Occupational therapist facing more charges

Editor’s note: Some content in this report is sexually explicit and may not be appropriate for some readers.

A Clovis occupational therapist is facing additional charges alleging sex crimes against children.

Jared Cordum, 29, was initially arrested in July and charged with one count of criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13, multiple counts of criminal solicitation to commit criminal sexual contact of a minor and practicing medicine without a license.

He is now facing five additional counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor following a grand jury indictment late last month.

Six children have been identified as victims of the defendant, according to New Mexico Department of Justice Communications Director Lauren Rodriguez.

Court records show other cases remain under investigation.

Cordum is being held without bond in the Curry County Adult Detention Center.

Records show he most recently appeared in court on Tuesday when District Judge Drew Tatum issued an order for a competency evaluation “after a finding of a reasonable belief that the defendant may not be competent to stand trial.”

The competency evaluation is scheduled sometime in the next 30 days with an Albuquerque doctor.

Cordum’s attorney, Christopher Marlowe of Albuquerque, declined to discuss the case last week because he did not have his client’s permission.

Court records show that following Cordum’s initial arrest, “the Clovis Police Department received calls from the community of other victims reporting abuse.”

One of those more recent reports came from a 9-year-old child identified as G.G. in court records. The child reported the defendant asked him to perform a sex act. When the child refused, he said Cordum “pressed his penis against the child’s clothed buttocks and back.”

“Defendant told the child he would tell his parents and everyone that G.G. was ‘gay’ or something bad would happen. G.G. disclosed he was scared and felt sick about what happened, so he did not tell anyone,” records show.

The New Mexico Department of Justice became involved in the case in May after Clovis police received reports of alleged sexual abuse from parents and guardians of “several children who had been patients” of Cordum, according to a NMDOJ news release.

“These allegations included reports from a school therapist at a local elementary school,” the release states.

The school therapist was concerned after hearing a child’s foster parent “explained that the child had an occupational therapist come to the home and ‘insert something into his rectum.’ Further reports from other parents and guardians illustrated similar behavior by Cordum and cited the home visits as being ‘odd’ and ‘uncomfortable.’”  

Records show police first received concerns about Cordum’s actions on Feb. 22 from a school therapist. That investigation revealed Cordum gave the child an enema. That child later told an investigator he “ran naked in the kitchen one time with Jared,” alleging “Jared told me to.”

The mother of a second child told a Department of Justice agent that Cordum gave her “weird energy” and made her 4-year-old feel “very uncomfortable” during an examination in which the child was nude. The mother said Cordum did not wear gloves during the examination.

Another mother told officials that she suspected Cordum used his cell phone to record her nude son, who was 7.

The arrest affidavit also alleges Cordum touched the genitals of minors “bare handed outside of the scope of his role as an occupational therapist.”

Records show Cordum is also accused of bribery of a witness, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, manufacturing visual medium of sexual exploitation of children and voyeurism.

Assistant District Attorney Jake Boazman said last week a Jan. 17 trial date will likely be postponed due to the competency issue. Boazman is assisting NMDOJ in prosecution of the case.

Rodriguez of DOJ said Cordum could face up to 180 years in prison if he’s convicted on all charges.