LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A former Jefferson County school security guard, convicted of sexually assaulting a student, is expected to be sentenced Monday afternoon.
A jury found Rubel Martinez guilty earlier this year for assaults prosecutors said happened while he worked at Lakewood High School.
The 69-year-old is convicted of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. That guilty verdict came after a four-day trial and a three-hour jury deliberation in January.
Prosecutors said Rubel Martinez repeatedly sexually assaulted the same student between 2014 and 2016, when she was a junior and senior at Lakewood High School. The abuse happened during and after school hours both on and off campus, according to prosecutors.
The victim reported the assaults to police in 2024, leading to Martinez’s arrest and later conviction.
Martinez also worked in security at Jefferson Junior/Senior High School from 2006 to 2022 and ran the after-school Clown Club for both of the schools. The district attorney's office said he was also a pastor at Breakthrough Ministries in Weld County.
Denver7 reached out to Jeffco Public Schools ahead of Martinez’s sentencing to find out what safety measures were put place to keep a similar situationfrom happening again. The district said, in part, that student safety is top priority and the district has strengthened safety practices in recent years.
Jeffco Public Schools also added that employees must pass FBI and CBI fingerprint-based background checks and complete annual training on identifying abuse, grooming behavior and adult sexual misconduct.
“Jeffco’s background check procedures have been reviewed and refined in partnership with safety experts. Continuous CBI monitoring is now confirmed for all staff, and digital fingerprinting is underway for a small group of employees hired before the current requirements. Reference checks are now mandated for all hires,” the district said in a statement to Denver7.
The district said it conducted an audit of its student and staff reporting systems in April of last year. That review looked at tools like Safe2Tell, Title IX reporting and mandatory reporting systems.
Based on those findings, the district said it created a new confidential system to track adult behavior concerns reported through Safe2Tell and also created a new procedure for reporting unlawful behavior involving children. That launched in the fall of last year.
District leaders clarified that these updates were not implemented specifically because of the Martinez case but instead reflect broader efforts over the years to improve reporting systems and accountability across Jeffco Public Schools.
Martinez is set to be sentenced at 3 p.m. at the Jefferson County courthouse.
