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Valencia update: New Mexico investigation could take months

Link to News-Bulletin full story and a brief excerpt below

The investigation into the alleged sexual hazing incidents that led to the suspension of four senior players on the Valencia High football team could take two to three months to complete.

New Mexico State Police Lt. Eric Garcia said that investigators are interviewing victims, and will be interviewing witnesses and the suspects in the future.

Once these interviews are complete, then some might have to be re-interviewed to firmly establish the time and events of the allegations, Garcia said.

The whole process could take as much as two to three months, he said.

The four were suspended on Nov. 16, just four days before Valencia High School’s state football playoff game against Goddard, when a Los Lunas Schools police investigation determined that there was enough evidence to turn the case over to state police.

The allegations came to the attention of Los Lunas Schools upper administration on Nov. 9, and the sexual nature of the allegations that involved three underclassmen was established two days later.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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