Town of Wallkill man charged in child sexual abuse case

Town of Wallkill police arrested Alejandro Martinez, 34, on July 2 after linking him to the sexual abuse of a 4-year-old child in a Wallkill residence. Officers first responded to the home on April 8 after receiving a report of abuse, and a follow-up investigation led by Detective Condon identified Martinez as the suspect.

Martinez, a Town of Wallkill resident, was charged with first-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching. He was arraigned in Orange County Centralized Arraignment Part and held on bail set at $25,000 cash, $75,000 secured, or $150,000 partially secured. The arrest moved the case from a neighborhood complaint to the county court system, where prosecutors will now test the allegations through the normal criminal process.

Under New York law, sexual abuse in the first degree is a class D felony. One statutory route applies when the person subjected to sexual contact is less than 11 years old, which matches the age of the alleged victim in this case. Forcible touching is a separate sex offense under New York Penal Law.

The response to the Wallkill investigation pulled in several agencies beyond local police. Town of Wallkill officers were assisted by Emergency Medical Services, Garnet Health Medical Center, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program. In child-abuse cases, those links matter because they can connect immediate medical care, evidence collection, and child-welfare intervention in a single case.

Orange County’s Child Advocacy Center, known as CAST, plays a similar role across the county. County officials say CAST works with all 23 local law-enforcement jurisdictions and provides forensic interviews, medical exams, and crisis-intervention therapy. In 2023, CAST served nearly 660 children, including 478 forensic interviews and 80 sexual-abuse exams, a measure of how often local agencies are asked to respond to abuse allegations involving children.

The broader enforcement picture in Wallkill has also included child-protection operations beyond this case. New York State Police and the FBI carried out an undercover child-exploitation detail in the town in October 2024, underscoring that investigators have kept a close watch on online and in-person threats to children in the Middletown, Scotchtown and Wallkill area.

The case remains at the accusation stage, and Martinez is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Still, the arrest, the court arraignment and the county’s multi-agency response show how quickly a report in a Wallkill home can become a serious criminal matter with direct consequences for public safety and child protection.