A man from Tse Bonito New Mexico has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against 37-year-old Gerald Lee on Oct. 12, 2022. According to publicly available court documents, on May 15, 2021, when he was 35 years old, Lee, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, forcibly raped the 15-year-old victim at his mother’s house within the exterior boundaries of the Navajo Nation. Afterwards, Lee warned the victim not to tell anybody about what he had done, but the victim eventually told a teacher and counselor at her school. Lee initially claimed that he and the victim were in a consensual sexual relationship and that he was intoxicated at the time of the incident before ultimately admitting that he raped her.
Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, announced on Feb. 13 that Lee was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Lee pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor on Aug. 9.
Upon his release from prison, Lee will be subject to five years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender.
The Gallup Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case with assistance from the Navajo Police Department and Department of Criminal Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Bell is prosecuting the case.
