BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Editor’s note: The content of this article may be disturbing to some readers.
Matthew Levi Trujillo, 25, of Jemez Springs was given a conditional discharge November 15 in First Judicial Court after he pleaded guilty to five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor consecutive to one another for a total jurisdiction of 7 1/2 years. All 7 1/2 years was suspended and Trujillo was placed on supervised probation for 5 years and has to do 8 hours of community service.
Judge Jason Lidyard pointed out that although Trujillo was receiving a conditional discharge, he would be pleading guilty to felony offences.
Trujillo was originally arrested in June by Los Alamos Police Department and charged with 10 counts of criminal sexual penetration in the second degree of a child 13-18 years old and 10 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Counce told the court that there were originally 20 charges in the case with 10 of them being criminal sexual penetration charges. She said the detective with LAPD charged the case under the theory that the sexual relationship was not consensual given the intoxication involved, but that after the charges were filed it was determined that the facts and evidence did not support the charges that any sexual charges were criminal. Trujillo’s attorney Hugh Dangler told the Court the substances provided to the victim were primarily cocaine and then alcohol.
Counce said that decision was not taken lightly. She noted that she is a longtime Special Victims Unit prosecutor and that she does not take the dismissal of all the CSP charges lightly. She said the decision was supported by the victim and is the correct action given the facts.
Judge Lidyard told Trujillo that there would be huge consequences if he did not comply with the sentence, that his conditional discharge would be taken from him, he would become a classified felon, he would have 7 1/2 years of incarceration hanging over his head and that he could be taken to the Departments of Corrections to serve whaever amount of time the judge thinks is appropriate. Judge Lidyard told Trujillo that in light of his age and the circumstances identified by Counce, which did not reveal any force or coercion he would grant the conditional discharge.