graduate of Pecos High School and played basketball at New Mexico Highlands University from 2010-14.
He voluntarily left the Pecos basketball program in December when the New Mexican Activities Association investigated his living arrangement with the player as a possible violation of the organization’s bylaws for “undue influence of a student.” The organization granted Baca a hardship waiver and he returned to the program in January.
This was not the first time state police investigated Baca. The warrant showed that the 14-year-old girl was interviewed on Feb. 23, 2017, about contact with Baca, but she said nothing occurred between the two. However, she talked to an investigator March 30 after learning that Baca was “sexually assaulting other students,” the warrant stated.
The 14-year-old girl told investigators that she met Baca through his position as the GEAR-UP coordinator and the two would exchange texts. The warrant stated Baca asked her if she wanted to meet after homecoming on Feb. 10, 2017. The girl met Baca in his car outside her house and Baca coerced her to perform oral sex after she declined to have intercourse with him, the warrant said.
The second encounter with the 14-year-old came two weeks later when Baca brought her to his house, the warrant said. They engaged in intercourse in his bedroom, according to the warrant, and she said Baca told her he was “probably going to go to hell for having sex with her.”
The warrant stated he then went through the girl’s phone to make sure she did not record the incident, text anyone about him or take pictures. After Baca dropped her off at a nearby business, the two never communicated again, according to the warrant.
On April 3, the investigator interviewed the 17-year-old girl after learning about a second potential victim, the warrant stated. In her statement, she said she talked to Baca over the phone and had inappropriate contact, including him sending her nude pictures of himself and enticing her to do the same, according to the warrant.
The 17-year-old told state police she met Baca in his office upon receiving Snapchat messages from him. That led to their first encounter Feb. 9, the warrant said, and the two started “making out” and he lifted her onto his desk before she pushed him off and left the room.
The second incident, according to the warrant, happened in midFebruary when the two started kissing in his office and Baca grabbed her breast over her clothes before the girl stopped him and left. In both cases, the warrant stated, Baca stepped out of his office to see if any people were around.
The girl said the two met at his house in mid-March, and the two had sex, according to the warrant.