A woman who worked for a Department of Homeland Security office that manages complaints from immigration detainees has been charged by federal prosecutors with having a sexual relationship with a detainee at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Shantal Hernandez, 36, of San Diego, is accused of having an ongoing relationship with the unidentified detainee while she was working as a case manager at the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, an independent office within the Department of Homeland Security. The office assists people with complaints regarding potential violations of immigration detention standards and other misconduct by DHS employees.
The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges DHS received information indicating Hernandez was "spending an unusual amount of time with a detainee." Further investigation revealed "a significant number of sexually explicit phone calls and electronic communications" concerning the pair's relationship.
In one of those phone calls, Hernandez allegedly told the detainee she had a video of a sex act they engaged in and investigators later discovered a copy of such a video.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Hernandez is charged with sexual abuse of a ward, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
"Hernandez's main purpose as a DHS OIDO case manager was to promote safe and humane conditions within immigration detention," said Jeffrey Gilgallon, special agent in charge for the Office of Professional Responsibility. "However, she allegedly abandoned that oversight role, instead using her position to engage in prohibited sexual activity with an ICE detainee in one of our detention facilities. OPR is fully committed to enforcing ICE's zero tolerance policy against sexual abuse in our detention facilities and aggressively pursuing those DHS employees who violate the law, no matter their role or title."
