GUILTY NM - Jesus Acosta-Contreras, Roberta Marquez-Chavez, child abuse, Albuquerque, 2011

[Rayemonde]

April 2015:

Neither prosecution nor defense believed Roberta Marquez-Chavez should spend time in prison for what amounted to neglect of her children, but her guilty plea to child abandonment and failing to report abuse exposed her to 12 years in custody.

The plea agreement left it up to the judge, and the judge imposed five years.

Photographs of the malnourished children, with distended bellies and black eyes, their bones showing, cuts all over their bodies, were seared into memory...

By the time of sentencing, both prosecution and defense were aware of a fuller picture, one that pegged Jesus Acosta, Marquez-Chavez’s then-boyfriend, as the probable perpetrator of violence not only against the children, but also against Marquez-Chavez. In fact, Marquez-Chavez was herself a longtime victim of domestic violence who had been raped at age 12 by her mother’s drug dealer and given birth to a child as a result of those assaults, according to court pleadings.

Three experts submitted written reports about Marquez-Chavez’s conditioning to violence and well-founded fear of Acosta, an alleged cartel member who fled and is believed to be living in Mexico.

http://www.abqjournal.com/577236/abqnewsseeker/woman-gets-5-years-in-jail.html

 

[Rayemonde]

Her mother, addicted to heroin, pimped the girl, according to court documents filed by her defense, and she was living in terror of a later partner, alleged to be a member of a drug cartel, when a neighbor called police in December 2011 and Marquez-Chavez was arrested. She was 18 years old.

Her third child was fathered by that partner, Jesus Contreras-Acosta, who is now a suspect believed to be living in Mexico...


Marquez-Chavez had been out of custody since September 2012 and working, had married and had given birth to another child...

Documents in the court file say Marquez-Chavez became pregnant from the first rape, and her mother insisted the father should be able to see his child. Marquez-Chavez was subsequently raped and again became pregnant by the same man, who was never prosecuted although she eventually confided in her father, who contacted police.

Marquez-Chavez was herself in CYFD custody and foster care for a brief period following the birth of her second child, according to the social worker’s report filed with the motion to reconsider.

Marquez-Chavez quit school when she was 14 to support her daughters, and worked at several fast-food restaurants.

http://www.abqjournal.com/546657/ab...ed+posts+-+default&utm_campaign=related+posts