The New Mexico Military Institute is being sued for negligence, again, after a series of reported rapes.
The suit stems from a 2019 incident involving an unnamed 15-year-old female student who was told to “sleep it off” and reevaluate the situation later after she reported being raped. The lawsuit was pulled in 2019 after the original criminal case was dismissed on Nov. 8, 2019, “as it is in the best interest of justice,” the dismissal said.
The criminal case was refiled Oct. 13, 2020, and is ongoing. As that case proceeds, the law firm Arrazolo Law last week refiled the negligence suit seeking to expand the pool of litigants. The incident is part of a pattern of negligence, according to Arrazolo Law, which has created an outreach campaign asking other survivors to come forward with information as part of the new suit.
In 2020, NMMI investigated three cases of rape and three cases of statutory rape committed by cadets, according to an annual campus safety and security report from the school. In the past eight years, there have been 16 criminal rape offenses on campus with one prior incident ending in prison time for a former cadet, according to Gilbert Arrazolo, lawyer and owner of Arrazolo Law.
“This isn’t a nightclub or a private business,” he said. “This is a state-run institution that has obligations to the citizens of New Mexico. Let’s run a safe environment.”
NMMI is a public military school in Roswell that serves high school and college students. It enrolls roughly 1,000 students every year, and is the only state-supported military college in the western United States. Brig. Gen. Voris W. McBurnette is the current superintendent and was appointed on June 6.
In the case of the student who was told to sleep it off — the Journal isn’t identifying her because she was a minor at the time — the complaint lawsuit alleges that college-aged cadets David Johnson and Kiarion Freeman entered another cadet’s dorm room and raped her on Sept. 14, 2019.
Earlier that night, the victim was underage drinking at the NMMI football field with a friend. She returned to her dorm an hour later when she wasn’t feeling well and entered a friend’s room — who wasn’t present at the time — and lay on the floor to rest, according to the lawsuit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court.
That’s when Johnson and Freeman allegedly entered the dorm room and raped the victim, according to the lawsuit.
The victim returned to her dorm room and spoke with her roommate, who went with her to report the incident to an unnamed staff sergeant. The sergeant told her that because she had been drinking alcohol, she should “reconsider officially reporting the incident because she would get in trouble because she was underage. He advised her to sleep it off,” the lawsuit alleges.
The following day, the victim called her family and told them what happened. They advised her to go to a police station or infirmary. The victim decided to get checked by a medical professional. The student did not return to NMMI after going to the hospital and disenrolled from the school, according to Arrazolo.
The next day, NMMI principal Colonel Brick “called the (student’s) home to ask about enrollment and academics, but did not provide any information, resources, or other services related to the rape,” the lawsuit states.
Johnson and Freeman were criminally charged on Sept. 16, 2019. Both pleaded not guilty then and when charges were refiled a year later.
Johnson and Freeman are not the only defendants in the case. A Walgreens near the school, two Walgreens employees and two students who allegedly supplied the victim with alcohol are also included in the lawsuit.
NMMI did not respond to a request to comment on the lawsuit. Freeman and Johnson’s attorney chose not to comment.
Attorneys with Arrazolo Law also allege that videos of NMMI athletes sexually exploiting underage women circulated online in 2009. Though no criminal charges have been filed in this incident, it speaks to the pattern of negligence.
In addition, in 2016, former NMMI cadet Joshua Williams was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of more than 100 videos of underage sexual activity on his phone.
“The criminal complaint charged Williams with distribution, possession and attempted production of videos and images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” said a news release issued at the time from the United States Attorney’s Office.
It alleged that Williams committed these crimes in May 2015 in Roswell, when he was enrolled as a cadet.
“We see a pattern of a lack of adequate supervision,” Arrazolo said. “I think there’s a problem at the school and I think that needs to be remedied and the school needs to go through a very thorough investigation.”
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