The man authorities say trafficked his a 7-year-old daughter is being held in jail without bond.
Her mother, arrested late Thursday night, will face a judge another day. Meanwhile, the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) is answering why it didn’t step in earlier.
“I think we can look at policies and procedures and what needs to change overall from a systems perspective,” CYFD Cabinet Secretary Monique Jacobson said. “When I look at our interactions with this family, I don’t think we did enough.”
She said CYFD needs to make major changes, admitting it could have done more to help protect the 7-year-old Albuquerque girl.
The girl’s father, James Stewart, is accused of trafficking her, and her mother, Teri Sanchez, is suspected of letting it happen.
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Last November, a teacher reported the girl showing up to school smelling of urine and found dried blood in her underwear believed to be from a sexual assault.
That was reported to APD. They performed a welfare check with CYFD at the family’s home at the Ambassador Inn the next day.
Staff said there was “no concern of abuse” that would allow them to take the girl into CYFD protection.
Meanwhile, Jacobson applauds APS for doing its part in getting help for the little girl.
“They continued to reach out, they were specific with regards to their concerns and did everything that we would’ve asked of them in this case,” she said.
It was a Lew Wallace Elementary School nurse who recently reported that she believed the homeless student was a victim of human trafficking.
Special agents say the 7-year-old’s father forced the girl to dress up and fondle adults in exchange for drugs.
“There are a lot of things that play into all of these cases but when I look at this one, they all feel like excuses to me and I think there is no excuse to what happened to this little girl,” Jacobson said.
According to the criminal complaint, teachers and staff told investigators the girl made strange comments like, “mom and I hustle.”
It says Sanchez’s mother told investigators Sanchez “suffers from diminished mental capacity.”
The girl told them her mother likes to get drunk on Fireball and that she was required to put on mascara, makeup, high-heels, and wear a dress in order to accompany her mother to “secret parties,” or strip clubs.
The 7-year-old girl also told investigators with the AG’s office that her mom forced her to beg on the streets alone and her dad had her pick-pocketing wallets from men.
“It’s tragic and disheartening to hear these kinds of incidences are happening in our community,” APS Homeless Liaison Patrick Scott said.
APS is letting people know about its outreach efforts for its more than 3,500 homeless students.
“All of us as APS – employees go through a training in which we are reviewing signs of abuse and neglect and understand that we’re mandated reporters,” he said. Each district employee has to go through two hours of annual online training to help them identify possible abuse or neglect.
While APS said it can’t talk about this specific case, they say the fact that the 7-year-old hadn’t been at school since the end of March would have been a red flag for the school, which is required to make follow-up calls and a home visit.
