SANTA FE (NM)
Santa Fe New Mexican [Santa Fe NM]
May 29, 2026
By Phaedra Haywood
A former Catholic school teacher accused of sexually abusing a student rejected a plea deal Thursday that would have prohibited him from living with his partner’s two children.
Calvin Robinson, 44, faces charges of criminal sexual penetration and criminal sexual contact of a minor by a person in a position of authority. He is accused of abusing a 13-year-old girl while working at Holy Cross Catholic School in the Northern New Mexico community of Santa Cruz in 2021.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit against Robinson, the girl told investigators the sexual abuse began after Robinson, her teacher at the school near Española, asked if she could keep a secret. He would write her notes during class, asking if she had ever done anything with a “guy,” according to the affidavit.
Robinson eventually started touching her in the basement of the Holy Cross gymnasium while the class would retrieve books, she told investigators, adding the abuse progressed.
The court was poised to accept Robinson’s agreement with prosecutors that called for him to plead guilty to two counts of criminal sexual contact and would have given the court 11½ years of supervision over him, with a sentence of 3½ years in prison and the remainder of the prison time suspended.
However, Robinson balked during Thursday’s hearing after Deputy District Attorney Haley Murphy read the terms of the deal, which included conditions that he not reside with or have unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.
Robinson has been out of custody awaiting trial in the case. His conditions of release had banned him from contact with children — “except for the two stepchildren he raises and resides with,” according to court records.
The state is no longer willing to make an exception for those children, Murphy told the court.
“The state has concerns about the safety of those children and won’t agree to unsupervised contact or residing with children,” she said.
State District Judge Jason Lidyard set a status conference in the case next month but noted he had canceled a trial date in advance of a prior plea deal for Robinson that fell apart and was unlikely to reset the case again if the parties could not come to terms before the June hearing.
“I don’t blame anybody for that. I know that this is complicated, and these are tough decisions, but I most certainly can’t vacate another trial date in the future if I’m told at the time of the status hearing that the plea has been rejected,” the judge said.
“I think Mr. Robinson is entitled to have some further contemplation and consideration and consultations with his attorney before he makes a decision,” Lidyard added, “but it sounds like this is the best and all that the state is willing to provide for, so if it’s not going to be accepted we need to get this matter set for trial.”
It wasn’t clear whether the children in question live with Robinson and his partner full time. A woman who accompanied him to the hearing left the courtroom in tears before the hearing had concluded.
The case against Robinson wasn’t the first allegation of abuse at Holy Cross, which announced earlier this month it was closing after 76 years.
Former priest Marvin Archuleta was accused in civil cases of abusing multiple children decades ago, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 2017 included him on a list of clergy who were credibly accused of sexual misconduct. Archuleta stood trial in 2020 in Santa Fe on criminal charges accusing him of raping a first grader in the late 1980s, but a jury found him not guilty.
Holy Cross said in a Facebook post it plans to open a new school, Anima Christi Learning Center, which it described as a “‘hybrid homeschooling program.”