ALBUQUERQUE – A Bureau of Indian Affairs Police Officer allegedly sexually abused a child, and he is now facing up to 15 years in prison.

Dexter Whiskers, 43, of Mescalero, N.M., and an enrolled member of the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, made an initial appearance in federal court on April 15 facing a charge of sexual abuse of a minor in Indian Country. Whiskers’s preliminary and detention hearing was on April 20.

According to a criminal complaint, in October 2021, Whiskers, then a Bureau of Indian Affairs Police Officer, allegedly engaged in and attempted to engage in a sexual act with a victim, who was 13 years old. The incident allegedly took place at the residence where the young victim lived at the time on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in Otero County, N.M.

The Las Cruces Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case with assistance from the New Mexico State Police and the full cooperation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Assistant United States Attorney Matilda McCarthy Villalobos is prosecuting the case.

Staff Reports