A guard employed at the Rio Arriba County Detention Center in Tierra Armarilla was caught drinking at a casino hotel, leaving a 9 year old child in charge of 2 other young children. None of the children were harmed; they remained in their hotel room while Issac Maestas drank at the casino resort with friends. The mother of the children is also a jail guard, and was working at the Santa Fe County Jail at the time of the incident.
Because of Maestas’ employment with the Rio Arriba jail, he was arrested and booked with the Santa Fe Police Department. The children, ages 9, 4 and 2 were released to their mother. He is also facing 3 charges of child endangerment. Police received a call from a 9 year old boy from the hotel saying he did not know where his father was and was scared, saying his siblings were there with him. Police traced the call and were able to locate Maestas with the cooperation of the 9 year old child.
Upon entering the hotel room, police officers discovered the 3 children all present and unharmed. There were empty containers of alcohol within reach of the children as well as opened containers still containing substantial amounts of liquid in them; surveillance video shows the children were left alone for about an hour before the authorities arrived. The entire situation could have ended in a tragedy had the oldest child not called for help; Maestas may end up serving jail time for the child endangerment charges, but he most definitely will need some sort of assistance from an alcohol treatment center.
Usually, when a conviction includes drugs or alcohol, the sentence includes treatment of some sort. North of Santa Fe in the village of Taos, alcohol treatment center Vista Taos can offer treatment options beyond the standard 12-step processes in the traditional clinic settings. If you could benefit from an alcohol treatment center near Santa Fe, New Mexico, please give Vista Taos Renewal Center a call to learn more about getting started on the recovery process.
