Report: The state failed to protect the child for a decade of sexual abuse

A report From the office of the child’s lawyer issued on Wednesday he criticized the Department of Children and Families and the Court of Probate because he did not protect a young woman who was sexually assaulted by her guardian named by the court for over a decade, during which she became pregnant and gave birth to her child.

The young woman, to whom the report refers to Jane Doe, reported to the police in May 2023 that her tutor named in court, Roger Barriault, “sexually assaulted her almost daily”, starting with 2004 and ended in 2015, according to the report of the child’s lawyer.

At the age of 12, she became pregnant, and at 13, she gave birth to a daughter. At the beginning of 2024, the paternity tests checked that Barriault had born Jane Doe’s child, and he and his wife Darlene were both arrest-barriault under the accusation of sexual aggression of the first degree and risk of injury to a child and his wife for the risk of injury.

But the report of the child’s lawyer states that the State Department for Children and Families has failed to investigate, despite the repeated concerns regarding the treatment of children living at the Barria House, including multiple accusations of sexual aggression.

A 13 -year -old girl identified as Mary, who was the child of a barrier friend, claimed in 2005 and again in the summer of 2006 that Barriault had reached it inappropriately.

Jane Doe came under the care of Barriauls in 2006, when she was 10, after her guardian moved from the state. Jane, who was 11 years old in the summer of 2006, said Barriault did not assault her.

But DCF, despite the fact that he was aware of Mary’s accusations, did not list Barriault as an alleged sexual abuser on her basis of electronic data, which would have reported her name in their system, according to The Child Advocate. A law of the state that requires a written investigation and report to be addressed to the trial court in the case of the alleged abuse or neglect was renounced when Barriault became the temporary guardian of Jane Doe.

In 2007, Mary reconstituted her accusations against Barria, and the criminal accusations were abandoned. Jane Doe became pregnant in 2008, at the age of 12. During another DCF investigation, she claimed that the child’s father was a young man who met at a party and denied to be assaulted by Roger Barriault.

Although DCF initially demonstrated Mary’s accusations of sexual abuse and put Bariault in his central register, Barriault appealed, and his name was removed. The DCF statements were overturned from an administrative point of view, because the criminal case was solved without conviction.

Jane Doe gave birth to her daughter in 2008. The evidence called barriers as child’s tutors. DCF did not make an evaluation of the barriers at that time.

A few years later, questions about the identity of Jane Doe’s father began to arise. In 2012, during a DCF investigation on the tutelage of another child, Barriault refused to do a paternity test, says the children’s report.

“Throughout these involvements with DCF, DCF has documented that Mr. Barriault was argumentative and did not allow children in his care to be interviewed alone. DCF has not notified the police of charges of sexual assault, ”the report shows.

In 2015, DCF received children from text messages from Barriault to Jane Doe, who included “look at the girl the girl we have to gather” and “look at that beautiful girl I offered you”.

“DCF did not take any measures, nor at the time he received the text messages, nor at the time of evaluation, to announce the police,” the report shows.

“DCF has made an internal legal consultation and a decision was made to not submit a petition of neglect, despite a decade of sexual abuse problems and recently acquired text message evidence about an apparent admission of paternity,” the report shows. “The police have never been informed about the accusations of paternity, and DCF has not taken measures about this concern.”

Over five years, Jane Doe has paid more than $ 23,000 in support of children to Barriauls. She took care of her daughter in 2020, at the age of 24 or 25, and asked the trial court to give up barriers as tutors for the child.

Barriaoosul, who acted as tutors for seven children over 20 years, received $ 400,000 in state and federal aid through the State Social Services Department. The family was investigated 27 times before Jane Doe went to the police, although a single accusation of abuse was justified. Then, in July 2023, DCF again demonstrated the charges of sexual assault and placed Roger Barriault again in the DCF register.

The same month Jane Doe submitted a process In the upper courtyard against Barria, his wife and mother of his wife, who lived with them.

Kerry Robair, Barria’s lawyer, did not respond to a comment request. But in the judicial documents, Barriault denied all Jane Doe’s accusations. He also denied any sexual abuse of young woman to a reporter CT Insider in November.

Barriault did not comment on the case when it was contacted by telephone.

The jury selection for the process is scheduled for October.

The report of the child’s lawyer mentioned that when DCF performs an evaluation of the trial in response to a request for a tutor to be removed, it is not treated as a neglect or abuse, even if such an assertion is involved.

“This has significant implications for the accuracy and completeness of the information, the availability of information for future evaluations and can create a lack of clarity if and when the police reports are needed,” the report shows.

He also mentioned that the case workers who do these assessments do not obtain the same training as the DCF investigators and said that the quality of the DCF reports to the evidence varied in “precision and completion”.

“Oca finds that a quality assurance framework is required to ensure the quality of evaluations sent to the trial court and that certain DCF policies should be modified,” the report shows.

The judges of the trial court, said the child’s lawyer, are not obliged to receive training in abuse and neglect of children or in recognizing the signs of sexual abuse, and the lawyer who serves in the court should not be subject to specific training. The report recommended that the legislator create a working group to consider a series of legal changes, including requiring additional training for lawyers who serve in evidence and DCF case workers working on evidence.

The child’s lawyer also requested that the DCF will save his evaluations for the evidence within his electronic system, that he must report charges of sexual abuse to the police and create a “quality assurance framework” for the evaluations written for the evidence.

In response to the report of the child’s lawyer, the Department for Children and Families said that its system “has evolved significantly over the past 20 years” and has not commented on the case of Jane Doe.

In response to the findings of the child’s lawyer, DCF said that his role in the cases of evidence was “differently intentionally” from his activity of investigating neglect and abuse claims. The department said that his activity in the evidence “allows the evidence to carry a larger house than the social workers who manage the abuse of children and neglect the investigations, while they still allow them enough time to complete high quality assessments and reports.”

The department also said that all the social workers, including those who work in the test court, take “extensive pre-service training related to the abuse and neglect of children, traumas, evaluation, planning of cases and services to support the safety, permanence and well-being of the children they serve.”

The department said that it has maintained continuous communication with the trial court to solve any problems.

An official for the trial court refused to comment on report.

This story was initially published in Connecticut Mirror.