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Ex-youth Care Worker in Phoenix Area Convicted of Sex Abuse

Eric Gay/AP file

A former youth care worker has been convicted of sexually abusing seven teenage boys at a Phoenix-area shelter for immigrant children.

Federal prosecutors say a jury found 25-year-old Levian Pacheco of Phoenix guilty on seven counts of abusive sexual contact with a ward and three counts of sexual abuse of a ward.

He's set to be sentenced on Dec. 3.

Prosecutors say Pacheco sexually abused the teenagers at the Southwest Key facility in Mesa between August 2016 and July 2017.

The teens were being held in official detention pending possible deportation and Pacheco was in charge of supervising them.

Southwest Key suspended Pacheco and he wasn't working there when family separations began in large numbers this year.

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