Two years of probation for groping, three years of probation for rape.
That appears to be the standard punishment for prison guards who sexually assault inmates at the state women’s prison in Cibola County.
New Mexico law, like those of most states, recognizes prisoners are legally incapable of consenting to sex with prison staff and calls for more severe penalties for offenders who rape someone over whom they have authority. But court records reveal guards who raped women under their supervision at Western New Mexico Correctional Facility near Grants in recent years received plea deals that didn’t require them to serve any jail time or register as sex offenders.
Several women are suing the state Corrections Department, alleging the agency’s “actions and inactions” have created an environment in which corrections officers are allowed to abuse their positions of authority unchecked, while inmates are punished and retaliated against for reporting guards’ abuse.
The New Mexican is not naming the women because they are victims of sexual assault.
Five former employees of the prison have pleaded guilty to committing sex crimes against women under their supervision at the facility since 2022. In four of the cases, the defendants pleaded guilty to rape. All five got probation as part of plea deals that didn’t include any enhanced punishment or acknowledgment of the fact their victims were inmates.
Local prosecutors say there are a lot of reasons for that.
“Justice does not always look the same for every case or for every victim. Sometimes justice means prison, sometimes it just means the abuse stops, and sometimes justice is a monetary resolution that is achieved through civil courts,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jessica Martinez wrote in an email.
Martinez said victims in all the cases were supportive of the pleas offered, but an attorney who represents three of the victims said that is not entirely true.
Corrections Department spokesperson Brittany Roembach declined to comment specifically on the individual cases, citing the pending litigation, but said the department continuously reviews security measures and is “always looking for opportunities to strengthen safety and accountability for everyone in our facilities.”
Probation, clean records
Defense attorney Chandler Blair represented four of the five defendants. He didn’t respond to a call seeking comment Friday.
Robert Smith, 42, told New Mexico State Police he developed “an attraction” to an inmate he later admitted he had raped in 2022. He said he began bringing gifts, including food and cigarettes, into the facility for her and her cellmates. He admitted having sex with her twice, once under a stairway out of the view of security cameras.
Smith was initially charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual penetration and one count of bringing contraband into a prison, a third-degree felony. He faced a potential 21 years in prison. But instead, he pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree sexual penetration in a deal that included three years of probation. He also was granted a conditional discharge, meaning he no longer would have a felony record after completing his probation.
The woman filed a lawsuit in 2023, alleging Smith used contraband to bribe her into performing sex acts and threatened to ensure she would lose her job in the facility if she did not comply. Ultimately, her lawsuit said, she was punished for her “purported ‘role’ “ in Smith’s misconduct by being fired from her prison job.
Martinez said in an interview the District Attorney’s Office agreed to the deal because the victim didn’t want to go to trial.
Meanwhile, Dale Clemons, 30, was charged with three counts of second-degree criminal sexual penetration in 2022 after cigarettes were found in the pod where his victim was housed. The woman told officers Clemons assaulted her three times and offered to bring her cigarettes after the first incident.
Clemons’ initial charges carried a potential penalty of 27 years in prison; he pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of third-degree criminal sexual penetration as part of a deal with prosecutors and also was granted a conditional discharge.
Owen Etsitty, 21, was charged with two counts of criminal sexual penetration in 2023 after an inmate told police he’d raped her in a bathroom. Etsitty, who claimed the woman told him she had “feelings” for him, initially faced 18 years in prison. But after pleading guilty to a single count of third-degree sexual penetration, he, too, was sentenced to three years of probation with a conditional discharge.
George Gonzales, 51 — who, according to his victim’s lawsuit, kept his corrections officer job even after disclosing he had faced sexual harassment accusations in a previous Corrections Department position — was charged initially with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual penetration and one count of bringing contraband into a prison, a third-degree felony.
His victim said Gonzales offered her drugs in exchange for sex in October 2023. The woman’s lawsuit says she felt she had no choice but to agree, resulting in failed drug tests, loss of good time, solitary confinement and “repeated sexual assaults/rape” by Gonzales. The abuse culminated in her hospitalization from a reaction to methamphetamine he provided, court records said.
