An aide on a school bus taking a 9-year-old boy from Stamford to Trumbull was in Darien when he was caught on surveillance video biting the child, Darien police said.
The 27-year-old Bridgeport man is also accused of hitting the boy, who has autism, with a phone and even licking his face and wiping mucus on him over the previous three weeks, police said. Police did not say whether any of those alleged acts were also recorded on video.
Darien police gave these further details of the incident, including accusations not proven in court:
Darien P.D. arrest photo
Juan C. Rodriguez, 27, of Berkshire Avenue in Bridgeport, was charged with risk of injury to a minor and third-degree assault.
Trumbull police told police in Darien on April 4 that when the biting incident took place three days earlier, the bus was in Darien, taking the boy and other students home from a private special education school in Stamford.
The boy’s mother reported the incident to police after she saw a bite mark on the child’s back. Surveillance video from the bus confirmed the accusation. When the boy was bitten, he immediately cried out in pain.
The aide, Juan C. Rodriguez of Berkshire Avenue in Bridgeport, was fired from his job.
Darien police applied for and received an arrest warrant on June 14, charging him with risk of injury to a child (a felony) and third-degree assault (a misdemeanor). Rodriguez made arrangements to turn himself in at Darien Police Headquarters on June 17, and he was released on a $50,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear July 5 in state Superior Court in Stamford.