BREAKING: Arrest highlights security gaps at Los Alamos High School
Man accused of raping student after driving her off LAHS grounds in middle of school day.
A 26-year-old man accused of raping a 14-year-old girl spent six hours on the Los Alamos High School campus before taking the child off school grounds to have sex with her, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Los Alamos Magistrate Court.
The girl told Los Alamos Police Department investigators that, during lunch on December 10, she and two other LAHS students left campus with Adrian Ferran and that he drove them around Los Alamos, the affidavit stated. She said that during the drive, Ferran drank alcohol from a bottle and offered it to the teens, but that Ferran was the only one who drank from the bottle. However, she said that while on school property, the teens did drink something from a can that she believed contained alcohol.
Ferran then drove the teens to another location where two students got out of his truck and into one of their cars. The 14-year-old girl moved to Ferran’s passenger seat, according to the affidavit, and Ferran drove to a secluded area where he parked. There, he leaned over and kissed her, directed her to get in the back seat of the truck, and removed her clothing. The girl told police she was afraid to tell Ferran to stop because he is twice her size.
LAPD investigators contacted Ferran by phone around 9 am on December 17. Ferran told detectives that he didn’t do what the girl had accused him of and said, “I’ll head up there and tell you guys what really happened,” according to the affidavit. It isn’t clear where Ferran lives. The address in the charging documents is located in Rio Rancho, but other court records list an address in Española.
Ferran arrived at LAPD headquarters around 10:30 am on December 17 and admitted to investigators that he and the girl had kissed, but he said the girl initiated the kissing and that she’s the one who wanted to get in the back seat, according to the affidavit. He also admitted to having sex with the girl.
He told detectives that he’d consumed some vodka that day but said he didn’t offer alcohol to any of the teens. He said one of them had a shot of tequila, but he said he didn’t know where they’d gotten it.
Ferran was on campus that day with a visitor’s pass granted to him by the school’s office because he was bringing a car part to the auto shop for a project, the affidavit stated.
Los Alamos Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Guy told Boomtown that before being issued a visitor’s pass, anyone seeking access to the campus must state their reason for visiting and that their identification is run through third-party software provided by Raptor Technologies that performs a quick check of national sex offender registries and custom watchlists or banned visitor lists, according to the software company’s website. “If they do not have a clear background check they are not allowed entry,” Guy said.
According to Guy, school security officers are tasked with monitoring the activity and behavior of all visitors and noted that each LAPS campus has security cameras in place. She did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about Ferran’s stated purpose for visiting and which school staff members were responsible for approving and monitoring his visit.
Ferran is charged with one felony count of criminal sexual penetration of a child and three felony counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
During an arraignment hearing on Thursday, Judge Catherine Taylor ordered Ferran held without conditions of release pending a review hearing. The date for that hearing had not been scheduled as of this writing.
Boomtown’s Minesh Bacrania contributed to the reporting of this story.