The woman told state police Gonzales brought extra drugs for her to sell to other inmates. Gonzales kept all the profit, which she estimated to be about $2,500 per day, she said.
Initial charges exposed Gonzales to 39 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in 2024 to one count of third-degree criminal sexual penetration in exchange for three years of probation. Like the others, Gonzales was given a conditional discharge. His plea deal warns that if he violates his probation, he could be subject to jail time and sex offender registration.
Court records show he’s been accused of violating his probation several times. None of the enhanced penalties has been imposed.
Elijah Williams, 22, pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual contact in December, admitting to inappropriate contact with four inmates between January and March of 2025.
Elijah Williams
Courtesy New Mexico State Police
He was also charged with battery after being accused of grabbing one woman by the hair and putting her in a chokehold while trying to push her head toward his genitals. But that charge was dismissed as part of the plea deal Williams struck with state police, which calls for him to serve two years of probation.
Several of the women reported Williams touched them in areas outside the view of cameras. Two have since filed lawsuits against the state.
“Plea agreements are a normal part of the criminal justice process,” New Mexico State Police spokesperson Ricardo Breceda wrote in a recent email in reference to the plea.
DA explanations
Martinez said all the victims were “supportive” of the pleas. In fact, she wrote, their wishes to hold the prison financially accountable in civil suits played a significant role in how the state handled the criminal cases.
“The victims were able to use the guilty plea to advance their civil cases. We made sure to only accept guilty pleas, and not ‘no contest’ or ‘Alford’ pleas, which are not useable the same way as a guilty plea,” she wrote.
The women’s desires to avoid testifying also figured prominently, Martinez said.
“Every victim deserves to be believed, but all victims in all of our cases undergo credibility attacks,” she wrote. “For many victims, particularly those of any type of sexual assault, having to relive their abuse over and over through the criminal process is traumatic and many would prefer to avoid testifying and cross examination.”
It’s not unusual for prosecutors to offer plea deals to reduced charges to defendants with no criminal history, Martinez added.
Attorney Nicole Moss, who represents three women who have filed lawsuits after being sexually assaulted at the prison, disputed Martinez’s explanations.
Female inmates at Western New Mexico Correctional Facility near Grants.
New Mexico Correction Department Facebook page
“This sounds like classic victim blaming, especially in this context where the power dynamic between these men and these women is so extreme,” Moss said in an interview. “These women are completely victimized and vulnerable and have really no opportunity to consent because consent is not even an option.”
Moss provided emails between her and Deputy District Attorney J. Michael Thomas — who handled all of the pleas involving the District Attorney’s Office — showing her client expressly opposed a conditional discharge for Gonzales.
“While she understands the value in a negotiated agreement before trial, she also believes that a conviction to a sex offense should remain on his record permanently and that he is required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life,” Moss wrote in an email prior to the plea.
Thomas responded he still intended to extend the proposed plea but would let the court know of the woman’s opposition.
Moss also represents two of Williams’ four victims and said in an interview state police never contacted one of the women — who filed a lawsuit in April — prior to offering him a deal.
“She didn’t even know he’d been convicted until I told her, and she started crying and was upset at the result,” Moss said.
“I think that victims should always have the right to be heard, but that didn’t happen in a criminal case, and, unfortunately, the resolution is one that we didn’t feel is appropriate, so now she’s going to be pursuing some measure of justice through the civil matter,” Moss added.
Moss said the Corrections Department can and should do more to protect inmates from assault by guards, like fixing surveillance system “blind spots.”
“Everybody knows where those blind spots are,” she said.
Moss said she believes there are some “really good people” working at the agency.
“Unfortunately, it also seems like the controlled environment of the prison system also attracts a fairly large number of perpetrators who seek out these opportunities to be in positions of power over vulnerable women,” she said. “I think that the Corrections Department needs to do a better job of trying to screen those people out, and to supervise them.”
