Socorro ISD teacher accused of grooming 12-year-old student, wanting her as 'sex slave'

An El Paso middle school math teacher faces charges for allegedly sexually grooming a 12-year-old student, sexually abusing her in his truck, and sending her explicit text messages and photos, court documents state.

Llojan Almaraz, a math teacher at Captain Walter E. Clarke Middle School, was first arrested Sept. 13, by Socorro Independent School District Police Department officers on one count of child grooming, improper relationship between educator and student, indecency with a child, and sexual performance by a child, El Paso County jail records show.

The 28-year-old was booked into the jail on a $150,000 bond. He posted bail the next day and was released from jail.

On Sept. 20, Almaraz was arrested again on two counts of online solicitation of a minor, jail records show. He was booked into the jail on a $80,000 bond. He was released from jail after posting bail the same day.

Almaraz's jail booking photo has not been released. No attorney is listed for Almaraz in court records.

Almaraz was placed on administrative leave, SISD officials said. No further information was released.

"This request is regarding an ongoing investigation," SISD spokesperson Christy Flores-Jones said in an email. "The individual is currently on administrative leave while the investigation proceeds.  We are unable to release any information at this time."

Almaraz has been a teacher at the El Paso school since Oct. 18, 2021. He was the alleged victim's teacher during the 2023-2024 school year, a complaint affidavit states.

Almaraz allegedly groomed, sexually abused 12-year-old girl

An SISD Police Department officer assigned to the middle school was notified Aug. 28 of a teacher having an improper relationship with a student. The officer met with the school's principal who reported Almaraz was "improperly communicating with a female student from the campus," a complaint affidavit states.

The officer met with the victim's mother. The mother said her daughter and Almaraz were communicating through phone calls and text messages.

The mother said the "language in text conversations between (Almaraz) and her daughter was inappropriate." Some of the text messages were "live images" of Almaraz's exposing himself, the affidavit states. She also provided the officer with a screen recording of the text messages.

Almaraz was allegedly buying the victim gifts, including a lanyard, a FunkoPop figure, Pandora bracelet charms and a gold necklace, the affidavit states.

The affidavit includes several excerpts of the alleged conversations between Almaraz. The message are explicit, including Almaraz stating he wanted to sneak into the girl's room, treat her like a "sex slave," and wanted to get her pregnant, the affidavit states.

The text messages also allegedly showed Almaraz gifted the girl "funds through money transfer applications for Starbucks and other purchases," the affidavits states.

The officer connected Almaraz to the text messages by checking the phone number used to send the messages and district records of Almaraz's number.

During an interview with the officer, the girl said she met Almaraz about October 2023 during the volleyball season when she was 12 years old. They began talking through the "SportsYou" application, which is used to communicate school-based sports information between coaches, athletes and parents, the affidavit states. They eventually exchanged phone numbers.

Almaraz and the student met in person twice in June at an apartment complex, where the girl and her mother lived. During their meetings, Almaraz allegedly groped, kissed, exposed himself and forced her to perform a sexual act, the affidavit states.

The investigation found more explicit messages allegedly sent by Almaraz including him describing the sexual acts he wanted to perform on the girl, including in his classroom, and telling her he wanted to "be your first everything," the affidavit states.

Second student comes forward

The officer interviewed another girl, who was also a former student of Almaraz, on Sept. 5. The witness said she and Almaraz began talking on the "SportsYou" application and later through a fake TikTok account belonging to Almaraz.

Almaraz gave the girl gifts and referred to her as his "number one," the affidavit states. The girl told the officer she "felt that she was being groomed" by Almaraz and stopped communicating with him, the affidavit states.

This incident happened during Almaraz's first year teaching at the middle school, the affidavit states. The age of the second student was not released.

Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.