Hotel worker accused of sneaking into woman's room, molesting her Copyright by KRQE - All rights reserved CORNELL PACHECO [ + - ] Video

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) - A hotel worker is under arrest after being accused of sneaking into a woman's room in the middle of the night and groping her while she slept next to her husband and just feet from her kids.

It's one of those things you don't think about at a hotel: how many people have key cards to your room.

Now a maintenance man at the Hilton Doubletree on Cerillos in Santa Fe is in deep trouble.

According to a criminal complaint, in late April a guest called police after she said she was sleeping in her room and woke up to find an unknown male molesting her.

That was at almost four in the morning and her husband was asleep next to her. Her two kids were sleeping in the next bed over.

She didn't recognize the man in the dark but he said "I'm sorry babe" as he bolted out of the room.

Police took a DNA swab from her breast as evidence. When the hotel searched the computer logs to see who'd entered her room, they saw an off-duty maintenance man had used his card key to enter the room at 2:50 and 3:45 in the morning.

That key belonged to Cornell Pacheco, the same maintenance man who while on-duty just before midnight had helped the couple get into their room because they'd had too much to drink.

"I would think that the hotel should do a little due diligence in screening their employees," said Santa Fe resident Cheryl Hansen.

When police went to Pacheco's home on the Santo Domingo pueblo, he gave a DNA sample and then investigators say he confessed, admitting that he placed his hand up the woman's shirt, exposing her breast and then licking it.

The now-former maintenance worker won't be sneaking into any more rooms as he's behind bars in Santa Fe on molestation.

Pacheco has a rape charge from 2008 in Sandoval County that was dismissed.

KRQE News 13 called the Hilton Doubletree to see if he was given a background check before he was hired but no comment was given except to say the hotel is under new management as of last week.

News 13's email to Hilton's corporate offices went unanswered.