Mescalero Apache Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Sexual Abuse Charge

ALBUQUERQUE – Michael Ellis Treas-Baca, 31, an enrolled member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who resides in Mescalero, N.M., pled guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to a sexual abuse charge.  Under the terms of his plea agreement, Treas-Baca will be sentenced to 78 months in prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.  Treas-Baca will also be required to register as a sex offender when he completes his prison sentence.

Treas-Baca was arrested on April 7, 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with sexually abusing a Mescalero Apache woman on Sept. 13, 2015, on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in Otero County, N.M.

During today’s proceedings, Treas-Baca pled guilty to a felony information charging him with sexual abuse.  In entering the guilty plea, Treas-Baca admitted that on Sept. 13, 2016, he sexually abused the victim while the victim was unconscious and physically incapable of declining participating in the sexual act.  A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.