NMSU Pays $1 Million and Mandates Campus-Wide Training After Failing Rape Survivor

On the night of September 10-11, 2022, an entering freshman at New Mexico State University was raped in her own dorm room by a fellow student named Aizen Saucedo over a period of approximately two hours. She reported the assault to NMSU Police, who passed the report to the university. Prosecutors filed three counts of criminal sexual penetration against Saucedo in October 2022, but NMSU allowed him to remain enrolled while criminal proceedings moved forward.

The university's response compounded the harm. NMSU denied the survivor's request to change dorm rooms, failed to put sign-in or security requirements in place for non-residents in student housing, and took no meaningful steps to enforce an order of protection that a court had issued against Saucedo. That restraining order was later made permanent for 40 years by the Third Judicial District Court in January 2023. The internal university investigation dragged on for more than an entire school year without resolution.

Attorneys A. Elicia Montoya, Katie Curry, and Cameron B. Bell of McGinn, Montoya, Love, Curry and Sievers filed suit in the Second Judicial District Court. The complaint alleged that NMSU acted negligently, breached its contract with the student, and violated her civil rights by creating an unsafe campus environment. It further alleged that between 2019 and April 2022, before the client's assault, NMSU had received at least 22 reports of criminal sexual penetration on campus, at least 12 of them inside on-campus student housing. The university, the complaint argued, knew the risk and failed to act.

In July 2024, Saucedo was acquitted on all criminal charges in the district court. The civil case continued toward a February 2025 trial date in Albuquerque before the parties reached a settlement.

Under the agreement announced in August 2025, NMSU paid $1 million through the New Mexico Risk Management Division and committed to mandatory annual online training in consent and sexual assault prevention for all enrolled students, beginning fall 2025. Students who do not complete the course face a registration hold. The course selected is 'RespectEdu for College.' The scheduled trial was dismissed upon the settlement.