Youth care worker chargedwith sexually abusing immigrant boys
PHOENIX » Federal authorities allege that a former youth care worker at a Phoenix-area facility for immigrant youths sexually abused eight teenage boys, one of several cases brought to light in recent weeks as thousands of immigrant children have been detained around the country.
Court documents show Levian Pacheco faces several charges stemming from incidents that allegedly took place between August 2016 and July 2017 at a Southwest Key facility in Mesa. The case was first reported by ProPublica.
Authorities charge that Pacheco performed sex acts on two boys and touched six others, all between ages 15 to 17 at the time. Court documents also state that Pa- checo is HIV-positive and that some of the teens opted to be tested for the virus.
Pacheco has pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations.
“We are looking forward to defending Mr. Pacheco in court,” attorney Benjamin Good said in an email to The Associated Press.
The revelations Thursday came one day after police said another worker at a different Southwest Key facility, Fernando Magaz Negrete, is suspected of molesting a 14-year- old immigrant girl.
Authorities say Magaz Negrete kissed and fondled the girl in her bedroom on June 27 in an encounter witnessed by the girl’s 16-yearold roommate. They said surveillance video shows Magaz Negrete, 32, approaching the bedroomsev- eral times throughout the night, though the bedroom itself was outside the camera’s view.
Southwest Key fired Magaz Negrete. It was not clear if he is represented by an attorney.
The Texas- based nonprofit organization, the largest contracted by the U. S. government to house immigrant children, has come under scrutiny for its practices at its various shelters around the Southwest.
The victims in the case against Pacheco were all unaccompanied minors and it’s not clear if they had been separated from their parents or traveled to the U. S. alone, although the government was not widely separating families at the time of the incidents.