Second man charged in sexual assault of Las Vegas special education student
A second man has been arrested in connection with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old special education student who was used in group sex acts with several teen boys, court records show.
Jose Mejia-Henriquez, 18, was arrested Wednesday on charges that include sexual assault against a child younger than 16, kidnapping and production of child pornography, Las Vegas police arrest records show. He is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.
Leby Alas-Gomez, 39, was arrested Sunday and faces sexual assault and conspiracy charges involving the same victim, records show. At least three teen boys also have been arrested, but police have not identified them because they are minors. At least one of the boys is Alas-Gomez’s son, records show.
On Friday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Brigid Duffy said prosecutors have assessed the case and will seek to certify the juveniles as adults. If certified by a judge, they would be tried in the adult court system.
When deciding whether to certify juveniles as adults, prosecutors consider the severity of the crime and the child’s history, she said.
The arrest records detail at least three days in November in which a handful of teen boys took the girl to a nearby home after school and repeatedly used her in sex acts. The accusations came to light after a video depicting some of the acts began circulating around the girl’s high school in December. Records suggest the girl has the mental capacity of “a 7- or 8-year-old.”
Police recovered the 14-minute recording from the cellphone of one of the boys.
Mejia-Henriquez drove the three other teens and the victim from school to the house where the incidents took place, records show. He forced the girl to drink wine and raped her during the first incident, according to the records, which indicate he can be heard “coaching” the other boys in the video police recovered. The video was recorded during a later incident.
According to the arrest report, Mejia-Henriquez’s mother was dating Alas-Gomez at the time.
Police first tried to interview one of the boys on Jan. 17, but they terminated the interview after he asked for his father, Alas-Gomez, to be present. After that, the other boys made a pact not to talk to police. But one of the boys did talk to police on Jan. 25. That boy told police the sex acts were consensual, but he also said “he just wanted to come clean with what he did,” records show.
“It was clear Gomez had knowledge of what his sons and their friends were doing to (the girl) in his residence,” according to the arrest report for Alas-Gomez.
The victim told police he entered the room during one of the incidents and told the boys to “keep going.” The man then sexually assaulted her, records show.
The victim’s mother did not know of the November incidents but noted that her daughter began “acting strange” around that time. The mother told police the girl said she was staying late at school, records show.
Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.