Santo Niño principal, three others charged with obstructing child abuse report
Jun. 28—Santo Niño Regional Catholic School Principal Robin Chavez, who faced calls for her ouster by parents over her handling of a sexual abuse allegation against a former employee in 2021, now faces a misdemeanor accusing her of obstructing a report of child abuse or neglect.
Three others are charged with the same count: school employee Maida Esquibel, Archdiocese of Santa Fe Superintendent Susan Murphy and Annette Klimka, the archdiocese's victim assistance and safe environment coordinator.
New Mexico State Police initially filed the charges, punishable by up to 364 days in jail, in March in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court. A report said police suspect the women knew about an alleged April 2021 incident involving former school health aide Robert Apodaca and a 9-year-old boy but failed to report it to law enforcement or state child protective services authorities. Chavez said she placed placed Apodaca on leave following the incident and he resigned shortly after.
The District Attorney's Office dismissed the charges in Magistrate Court late last month, court records show, and refiled them Monday in state District Court.
Misdemeanors are usually prosecuted in the lower court, but District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in a statement Tuesday she had moved the cases to District Court because she wanted to prosecute them in a court of record.
Officials from the local Catholic school and the archdiocese did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
A state police report on the investigation into Apodaca's conduct at Santo Niño became public in September, months after he was charged in an unrelated case with molesting a boy at Gonzales Community School. This spurred outrage among some Santo Niño parents, who said Chavez had not informed them about the criminal investigation into the health aide in April 2021 or even after Apodaca's arrest in July 2021.
He has since been charged with molesting the Santo Niño boy, as well as another child and teen. He is being held without bond at the Santa Fe County jail while awaiting trial in the cases.
His attorney did not return a call seeking comment.
Chavez's attorney, Dan Cron, called the charge against his client "a wrongheaded prosecution" in an interview Tuesday. He said the principal is innocent and he intends to file a motion to dismiss her case.
"What was reported to her was that a child sat on [Apodaca's] lap in the presence of other children," Cron said. "No allegation was reported to [Chavez] that any sexual contact or child abuse had occurred. While this was against school policy, the report did not constitute a crime, or she would have reported it immediately."
The principal immediately put Apodaca on leave, Cron said, and the health aide resigned before the school could go through the process of firing him.
Tom Clark, an attorney for Murphy, said he looks forward to defending her against the charge and is certain she will be vindicated.
Klimka's attorney, Todd Wertheim, declined to comment.
Esquibel's attorney, Kitren Fischer, wrote in an email: "Ms. Esquibel witnessed a child sitting on the lap of Mr. Apodaca late one afternoon. Ms. Esquibel did not witness any abuse, but what she saw still struck her as odd. She reported it to her supervisor the next business day. Ms. Esquibel never failed to report child abuse, nor did she obstruct any investigation into child abuse."
That conflicts with a statement of probable cause filed by state police Officer Eric Jackson, who said Esquibel reported the April 23, 2021, incident three days later — April 26.
Jackson's report said he went to the child's home April 28 in response to a woman's report of possible sexual contact of a minor. He interviewed the mother of the Santo Niño boy, who said Chavez had told her that day about Esquibel's concerns regarding the April 23 incident, in which she had walked into a dark room where several children were watching a movie and saw the boy sitting on Apodaca's lap.
The officer then went to the school and spoke with Chavez, who told him Esquibel had reported the incident April 26, he wrote in his report. Chavez contacted Murphy, who told her to talk to Klimka about the incident. Neither of the woman had contacted law enforcement, he wrote.
"Chavez said when she talked to Murphy ... Murphy said to wait because the situation didn't rise to the level of reporting to law enforcement or New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department," the officer wrote.
He added, "Chavez said she never reported the incident to law enforcement ... because she was 'nervous' and wanted the Archdiocese to help her make the report."
The boy said in a forensic interviewer April 29 that Apodaca would give him "lollypops" and rub and hug him in ways that made him feel uncomfortable, according to the statement of probable cause.
The officer wrote he interviewed Klimka and Murphy in October. Klimka said Murphy had told her about the incident and she and Chavez had decided Klimka would investigate further before contacting law enforcement.
"[Klimka] said it was 'reasonable' for a child to sit on a school employee's lap because there were other children around," the officer reported. But, he added, she said it was "a lack of judgment" on their part not to contact law enforcement immediately.
Murphy told Jackson she didn't recall telling Chavez the incident didn't warrant reporting, Jackson wrote.
Upon reviewing the contents of Chavez's iPad in January, however, the officer wrote, he discovered confirmation Murphy told Chavez on April 28 the incident did not sound severe enough to report.
He also found a note in which Klimka said she didn't think it was a child endangerment issue, his report said.
"Based off the evidence collected from the iPad, it proves Klimka, Chavez and Murphy were untruthful about making the decision not to report," the officer wrote.
"Had [the boy's] mother not contacted law enforcement herself," he added, "the incident would have remained undocumented and the sexual abuse allegations would not have been investigated further."
