A former Southwest Key employee charged with sexually abusing migrant teenage boys has been sentenced to 19 years in prison, the District of Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Levian D. Pacheco, 25, was in charge of supervising the boys as a youth care worker at the Casa Kokopelli Southwest Key Facility in Mesa, Arizona.
Evidence at the trial showed that between August 2016 and July 2017, Pacheco sexually abused several teenage boys at the facility, according to the attorney's office.
The jury convicted Pacheco of sexually abusing seven victims, some on more than one occasion, the attorney's office said.
Prosecutors said the acts of abuse included touching the boys’ genitals over their clothes as well as other sexual abuse.
The victims had been detained at the Southwest Facility pending immigration cases.
The attorney's office said Pacheco's sentence was increased because he exposed some of his victims to the HIV virus.