RATON’S CHILDREN: CASES THAT STILL CARRY A WARNING
By Roger Rael
The Raton Range
RATON, N.M. — Some criminal cases disappear from public conversation after the courtroom empties and the headlines fade.
Cases involving the sexual abuse and exploitation of children deserve a longer memory.
Over the years, Raton and Colfax County have confronted several serious cases involving allegations or convictions of sexual crimes against children. Some ended with decades-long prison sentences. One reached the New Mexico Supreme Court years after the original conviction. Another ended when the accused died before a planned guilty plea could be entered.
The circumstances are different, and the legal outcomes are different. Those distinctions matter.
But the cases collectively carry the same warning: children must be heard, reports must be investigated, and the passage of time should not provide protection for an offender.
JAMES HAUGH
James Gordon Haugh was sentenced in 2018 after pleading guilty in a Raton case involving the sexual abuse and exploitation of a minor.
Haugh pleaded guilty to three second-degree felonies: criminal sexual contact with a minor, manufacturing a visual medium of sexual exploitation of children, and sexual exploitation of children by prostitution.
He was sentenced to 42 years, with seven years suspended, leaving a 35-year prison term.
Records associated with the 2018 prosecution also identified Haugh as an existing registered sex offender stemming from an earlier Raton case adjudicated in 1999.
May 5, 1979: Colorado newspaper reports earlier conviction
A Colorado Springs Gazette report published May 5, 1979, identified James Haugh, then 28 and employed as a hospital orderly, as having pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault and second-degree burglary.
The newspaper reported that Haugh broke into a young woman’s apartment and waited for her with a chloroform-soaked rag. He was sentenced the previous day to an indeterminate term of one day to life under what the newspaper described as Colorado’s Sex Offender’s Act, allowing him to receive treatment at the Colorado State Hospital.
Haugh’s documented sex-offense convictions spanned 39 years—from 1979 to 2018—nearly four decades. By the time he died in prison in 2026, 47 years had passed since his first documented conviction, a period covering nearly five decades.
His death ended his time in the criminal justice system. It did not erase the crimes for which he was convicted or the damage left behind.
DERRICK ROMERO
The Derrick Romero case demonstrated that consequences for a sex crime can continue long after the original sentencing hearing.
Romero pleaded guilty in Colfax County in 2011 to one count of second-degree criminal sexual penetration involving an underage girl. He received a nine-year prison sentence, part of which was suspended.
Years later, a dispute over his parole reached the New Mexico Supreme Court.
In 2023, the court ruled that the parole provisions imposed by the district court were illegal because state law required an indeterminate period of supervised parole of at least five years and potentially for the remainder of the offender’s natural life.
The Supreme Court ordered the case returned to district court for correction. It also ruled Romero had to be given an opportunity to withdraw his plea because the record did not establish that he had been properly advised of the potential lifetime parole consequence when he entered it.
LARRY GUARA
In February 2022, New Mexico State Police arrested Larry Guara of Raton following an 11-month investigation involving a young female family member.
State Police said investigators learned the alleged abuse occurred over approximately six years and began when the girl was a young child.
Guara was booked on six felony charges: first-degree criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13; second-degree criminal sexual penetration involving force or coercion against a child between 13 and 18; one third-degree count of criminal sexual contact of a minor; and three second-degree counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor involving a child under 13. He was initially held without bond.
Guara is now in prison. A current New Mexico Corrections Department offender record lists Guara as an inmate at Otero County Prison Facility.
DANIEL BALIZAN
Former Catholic priest Daniel Balizan served at St. Patrick’s-St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Raton and later at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Community in Santa Fe.
A federal grand jury indicted Balizan in June 2023 on one count of coercion and enticement. Federal prosecutors alleged he used electronic communications to entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
He was arrested in Springer.
Because an indictment is an accusation rather than a conviction, Balizan remained presumed innocent while the federal case was pending.
The case appeared headed toward a guilty plea in 2024. Court filings showed that prosecutors and Balizan’s defense had reached a plea agreement, and a hearing was scheduled for May 24. The plea was never entered.
Balizan died by suicide in Springer before the scheduled court hearing. His death ended the federal prosecution before a conviction was entered. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe confirmed his death and that he had been awaiting a hearing in the child sexual abuse case. The victim never really received any type of justice, only the guarantee Balizan will never hurt a child again.
DUSTIN LEE PETTIT
Unlike cases that ended before trial, the Dustin Lee Pettit prosecution went before a Colfax County jury.
On April 1, 2026, jurors found Pettit guilty of two counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13 and two counts of criminal sexual contact of a child under 13.
The case began after a child disclosed abuse during a therapy session. Investigators subsequently learned of allegations involving a second child, and both children participated in forensic interviews.
District Judge Steven Romero sentenced Pettit to 48 years in prison shortly after the verdict.
The Eighth Judicial District Attorney’s Office said that even with available good-time credit, Pettit will not be released before 2066.
NEW MEXICO REMOVES A CLOCK FROM SOME SEX CRIMES
The law has also changed.
During the 2026 legislative session, New Mexico lawmakers approved Senate Bill 41.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the measure March 4 as Chapter 21.
The final law eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for second-degree criminal sexual penetration and second-degree criminal sexual contact of a minor. Prosecutors may bring those charges regardless of how much time has passed since the alleged crime occurred.
The change matters because sexual abuse of children is not always disclosed immediately. Children can remain silent because of fear, threats, manipulation, shame, or because the alleged offender is someone they know and trust.
Other lower-degree offenses continue to have statutory limitation rules, including provisions that delay when the clock begins in certain crimes involving children. The law also contains special provisions involving unidentified suspects and DNA evidence.
PRISON TERMS CAN BE SEVERE
New Mexico law already provides enhanced basic sentences for several felony classifications involving sexual offenses against children.
A second-degree felony classified as a sexual offense against a child carries a basic sentence of 15 years, compared with nine years for an ordinary second-degree felony. A third-degree sexual offense against a child carries a six-year basic sentence.
Sexual exploitation of children also carries enhanced basic sentences under state law, including 12 years for a second-degree felony, 11 years for a third-degree felony, and 10 years for a fourth-degree felony. Actual sentences depend on the specific charges, enhancements, plea agreements, consecutive or concurrent sentencing decisions, and other provisions of New Mexico law.
EVERYONE HAS A DUTY TO REPORT
New Mexico does not limit responsibility for reporting suspected child abuse to teachers, doctors, or police officers.
State law requires every person who knows or reasonably suspects that a child is being abused or neglected to immediately report it to the Children, Youth and Families Department, law enforcement, or the appropriate tribal authority.
CYFD accepts reports around the clock at 1-855-333-SAFE (7233) or #SAFE from a cellphone. Young people can also text REACH NM at 505-591-9444.
THE CHILDREN COME FIRST
There is a reason legal distinctions have been carefully preserved in this story.
A person who was convicted should be described as convicted.
A person who pleaded guilty should be described as having pleaded guilty.
Someone who was charged but never convicted cannot fairly be placed in the same category.
Accuracy matters, particularly when the subject is this serious.
But protecting those distinctions should never become an excuse to forget the children at the center of these cases.
Children deserve adults who listen when something is wrong. They deserve investigators who take disclosures seriously, prosecutors willing to pursue difficult cases, and courts capable of imposing serious punishment when guilt is established.
Raton cannot undo what happened in the cases already written into its history.
What it can do is refuse to look away from the next child who asks an adult to listen.
