An Odessa couple arrested in February for allegedly not informing police about the rape of a teenager is now facing the more serious charge of child endangerment.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, officers were dispatched to a local school on Jan. 25 after the 15-year-old girl told someone at the school she’d been sexually assault for the second time by the same person.
During a forensic interview at Harmony Home Children’s Advocacy Center, the girl said she was first sexually assaulted at the age of 8 by a then-13-year-old boy.
According to the report, Michael Aguilar, 42, and Rebecca Aguilar, 43, learned of the sexual assault in April 2022 and they met with the suspect and the girl to discuss what the girl wanted to do. The then-14-year-old girl said she didn’t want to do anything and the group opted not to report the incident, but then she was allegedly raped by the same individual again in January 2023.
The couple acknowledged they were supposed to report the first sexual assault to law enforcement due to a similar incident involving other children in 2018, the report stated.
Both said they were OK with allowing the girl to make the decision and they allowed the suspect to continue living in the home, the report stated.
The couple was arrested in February on suspicion of failure to report aggravated sexual assault of a child, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
However, an Ector County grand jury indicted both Aguilars in late April on the state jail felony charge of endangering a child, which is punishable by up to two years in prison.
According to the indictment, they “intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence” placed the girl in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment by allowing her alleged rapist to have continued access to her.
Rebecca Aguilar was re-arrested Thursday and Michael Aguilar was re-arrested Friday. They were both released from the Ector County jail after posting surety bonds of $20,000 each.
Authorities said the rape suspect can not be prosecuted because he was 20 by the time authorities learned of the first alleged rape. Since he was 13 at the time of that alleged incident he would’ve been too young to certify as an adult and transferred into the adult criminal justice system.
