An Escalante High/Middle School teacher and football coach said false allegations of inappropriate conduct with a student left him on leave from his job, despite multiple investigations finding the claims are false.
Carlos Casados, 34, was placed on leave from the school in Tierra Amarilla, where his father is the district superintendent, “because of the harassment” from parents and community members.
“It got to the point of them attacking me and my family and I don’t feel safe going to work,” Casados said. “I did nothing wrong, everything was unfounded and unsubstantiated.”
He is firing back at people he believes spread lies about him by sending out cease and desist letters, including one to his boss, the school principal, Lea Leyba, and one to a family he says is threatening him.
“I was a member of the community with good standing,” Casados said. “Everyone knows everyone. At least two times I’ve gone to the grocery store, the looks I get, there’s been an attitude shift. It’s so bad it’s made me not want to go out. I have to go out of town to get groceries.”
How it Started
Right before December, a Children, Youth and Families Department employee contacted him and then an investigator showed up to talk to him at the school, saying they had received an anonymous report about an inappropriate relationship with a student.
The investigator talked to the student and the student’s family, but found no evidence and closed the case. Casados immediately informed the school of what was happening and gave a recording of his conversation with the investigator to the school.
CYFD then sent its report to the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office, which conducted its own investigation a week later, and even looked at the student’s phone, Casados said.
Everything seemed to have blown over until a Jan. 27 school board meeting, when a community member spoke at length about the allegations, portraying them as true, he said.
“This individual was allowed to get up make defamatory allegations, claiming them as facts,” he said. “The school board was already made aware of documentation, that it showed no wrongdoing done, and were given that information the same week the investigation closed.”
The school board should have stopped the woman after she spoke for the three-minute time limit set by the board. They also should have stopped her when she started making statements about him, against their public comment policy, he said.
“There was no correction to the record, no stopping it, even though they knew facts of case, one of the board members is a major in the sheriff’s office and knew there is no evidence, no supporting facts, and they still failed to correct the record, set it straight,” Casados said.
He said his reputation has been completely damaged. While he thought the false allegations would blow over, the flames are being fanned by “certain members of the community” who have resentment against him, some of which is for their sons not getting enough play time on the football field.
“I’ve been the head football coach for the past two years and I believe we had a successful season and the fact that some people don’t get the playing time their families think they deserve, this is what caused resentment toward me,” he said.
Casados said he received information about someone who wants to ruin his reputation and sent it to the sheriff’s office to follow up, but they never did, even though making a false report to CYFD is a crime.
There have been no criminal charges filed against Carlos Casados.