LOUISVILLE - Irene Marie Gomez remembered that the father of her two youngest children had looked quite the young man when she decided to date him.

He had the features of his American Indian heritage, Gomez said from her Louisville home Tuesday. He had big arms and big hands. He had a mustache and a goatee, and he had a shaved head, which made him look older.

Even more impressive, Gomez said, was he was working as a carpenter and earning $22 an hour.

But Gomez, the mother of three other children, said she initially declined to go out with him when he began courting her in 2001 because Gomez's mother was dying of ovarian cancer and she spent most of her time taking care of her and her family.

"I know 18- and 19-year-olds that don't make anything an hour. Nothing!" Gomez, 38, said as she kept her eyes on her children, ages 4 and 1, scurrying about the living room floor. "And I was like, 'Wow, this guy makes money. He's a good guy. What was I thinking? Why was I telling him, 'no', all this time."

'Dying to go out with me'

Louisville police said that Gomez should have kept denying those advances.

Detectives allege that Gomez engaged in a sexual relationship with the father of her two young children beginning when he was 13, resulting in the birth of their son and daughter. The young man is now 18.

The 38-year-old mother is facing possible charges of sexual assault and sexual assault on a child.

Gomez turned herself in to police last week after officers, investigating an alleged domestic violence incident, began to question the ages of her children and the man she says fathered them.

Gomez maintained that she had inquired a few times with the teenager about his age.

"He wouldn't tell me," she said. "He said, 'You know how old I am. I'm 18 going on 19, girl.' He's still the same way today. I asked him when I first decided that I might go out with him, 'Well, how old are you?' and he was like, 'Eighteen, you know.'

"He was dying to go out with me. He was going to say anything, you know. I mean, he had been bugging me forever. I was like, 'No, I'm not going with you.' I even got the love note he wrote me and he says, 'Somebody's tried and tried, and don't get no reply.' Oh well, dude, I'm busy taking care of my mom and my kids."

But when Gomez's mother died in September 2001 that's when she said she relented, and she didn't give his age a second thought given his friendship and maturity.

"I didn't have anybody else," Gomez said. "My dad's not here, either. If it wouldn't have been for him I wouldn't even be here today because I didn't want to stay here after my mom died. I was so close to my mother there was just no other reason than to be here but to be with my kids, and he helped me through a lot of that because he was there. There was nobody else."

Gomez eventually became pregnant, not knowing he was only 13, but she acknowledged that other relatives began to question whether she knew her boyfriend's age.

"I was already pregnant with (the 4-year-old), and then I kept hearing stuff, you know, 'Well, how come (the father's) not in school?' I'm like, 'He's working.' And people were like, 'How does he work?' He works because he always works with his dad. He works, that's all I knew."

"I still didn't find out for a long time until his cousin said something. And I said, 'Well, he told me he was going to be 19,' and then his cousin said, 'No, he's not.' And I was like, 'What do you mean he's not?' and she was like, 'He lies to you all the time, Irene.' About what? She said his age. And I was like, 'Well, how old is he really, then?' and she just said, 'Well, let him tell you.'

The Rocky Mountain News is withholding his name because he was a juvenile when the sex crimes allegedly occurred.

Altercation leads to revelation

According to an arrest affidavit filed in Boulder County District Court:

Louisville officers were called to the woman's home in the 600 block of Fireside Street on Nov. 11 to investigate a physical altercation between Gomez and the children's father.

Though Gomez initially denied that the fight was anything but verbal, she later contacted police to say she had lied. Gomez alleged that the young man had grabbed her and bruised her arms.

In the course of filing the report, she told the investigator that she and the young man had two children together, one who is now 4 and another who is a year old.

Looking at the birth dates, the officer realized that the father would have been 13 and 16 when the children were conceived.

Gomez said she had an on-again, off-again relationship with the youth, who stayed with her after running away from home.

Gomez admitted she continued the relationship after learning his true age.

"We were together," she said. "We were like a couple. We didn't want to not be parents to (our son) and I just didn't want this to happen. I was like, 'We went this far, we might as well keep going.' "

Police had been alerted

The young man's relatives are angry that charges weren't filed sooner.

The boy's aunt, Chimene Madrid, 38, said Gomez knew that her nephew was a minor when their alleged relationship began because Gomez saw him grow up.

The teen's grandfather, Rudolph Capuchio, said that Gomez stole his grandson's childhood.

"He never had a chance to know what school was like or date somebody his own age. He's been with her since he was 13."

Capuchio said that he and his wife, who died in December, alerted Lafayette police about Gomez and his grandson when the boy was 13.

But nothing happened.

"She (Gomez) denied it, and no one has been apprehended until now," he said, visibly shaken.

He believes law enforcement would have responded more quickly if the victim had been a girl and the suspect an older man.

"She should go straight to prison," he said of Gomez.

Gomez told investigators that she and her children's father quarreled at times, sometimes over child support, and that the young man had threatened to take her to court for "molesting" him.

According to the affidavit, she told the teen that he was "already over it," pointing out that he also had his younger brother come stay with her.

"If it bothered you so much, then why did your grandparents and his social worker let your little brother come live in my house, if I was such a bad person?" she said she asked the youth. "And if I was such a bad person, I wouldn't have my kids."

'He's always been good'

When confronted by police, the boy admitted that he had been intimately involved with Gomez since he was 13, but he denied being the father of her kids.

He said the recent argument occurred because Gomez allegedly wrote a forged check for $200 from his account.

When questioned again later, the youth told police he was, in fact, the children's father but did not want to pay support.

The children's father currently has a no-contact order with his family, Gomez said. She hopes that the judge will lift the order so he can visit with his children and pick up the medication he needs to treat his grand mal seizures and asthma. He is staying with his father in Denver.

"He's been a great guy the whole time, except when we got in that fight in November," Gomez said. "He's always been good. He does everything for me. He does everything for us. He bought me a car because my car broke down. He bought me that Suburban because I wanted one."

Excerpts from arrest affidavit

Irene Gomez was accused of having a baby with a boy who was then 13. Police say she continued the relationship for three more years, resulting in the birth of a second child.

• "Irene suspects (the young man) is trying to get out of paying child support . . . Irene stated that she had numerous photos that will show (the young man) at Avista Hospital holding (one of the babies) the day he was born . . . When asked about the current status of their relationship, Irene stated, "We've been together, we're a family, we're an established family . . . like anybody else."

• "If I was such a bad person I wouldn't have my kids."

• "He was a runaway when I met him . . . He was thirteen. But I didn't know it. He said he was 18. If you looked at him now you'd think he was 25 years old."

• She told police she learned a short while later that he was, in fact, 13, but continued the relationship, the affidavit says.

• The young man "reluctantly admitted to me that he was their paternal father and that he was worried about having to pay court ordered child support. When I inquired further about their relationship, (the young man) stated, 'I really don't want to go there with you, sir.' "

• Gomez gave police a letter she says the young man wrote to her when he was 13. Here's the text, unedited, according to the affidavit:

"Bonita, I wrote this letter to tell you. When I see you I'm like God, Please let this be the day that we can be together but I get no reply so I wait for him no more. I want you so to much so every day I want you to be with me. Do you know how much I love you? No because there is no word for this feeling that I have for you. I try my Best! Do you feel the same if not we can just be friends."

ramirezr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5067

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