Jul. 28—A man is being held in jail as he awaits trial for allegedly raping his foster children for nearly a decade and threatening to kill them if they told anybody.
Francisco Agosto, 40, was arrested July 14 on four charges of criminal sexual penetration of a minor under the age of 13, four counts of criminal penetration of a minor under the age of 18, and four counts of intimidation of a witness.
He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The allegations stretched across eight years, according to court records, as Agosto moved himself and the five foster children around Texas and then New Mexico before settling in the Albuquerque area.
Agosto’s attorney did not respond to calls for comment.
“Prior to the current case, CYFD was not aware of Mr. Agosto,” Jessica Preston, spokesperson for the Children, Youth and Families Department, told the Journal in a statement.
“Prior to the current case, these children were not listed in CYFD’s database,” Preston said. “These children are residents of New Mexico. Mr. Agosto was not licensed in New Mexico and the adoptions of the children occurred in another state prior to moving to New Mexico. This is an ongoing investigation.”
Officers were dispatched to a reported rape at a home in the 1300 block of San Clemente NW, near 12th and Griegos. Upon arriving, officers spoke with Agosto’s former spouse and the five children, who said that Agosto had raped and sexually abused them, one by one, for several years.
The children were first fostered by Agosto before they were all adopted.
“Eventually, all of her siblings ended up as foster children in that home,” a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court stated. “The entire sibling group was adopted by (Agosto) and (his spouse) in February 2016.”
The eldest sibling, who is now 20, told police the sexual abuse began when she was 7 years old and the family lived in Texas, according to the criminal complaint. The family later moved to another city in Texas before moving to Socorro, Los Lunas and Albuquerque, where they have lived since 2022.
Agosto would tell her she could earn extra time on her cellphone by doing sexual favors, which turned into rape when she was 11.
Agosto began raping her at least “once a week,” the criminal complaint said. She told police Agosto would “often threaten to kill her and her siblings if she ever told anyone, so she didn’t.”
The girl told police Agosto told them, “If you ever tell anybody about what’s happening, I will kill your siblings and make you watch, and then I will kill your cats,” according to the criminal complaint.
Another sibling, who is 12 years old, told police that Agosto would not let the children eat without his permission, and often forced them to do sexual favors if they wanted food, according to the criminal complaint. She also told police Agosto would bribe them with money, between $10 and $100, and video games in return for sexual acts.
The 12-year-old told police that, at one point in June, Agosto tried to get her pregnant, which led her to feel suicidal, the child told police. Agosto had raped her on July 7, and she decided to show her eldest sister text messages between herself and Agosto. The older sister decided to take the children to Agosto’s ex-husband’s house, where he called the police and took the children to the hospital.
In a pretrial detention motion filed on July 15, prosecutors said Agosto’s “years-long sexual behavior against children demonstrates the defendant’s lack of regard for the health, safety, and life of the victims and shows he is a continuing danger to the victims and to any children in the community.”