A former maintenance worker at a women’s halfway house is accused of raping a woman multiple times in late 2021 and early 2022 in the South Valley facility.
Nathan Sena, 37, is charged with eight counts of criminal sexual penetration while in a position of authority in the repeated rape of a woman from Nov. 14, 2021 to Feb. 17, 2022.
It is unclear if Sena has an attorney.
During the alleged rapes, according to the Attorney General’s Office, Sena was employed by GEO Group Inc. at the New Mexico Women’s Recovery Academy treatment facility.
A pretrial detention motion filed Thursday said Sena was a maintenance worker at the facility but “because of staffing shortages, was also cloaked with a mantle of authority as a deputy officer.”
“Detention officers are charged with the safety and security of inmates, and no one in a position of authority has a right to sexually exploit those entrusted to their care,” Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a release.
An agent with Balderas’ office was approached by an attorney for the woman in early March, according to an investigative report filed in the pretrial detention motion. The woman told agents she was ordered to the inpatient facility, on Isleta near Pajarito SW, in August 2021 after a parole violation.
Agents said the woman told them there was a “mutual flirtation” between her and Sena before they had sex, legally considered rape, several times.
The woman said most of the incidents happened in the maintenance shack and Sena would give her gifts like cigarettes and quarters for the vending machine.
Agents said the woman told them when she came to the facility she was told to “save any evidence” in the event of sexual abuse, according to the report. The woman said she was able to save some of Sena’s bodily fluids during one of the encounters, and investigators matched it to Sena.
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September 23, 2023
