A Hispanic woman charged with obstruction of justice for covering up sexual misconduct she engaged in with minors at a Tennessee shelter for migrant children pleaded guilty.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported this Tuesday.
Court documents indicated that when Florencia Renderos Morales, 24, worked at a shelter for undocumented and unaccompanied children, she engaged in “inappropriate sexual conduct directed at resident minors in their late teens.”
In this way, Renderos avoided an indictment by a federal grand jury. about his actions inside the shelter, as part of a plea agreement.
Tennessee authorities, as well as federal officials, launched an investigation into the conduct of Renderos, as well as other people at the ‘La Casa de Sydney’ shelter.
The suspect, upon learning of the investigation, contacted other people involved about ways to evade arrestDHS noted.
“(Renderos) spoke about the person she believed reported her conduct to authorities and urged a minor former resident of La Casa de Sydney to delete electronic evidence that was relevant to the investigation,” DHS added.
For her part, Special Agent Rana Saoud, from the DHS Homeland Security Investigations Division, specified that “Taking advantage of defenseless individuals, regardless of their citizenship, will result in serious consequences.”
Renderos is expected to face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and three more years of probation, in addition to $500,000 in fines. The sentencing hearing was set for January 12, 2024.
The events occurred in 2021, when it was reported that minors housed in La Casa de Sidney, in Chattanooga, made accusations related to sexual abuse.
Renderos was arrested in July of this year, together with two workers. As a result of the investigation, The shelter was delicensed from The Baptiste Group (TBG), which operated the shelter, and the premises were closed.
With information from the EFE agency
Keep reading:
– Man charged with sending explicit sexual messages to a 14-year-old girl in South Carolina
– Life sentence for man in Texas who killed Hispanic wife and lover after planting a secret camera and seeing them in a sexual act
– Immigrants give up going to the United States through irregular routes due to the abuse of the authorities
