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Ex-Las Cruces Police Officer Sentenced In Sex Case

    

A former Las Cruces police detective has been sentenced to nine years in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage intern while on duty.

Prosecutors say 38-year-old Michael Garcia also was sentenced Wednesday to five years of supervised release, ordered to forfeit his law enforcement certification and comply with federal and state sex offender registration requirements.

Garcia pleaded guilty in the case in April.

He worked with students in a Las Cruces High School program and took the teen girl on a ride-along in his department-issued vehicle to visit a crime scene in May 2011.

He was supposed to drive the intern back to the police station, but prosecutors say Garcia drove her to a secluded location and sexually assaulted her.

Garcia resigned from the police department in August 2013.

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