A 22-year-old state employee from Walden has been charged with rape after New York State Police alleged she engaged in sexual conduct with a 20-year-old male resident at Goshen Secure Center, a locked youth facility in Orange County where authorities say the young man could not legally consent. Perla T. Serrano Rivera was arrested on September 3, 2026, following a State Police investigation involving the state-run detention center.
Police allege Rivera, who was working at Goshen Secure Center at the time, engaged in sexual conduct with the resident. Authorities say the resident could not legally consent to sexual conduct because of the circumstances of his confinement. Rivera has been charged, not convicted. The allegations have not been proven in court.
State Police charged Rivera with third-degree rape, a felony. She was also charged with misdemeanor official misconduct and second-degree introducing contraband into prison. Police allege Rivera brought contraband into the facility and provided it to residents. Authorities have not publicly identified what the alleged contraband was.
Rivera was arraigned on September 3 and remanded to the Orange County Jail. Reported bail conditions were $1,000 cash, $2,500 bond, or $5,000 secured bond. State Police said she returned to court on September 8. Details about the outcome of that appearance were not immediately provided.
The case was publicly reported on September 9. Goshen Secure Center sits in Orange County, about 50 miles northwest of New York City. It is operated by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. The facility houses male youth in living units off a centralized campus that includes classrooms, vocational shops, health services, and recreation space.
The young men held there are not ordinary jail inmates, and the age of the alleged victim is not an anomaly at this facility. According to the Office of Children and Family Services, Goshen Secure Center serves male juvenile offenders who, while under the age of 16, committed certain violent felonies and were convicted and sentenced in adult criminal court. Depending on the sentence, those youth may remain in OCFS custody until the age of 21.
Juvenile delinquents under Family Court jurisdiction may also be placed at Goshen if they have been reassigned from a limited secure facility for violent behavior. Those youth may remain in OCFS custody up to the age of 18, depending on their placement order. That custody structure is central to the criminal case. Police do not allege that the resident was under 17.
They allege that he could not legally consent because he was confined at the facility. In New York, sexual conduct with a person who is incapable of consent by reason of being in the custody of a detention facility can support a rape charge even when both people are adults. The charge treats the power imbalance inside a locked institution as legally decisive. Staff control movement, discipline, privileges, and access to the outside world.
Residents cannot leave. The official misconduct charge tracks that same allegation of abused authority. The contraband charge is separate. Police say Rivera introduced prohibited items into the facility and provided them to residents.
Investigators have not said what those items were. The Office of Children and Family Services reportedly suspended Rivera and said it has zero tolerance for abuse or mistreatment of youth in its care. OCFS has not publicly released a detailed account of the alleged sexual encounter. State Police likewise have not described when or where inside the facility the alleged conduct occurred.
Goshen Secure Center has long occupied a difficult place in New York’s juvenile justice system. It is one of the state’s secure placement sites for young men convicted of serious violent crimes as children. It is also a workplace where staff are entrusted with near-total control over people who cannot walk out the door. That combination is why prosecutors and police treat sexual contact between staff and residents as a crime of authority, not a private relationship.
Rivera remains charged. She is presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise. The resident has not been publicly identified. The investigation was handled by New York State Police.
The next public details are expected to come from court filings and later appearances in Orange County. For now, the state’s position is narrow and severe. A 22-year-old employee at a locked youth center is accused of sexual conduct with a confined 20-year-old resident, of bringing contraband inside the facility, and of official misconduct. Police say the resident could not consent.
The charges will now move through the criminal courts.
