Mescalero Apache Man Sentenced to Prison for Federal Child Sexual Abuse Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Raybert Darin Ahidley, 30, an enrolled member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who resides in Mescalero, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 24 months in prison for his conviction on a child sexual abuse charge. Ahidley will be on supervised release for five years after completing his prison sentence, and will be required to register as a sex offender.

Ahidley was arrested on Feb. 8, 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with sexually abusing a minor who was between 12 and 16 years of age in Otero County, N.M. According to the criminal complaint, the victim was a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation.

On Aug. 4, 2016, Ahidley pled guilty to a felony information charging him with sexually abusing a minor. In entering the guilty plea, Ahidley admitted that he was 29 years old when he engaged in a sexual act with the victim who was 15 years old at the time. Ahidley acknowledged that he committed the crime on the Mescalero Apache reservation in Otero County.

This case was investigated by the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.