The parents of a 14-year-old Lakewood girl who duped officials at her Jefferson County middle school into believing a man posing as her uncle was checking her out of classes for a doctor’s appointment fear their daughter has now run away with the man to Mexico.
It’s been a week since the family of Alisha Marie Martinez has heard from her, since she walked away from a youth counseling center with the unidentified man police believe to be between the ages of 20 and 25.
She had been placed in the center after she left school with the man and was found by police at his apartment.
“She’s a little girl and he’s a grown man and he’s been taking advantage of her,” said the girl’s mother, Angie Martinez, 30, of Englewood, tears streaming down her cheeks. “She never said anything about having a boyfriend or anything, and then one day all of a sudden the school called to say a man checked her out of school. The police couldn’t even figure out who this guy was.”
Officials at Creighton Middle School, where Martinez is in the eighth grade, admit they made a mistake in allowing her to leave the morning of Jan. 19 with the man, who was not on the family’s medical list of permitted guardians.
“The procedures in the district is … to always check the ID of the adult and to make sure that individual is on the release medical card that lists her parents and guardians,” Jefferson County Public Schools spokesman Rick Kaufman said Wednesday. “We didn’t follow that procedure. There are a number or extenuating circumstances, nothing to defend the actions, but we made a mistake and are taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We feel bad that we made the mistake.”
The girl’s family said they are considering filing a civil lawsuit against the district, but right now are more concerned with getting their daughter back.
The girl told school staff she was feeling sick and that her uncle was picking her up, police reports show. A staff member escorted her with the man to his white pickup truck, which had a camper shell attached.
Kaufman said a staff member noticed that Martinez and the man appeared to be “more than cozy” and ran back into the school to alert the principal. He hurried to the parking lot but the pickup was gone, Kaufman said.
“He immediately tried to reach the girl’s father at home, but couldn’t make contact, so we contacted Lakewood police,” Kaufman said.
The girl was found with the man at an apartment he was sharing with several other men in Englewood. The man gave several different birth dates to authorities and identified himself as Adan Garcia-Cruz, but didn’t have proper identification. He was believed to be a Mexican citizen.
Englewood police officials contacted late Wednesday said they had not reviewed the case and reserved comment.
Alisha Martinez was then placed at Family Tree’s Gemini House, a residential treatment facility, but was uncooperative with detectives and proclaimed she was in love with the man, her parents said.
She walked away from the center a week ago after learning the man was no longer in police custody. Details of his release were unavailable.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
