An Albuquerque woman, Yolanda Arguello was arrested on three counts of Felony Battery on probation and parole officers at the Woman’s Recovery Academy in New Mexico.

According to New Mexico court documents, an investigation was initiated into Arguello on May 22nd after receiving information about Arguello contaminating food given to the officers at the institution.

It was on the 21st that an officer at the facility arrested a woman on an unrelated violation. That woman told the arresting officer that corruption was rampant at the academy. When pressed further, the arrestee told the officer that “Miss Yolanda licks your sandwiches.” She later admitted that she had never seen Arguello commit the actual offense, but had heard about it from other inmates at the facility where Arguello worked as a cook.

The woman told the officer that the other inmates, who she identified by name, had observed Arguello on several occasions licking the officers food before serving it to them but were too afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation. Apparently, Arguello was dating her direct supervisor, who when receiving complaints from inmates, would relay that information to Arguello, who would intimidate the inmates.

When contacted, inmates mentioned by the arrestee, confirmed what she had said and when pressed for information, one of the five witnesses said that she heard Arguello state in January, “I don’t work for Probation/Parole, I don’t have to serve them, I will show them who is special, better than others,” before licking cheese that she later placed in an officer’s sandwich. The witness also reported that four others had witnessed as Arguello would suck on ice cubes before spitting them into glasses given to the officers at the facility.

It was also reported by witnesses that Arguello would dump ice cubes on the floor, scoop them up and place them in a pitcher filled with tea to serve the officers.

Arguello was arrested and booked into the Bernalillo County Jail on three Felony counts of Battery for contaminating food with her saliva. She would later make bail.

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