Jail Guard Joey Montoya Charged with Raping Female Prisoner

An Española jail guard faces a rape charge after his alleged sexual assault of a female detainee.

Police also are investigating the role of another guard there, who was placed on administrative leave after the incident.

Joey Montoya, 21, was on duty at Española Police Department's holding facility Saturday when he left with a 20-year-old woman who was there for alcohol detox following a domestic dispute, according to police Lt. Christian Lopez.

Montoya offered the woman a ride home in his own vehicle and, along the way, he drove her to an area behind Española High School, where the two had sex, Lopez said.

Montoya admitted to the intercourse, but said it was consensual. Lopez said the woman told police that she went a long with the encounter out of intimidation.

According to a police statement of probable cause, the woman begrudgingly went along with it. "(She) stated that she never told Mr. Montoya no or to stop because she did not know where she was at and didn't want him to leave her there," the report states.

Montoya then dropped off the woman at the same home where she had been involved in the dispute that landed her in detox.

Before the woman got out of Montoya's truck, the officer "told her that she could not say anything because he would get into a lot of trouble," according to the report.

The woman then told her mother - with whom she had the earlier domestic dispute - and the mother called police.

Officers originally were dispatched to the woman's home at about 5 a.m. Saturday after receiving a call that she and her mother were involved in an altercation, Lopez said. The woman had left with her boyfriend before police arrived.

But the couple argued inside the boyfriend's vehicle and he ended up dropping her off on N.M. 106, on the south side of town. A Santa Clara Pueblo tribal officer in the area saw the woman walking alongside the road and contacted Española police.

An officer then came by and took the woman - who had been drinking - to the hold- ing facility to sober up.

"She was intoxicated on the side of the road and we couldn't take her home where she had been involved in the incident with her mother," Lopez said. "Our concern was her safety at that point."

While at the facility - which is typically used to temporarily hold people for detox or following their arrests - the woman was told to strip out of her clothes and put on a jail jumpsuit. However, she didn't stay in custody very long after Montoya allegedly offered her a ride home, which the woman accepted, Lopez said.

Montoya was arrested at his home that afternoon. He faces charges of criminal sexual penetration and intimidation of a witness. The language in the rape charge states that the woman was "confined in a correctional facility or jail when the perpetrator is in a position of authority over the inmate."

Because of Montoya's job, Lopez would not say where he was jailed. The lieutenant did say that Montoya is out on bond.

Another guard who was working there at the time - whom Lopez would not name because he has not been charged - has been put on leave and police are investigating his role from that day.

Officer Brandon Cameron Arrested for Domestic Violence

A North Augusta police officer has been fired after he was arrested for domestic violence.

North Augusta Public Safety Department suspended Brandon Cameron earlier this month.

After an internal investigation, the department decided to fire him.

He is accused of throwing his girlfriend on the ground when the two were fighting.

Cameron had been on the force for three years.
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