Man jailed in sex abuse case

A Tucumcari man was jailed last week after being accused of sexually abusing a girl younger than 13. The alleged incidents occurred five times over a 2 1/2-year period.

Ramon Talavera, 42, was detained and booked into the Quay County Detention Center on Thursday afternoon. According to online court records, he was charged with five counts of first-degree criminal solicitation to commit criminal sexual penetration with a child younger than 13 and one count of second-degree criminal sexual contact of a minor age 13 to 18.

All the charges are second-degree felonies that can lead up to 15 years in prison and a $12,500 fine.

Talavera remained in custody at the county jail early this week.

According to an affidavit filed by Tucumcari police officer Reyes Gonzales, he watched a videotaped interview with the 13-year-old girl conducted at the Oasis Children’s Advocacy Center in Clovis.

Gonzales said he received the case from a fellow Tucumcari officer on July 29.

The girl told the interviewer the sexual abuse occurred between January 2018 and July 6, 2020. She said Talavera locked her inside a room at a residence with him, reached under her clothes and touched her with his fingers. She said she told him to stop, but he didn’t.

She told the interviewer during one instance of sexual penetration, he left a scratch inside of her “that hurt for a long time.”

The girl said Talavera threatened to kill her father or ruin her mother’s life if she told anyone about the incidents. She said the first sexual contact began when she was in sixth grade, and it occurred five times.

A younger sister told an interviewer she saw Talavera lock the door with her sister inside. A cousin also said the alleged victim told her in a text that Talavera tried to touch her.

No defense attorney was listed for Talavera in online court records.