East Mountains pre-K teacher charged in sexual assault of 5-year-old

Nov. 29—A preschool teacher at a Tijeras day care has been charged in the rape of a 5-year-old in an investigation that lasted almost a year.

Michael Kimball, 32, who worked at NM Early Learning Academy, is charged with criminal sexual penetration in the December 2023 case. The school could not be reached Friday, and it is unclear if he is still employed there.

“It’s important to remember that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. There is always more to the story than what appears this early in a case,” District Defender Dennica Torres, with the Law Offices of the Public Defender, said in a statement about the allegations.

Samantha Kimball, Kimball’s wife, told the Journal that “the accusations are completely false.” “

During the investigation, Michael Kimball told Bernalillo County deputies that the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department had investigated allegations made against him “four years ago” when he worked at La Petite Academy day care in Albuquerque, according to court records. A man’s DNA was found on the underwear of the girl who accused Kimball of assault but there was not enough DNA to determine who it came from.

A CYFD spokeswoman did not respond to a message seeking comment and clarification on the prior allegations against Kimball.

Samantha Kimball told the Journal “that was also a false allegation.”

Kimball was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Monday.

Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Michael Kimball behind bars until trial, saying he “should not be allowed anywhere near children of any age.”

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the case in December 2023, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

A woman told deputies her daughter told her “Mr. Mike,” identified as Kimball, a teacher at her preschool, had raped her more than a month earlier, according to deputies. The mother said she hadn’t come forward sooner because “she was afraid to speak about it and brought up past trauma she had faced when she lived in Honduras.”

The mother gave deputies the daughter’s underwear from the day of the alleged rape, the complaint states. The child told deputies the incident happened in the library of the preschool.

NM Learning Academy leadership told deputies that Kimball had started working at the school in July 2023 and they had not been aware of any past “complaints or concerns,” according to deputies. The preschool administrators said the girl had stopped coming to school in November, a month before the abuse was reported.

Kimball told deputies he never touched the girl “or any other student in that manner,” the complaint states. When asked, he told deputies the only reason his DNA would be on the girl’s underwear was if he handed her a fresh pair if she had an accident but Kimball couldn’t recall any accidents.

Deputies found no documented accidents or related underwear changes for the child in the preschool’s records.

Kimball told deputies “there was a CYFD investigation conducted four years ago where he was the alleged perpetrator,” according to deputies. Kimball didn’t go into specifics of that case, which occurred while he worked at La Petite, but told deputies “he was cleared” through the investigation.

On Dec. 15, deputies sent the girl’s underwear to be tested for DNA.

No more is documented in the complaint until September of this year, when BCSO received results that male DNA had been found in the underwear, the complaint states.

It is unclear why it took almost a year to get DNA results back and a BCSO spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment and clarification.

The BCSO detective wrote in the complaint that the 5-year-old’s consistent retelling of the alleged abuse in three different settings, weeks apart, “lends credibility to the truth of the statement.”

“It is difficult for children as young as five years old to make a consistent statement over time that is untruthful,” according to deputies.

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