BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A former Northwest Arkansas Children's Shelter employee has been arrested after being accused of raping a 10-year-old.
According to court documents, 23-year-old Hunter De La Garza was arrested on February 26 on allegations of rape.
Court records state that in April of 2021, a 10-year-old reached out to an Arkansas Child Abuse hotline and said De La Garza raped them in a bathroom at the Promenade Mall in Rogers during a one-on-one outing in February 2021.
Police reached out to Mallory Deets, a lead supervisor at the NWA Children's Shelter, in May of 2021. Deets told investigators that De La Garza worked at the shelter for a little over a year, and there had been "several issues" that eventually led to him being fired.
Deets said De La Garza was accused of making racist remarks to the kids at the shelter and that he had gone into the bathroom with a six-year-old to "help" even though it was against the shelter policy.
According to court records, Deets also told investigators that De La Garza had to be warned "a couple of times" to stop going into the bathroom with the six-year-old.
Other incidents reported include De La Garza stating he had a former "fling" with a 16-year-old who checked into the shelter. Records say that De La Garza took a 14-year-old to get a COVID test and allegedly tried to touch them under a blanket in the van on the way to the testing site.
Deets told investigators that De La Garza was let go after the 14-year-old reported the incident, which occurred after the 10-year-old's alleged rape.
Records state that while investigators interviewed De La Garza, he changed his story several times. He also volunteered to take a lie detector test, which indicated that he was not being truthful in some of his answers.
During his employment at the shelter, De La Garza received two written warnings about racial comments, one written warning about going into the bathroom with the 6-year-old, and was "coached" about setting boundaries with residents, especially female residents.
De La Garza is set to appear in court on April 11, 2022.
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