Valencia County firefighter resigns after child sex crime charges

A Valencia County firefighter resigned after being accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a child under 13, putting one of the county’s most trusted public-safety jobs under scrutiny. The case has forced questions about how long the allegations went on, when county leaders first knew, and what safeguards now surround a former employee who had been on the county payroll since 2008.

Jerrett Fleming, 44, of El Cerro Mission, was arrested and booked into the Valencia County Detention Center on March 26. He faces four counts of criminal sexual penetration in the first degree, two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor in the second degree, and two counts of enticement of a child. He was later released to pretrial services and must wear GPS monitoring.

The arrest affidavit describes a disturbing pattern that investigators say stretched from late February 2024 to near the end of January 2026. It began when a 6-year-old girl at University of New Mexico Hospital disclosed sexual abuse by an adult man in her Valencia County home. The child described repeated abuse, including incidents after the man picked her up from school. Investigators later interviewed other children in the home, found a keypad lock on the bedroom door, and concluded from the child’s statements that the abuse had happened several times a week over a period of one or two years.

Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp said the county learned of Fleming’s arrest from New Mexico State Police on April 1. Propp said Fleming was immediately placed on administrative leave and removed from the field. Fleming then resigned from the department by sending a one-sentence email on March 30. County records show he had been hired in October 2008.

The case carries heavy legal weight as well. New Mexico law treats first-degree criminal sexual penetration as a first-degree felony, and state corrections materials classify first- and second-degree criminal sexual penetration, along with certain criminal sexual contact offenses, as serious sex offenses. New Mexico courts also recognize that multiple counts can be charged for separate acts over time in child sex cases.

For Valencia County residents, the matter reaches beyond one criminal case. It tests how a county department responds when a long-serving firefighter is accused of abusing a child, how quickly leaders move to protect public trust, and how closely the court’s pretrial conditions now monitor a man once entrusted with serving the community.