Accused flasher is arrested again
Mentmore residents uneasy over neighbor’s activities

Hernandez

By Leslie Wood
Staff writer

GALLUP — Authorities rearrested a 22-year-old Mentmore man after a second woman came forward with a claim that he exposed himself to her near the Mentmore jogging trail.

Eric Hernandez was booked into the McKinley County Adult Detention Center for a second time on felony charges of indecent exposure after a local woman identified him through a photograph in the Independent as the man who exposed himself to her on July 18, 2006.

The woman contacted McKinley County sheriff’s investigators and said Hernandez was the person who approached her while she was inside her parked vehicle on Carbon Coal Road. Hernandez reportedly walked toward the woman while he masturbated.

“(the woman) stated she became frightened and angry at the same time and locked her vehicle doors. ... She became very frightened and thought that if the subject was able to get to her that he would have ‘assaulted and raped me!’” according to an affidavit for arrest.

The woman then started her vehicle and drove from the scene. She was; however, able to obtain a license plate number that authorities later learned belonged to an acquaintance of Hernandez.

Hernandez was initially arrested on March 6 on similar allegations that he exposed himself to another woman in a remote area near the Mentmore Meadows subdivision in August.

He has pleaded innocent to the charges and will undergo a pair of preliminary hearings this week in connection with the matter. He is in custody on a $10,000 cash only bond. Steve Seeger, Hernandez’s attorney, did not immediately return a request for comment about the case.

Investigator Ron Saavadra, of the McKinley County Sheriff’s Department, said he is investigating additional complaints against Hernandez, but criminal charges have yet to be filed in connection with the incidents.

Steve Edwards, Hernandez’s neighbor on Blue Hill Avenue, said he is concerned for the safety of neighborhood women and children in the wake of the allegations. He and his 3-year-old daughter live feet from Hernandez’s last known address at the 3400 Block of Blue Hill Avenue.

“I thought it was a a one time thing,” Edwards said of Hernandez’s alleged actions.

He visited with many of his neighbors last week to inform them of Hernandez’s arrest.

Edwards also pointed out that the man coined as the “Arroyo Molester” Genaro Sandoval was also arrested at a Mentmore residence earlier this year. Sandoval is facing multiple felony charges in Albuquerque for his alleged involvement in the molestation of multiple young boys.