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West Texas Border Patrol Agent Facing New Charges in Sexual Assault Case

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Jesus Salgado Nanez (Brewster County Jail)

The Alpine, TX-based Border Patrol agent who was arrested in early June on felony sexual assault charges was arrested again last week and is now facing more charges, according to Brewster County authorities.

Agent Jesus Salgado Nanez was originally arrested June 3rd at the Border Patrol’s Alpine Station after a female victim told authorities Nanez had raped her while she was under the effects of pain medicine she takes for cramps in her legs.

Authorities believe the victim was sexually assaulted at least twice between December 2015 and April 2016. Authorities do not believe the alleged assaults took place while Nanez was on duty as an agent.

Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson said Nanez is now facing four counts of "invasive visual recordings" after authorities later discovered what Dodson described as "really improper" images of underage girls on Nanez's phone.

Arrest documents obtained by the Big Bend Sentinel show the sexual assault victim in the case told authorities her pain medicine makes her unresponsive to any movement or noise while sleeping, and that she did not and could not have consented to sex with Nanez while under the effects of the medicine on at least two occasions.

According to an arrest affidavit, authorities found sexually explicit videos on Nanez’s phone of the “passed out” victim, and the videos exhibited “a clear indication of sexual activity.”

During their investigation, authorities also found phone videos of underage girls being filmed without their knowledge while walking and while in stores.

"There were several hundred images captured on his cell phone of very, very young girls, that, you know, would have been invasive," Dodson said.

"But there's one particular girl he paid a lot of attention to, and she was unaware she was being photographed in particular ways."

That "particular girl" is not the same woman who came forward with the rape allegations.

A Border Patrol spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that Nanez is still on administrative duties, meaning he's working in an office capacity but without his gun and badge. He was placed on administrative duties after the first arrest.

"I can't believe the government does that," Dodson said, reacting to the fact that Nanez is still employed. "We think that the government's been sued so many times by individuals getting fired that they just kinda do what they do, you know, we can't control what they do."

The Border Patrol previously would not comment on the internal protocol for dealing with agents accused of a crime.

Travis Bubenik is All Things Considered Host and Big Bend Reporter at Marfa Public Radio.