Former Colorado deputy and school officer accused of child sex crimes arrested in Mexico after months on the run
A former San Miguel County sheriff's deputy was arrested in Mexico and sent to Arizona this week, state investigators said on Friday. Police have been searching for him for three months after they allegedly found child sex abuse material at his home. He's now awaiting extradition to Colorado.
Jesus Damian Nieblas, 28, resigned from the sheriff's office in late June, before the Colorado Bureau of Investigation started its investigation, the bureau said in a statement. Police served a search warrant on Nieblas' home and vehicle in Norwood on July 10 and said they found 27 child sexual abuse videos.
Nieblas was arrested in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta and was transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at the border checkpoint near Douglas, Arizona, according to CBI. State and local officials in Colorado learned of Nieblas' capture on Sept. 29, but weren't able to make a public statement about it until Friday.
He's being held in the Cochise County Jail in Bisbee, Arizona, on a $100,000 cash-only bond, according to CBI. Court records in Arizona couldn't immediately be located, but court records in Colorado show he's been detained. They didn't, however, show a court date.
Nieblas faces the following charges:
- 1 count of sexual exploitation of a child, a class 3 felony
- 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, a class 4 felony
- 16 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, a class 5 felony
- 27 counts of persons required to report child abuse or neglect, a misdemeanor
"These alleged crimes are clearly serious and disturbing to all of us who worked with Mr. Nieblas. We support the CBI's efforts in their investigation and will wait until he has his day in court to be able to have closure on this situation," Covault said in a statement. "The Sheriff's Office is committed to transparency, integrity and the highest of moral standards. Criminal activity or unethical behavior will not be tolerated, and we will address any of these issues directly and decisively."
Prior to the investigation, Nieblas worked as a code enforcement officer with the Telluride Marshal's Office before being hired by the San Miguel Sheriff's Office on Aug. 1, 2020, as a patrol deputy, according to a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.
He served as a school resource officer for the Norwood School District but was removed from that position for "misuse of his Taser in front of several students while horseplaying with an adult friend (wrestling coach at the school)," the spokeswoman said.
Investigators don't believe any children from San Miguel County were victims of Nieblas.
Norwood is about 330 miles southwest of Denver and about 620 miles north of Agua Prieta.
