A 13-year-old girl was repeatedly sexually assaulted over several days during a stay at an Albuquerque youth shelter, where staff then failed to provide treatment or otherwise address the incident, a lawsuit filed last month in First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe alleges.
The lawsuit, filed July 21, alleges staff members at nonprofit A New Day Inc.’s Safe Home shelter failed to prevent the incident, and then made efforts to cover it up. It also accuses the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department of failing to safeguard the teenager and of effectively permitting the facility’s staff to minimize the attacks.
“The whole chain of decision-making here … it’s running this place really badly, it’s ignoring known risks, and then when they realize that they’ve really messed this up and that they’re in trouble, it’s instead of owning the mistake, they go right into, ‘OK, we have to keep people from hearing about this, so we can we can keep the facility open,’ ” said plaintiff’s attorney Benjamin Gubernick.
A New Day Inc. did not respond to an emailed request for comment. CYFD spokesperson Jake Thompson declined to comment on the lawsuit, noting the agency would address the allegations in court.
He said New Day was placed on corrective action plans in 2024 and 2025, with the first being a result of regulatory issues with the facility’s maintenance, staff orientation and documentation of staff files and client property, among other things. The second was related to untimely reporting of incidents. Both corrective action plans were closed in about two weeks, Thompson wrote.
CYFD has continually faced criticism over its use of larger facilities to house foster children, with people expressing concerns that the facilities ultimately lead to further harm.
“They have decided apparently to prioritize maintaining the availability of placements over whether those placements are remotely adequate,” Gubernick said.
Thompson said CYFD’s first priority is to place children in family-based or other long-term settings, and that shelters like New Day’s are not the agency’s first choice to place children — the state only uses them when long-term options are not immediately available.
“CYFD continues to work to expand placement options for children and youth, particularly those with complex needs, so they can transition to the most appropriate setting as quickly as possible,” he wrote.
The lawsuit, filed by the girl’s attorney, seeks compensatory and punitive damages based on the girl’s severe emotional distress, psychological trauma, pain and suffering and other issues. It also seeks a number of other court costs.
The 13-year-old, who is identified only by her initials in the lawsuit, was in state custody and was staying at the New Day shelter with her sister in June 2025.
While she was there, an older boy groomed her, which the facility’s staff was aware of, the lawsuit alleges, adding the two were supposed to be kept separate.
However, during a period of five consecutive nights that month, the older boy — who turned 18 at some point during the attacks — sexually assaulted the 13-year-old, the lawsuit alleges.
On the first night, an employee shined a flashlight into the older teenager’s room while doing rounds and witnessed the assault. However, the lawsuit alleges the staff member simply shook his head and left, leaving the assault to continue without reporting the incident or seeking medical help.
The lawsuit later alleges that the sexual assault was incorrectly deemed to be consensual.
Days later, the 13-year-old’s sister reported the assault to a day-shift supervisor, who passed the information along to the facility’s top management and said the original employee who witnessed the incident should be fired, the lawsuit states.
However, it alleges managers of the facility did not fire the employee, did not call police, and “did not respond with concern for C.R.’s safety, trauma, or need for treatment.”
Rather, “management’s initial reaction was fear that New Day would be shut down if the public learned what had happened” the lawsuit states.
Managers of the facility ultimately told the supervisor they would not take meaningful action in the incident, and later kicked the girl out of the shelter. Gubernick said she is now living in foster care.
