Sex-crime suspect arraigned

A woman whose husband is among those accused of multiple sex acts involving children said Wednesday the allegations are false.

“It’s hard to believe. We had a good name and it’s ruined,” Jeanette Martin said. “All the stuff that’s gone on has messed up my name, and (my husband) worked hard all his life as a dishwasher for our family.”

Martin, 44, is among three adults who’ve been arrested in connection with what police termed a sex “club” that operated out of a house at 700 E. 10th Street in Clovis.

Martin is charged only with child abuse and has been released on bond. Her husband, Billy Martin, faces multiple counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and remains in jail. Anastacio Esquebel, who is known to the Martins, also is charged with multiple sex crimes. An arrest warrant has been issued for a third man, Harry Robbs, who lived with the Martins on 10th Street.

Interviewed Wednesday evening outside her new residence at an apartment complex at 2101 W. Grand Ave., Jeanette Martin said she is glad to be free on bond. She also denied that either she or her husband were involved in sex acts that police say involved at least 18 girls between the ages of 6 and 13.

Arrest warrants report Jeanette Martin told police she tried to protect one young girl by sleeping with her so “nothing would happen” to her.

Martin, a lifelong Clovis resident, said her family never expected to face accusations of sex abuse.

Martin said her husband first met Harry Robbs when they worked together at a Clovis restaurant. Robbs later moved in with the Martin family.

“Robbs had lived with us 1 1/2 years but he’d come in and out, stay for a while and then leave,” Martin said.

According to police reports, one young girl said Jeanette Martin ordered Robbs to leave the house after she confronted him about inappropriately touching the girl.

Martin, who has three children, said she would never hurt children and worried about what would happen next with the legal system.

“My children are my life,” Martin said. “At this point I haven’t had a chance to see my lawyer yet so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Neither Jeanette Martin, Billy Martin, Esquebel nor Robbs is listed on New Mexico’s sex offender registry.Police declined to discuss whether the suspects have criminal records.