BRIDGEPORT–A man has been arrested after years of alleged abuse of a child.
On Monday, Ricardo Julien, 39, of Bridgeport, was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child in the first and fourth degree and risk of injury to a minor.
According to Bridgeport’s spokesperson, Julien began sexually assaulting the victim, who lives in Bridgeport, when she was 5 or 6 years old, and continued sexually assaulting her until the present day. The arrest comes after the victim’s mother learned of the continuous assaults and reported Julien to police.
Julien was apparently a friend of the girl’s family.
He was a school bus driver for DATTCO in Trumbull, but never transported the victim, who lives in Bridgeport. DATTCO released the following statement, and added that Julien was a bus driver at the school bus company that serviced Trumbull before DATTCO took over:
Mr. Julien was employed as a school bus driver with our company for two and one half years, beginning in August 2013. As such he was required to pass FBI fingerprint checks, annual criminal background checks, and multiple pre-employment examinations, in excess of federal and state requirements. In February of 2016, our company was informed of a pending investigation by officials of the Department of Children and Families. The company immediately placed the employee on unpaid leave of absence, pending the outcome of that investigation. He remains in a non-work status at this time, and Dattco will continue to monitor the investigation, cooperating with the authorities as required.
Bond was set at $200,000, and he’ll next be in court November 8.
