Staff members were allowed to sexually abuse girls at a residential treatment center in Los Lunas for children with mental and behavioral health problems, a new lawsuit claims.
Sexual abuse of girls ages 8 to 14 occurred at the Sandhill Center beginning as early as 2006, the lawsuit alleges. It was filed on behalf of a former resident who says she was sexually assaulted over several months in 2008 and 2009 by Sergio Martinez, a staff member at the time.
While the lawsuit alleges at least three staff members were involved, only Martinez is named as a defendant in the complaint, along with the Sandhill Center, its management company and its founder.
The girl was 11 when she was admitted into the center, according to the complaint, filed late last month in the First Judicial District Court.
The complaint alleges administrators were informed about accusations against Martinez and other employees engaging in misconduct but continued to allow them to have contact with minors and even permitted some of them to take girls home from the center under contracts when its treatment beds were full.
“We’re trying to get compensation for this poor young woman whose life was altered severely by what happened to her when she was a child,” attorney Adam Flores said in an interview.
A man who identified himself as Sergio Martinez and confirmed he previously worked at the Sandhill Center, departing in April 2009, denied the allegations in a recent interview with The New Mexican.
“That’s crazy,” he said of the allegations, noting he had not been served with the lawsuit. “… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Linda Zimmerman of Zimmerman Consulting, the founder and director of the Sandhill Center who also is named as a defendant, said in a statement the company had not yet been served with the lawsuit.
“However, the agency denies any allegations of wrongdoing, and we look forward to the truth coming out through the legal process,” she wrote.
The lawsuit seeks damages related to the plaintiff’s emotional and physical pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, punitive damages and costs of medical and psychological treatment.
The Sandhill Center has faced several civil complaints, including a lawsuit in 2024 accusing it of excessive physical restraint, food restrictions and seclusion for a 9-year-old boy during his stay there in 2022.
The Oregon operator of Sandhill, Wilderness Training and Consulting LLC, which does business as Family Help and Wellness, has faced multiple lawsuits across the country over allegations of abuse of children in its facilities.
Wilderness Training and Consulting did not respond to a request for comment.
The New Mexico lawsuit alleges the Sandhill Center allowed Martinez to take at least three girls to his home, despite rumors he had touched children inappropriately at the facility. A 14-year-old girl he had taken to his home became pregnant, and another girl engaged in self-harm amid sustained sexual abuse by Martinez, the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint alleges the plaintiff began experiencing sexual abuse around Christmas 2008, about six months after she arrived at the facility. Many of the alleged assaults took place in a neurofeedback room, according to the lawsuit, and the abuse continued into spring 2009.
Martinez left the facility that April, stating he was going through a divorce, the suit states.
“Defendants owed a duty to Plaintiff to provide a safe environment for treatment and education, free from sexual abuse,” the lawsuit states, yet they breached that duty by “failing to properly screen, hire, train, monitor, supervise, and discipline subordinate employees, including Defendant Martinez, who preyed on young girls in the facility.”