Day care worker on second investigation

The day care worker suspected of sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl in September was investigated following a similar allegation of sexual assault nine months ago, according to an affidavit released by the district attorney.

Johnny Duran, 31, a Metro student, worked at the Auraria Early Learning Center as an assistant for the past year and a half. On Sept. 3, a parent reported that her daughter told her that the suspect was a “bad boy,” and “hurt her” the day before. Duran was formally charged on Sept. 17 with one count of sexual assault on a child and one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.

According to the affidavit, Duran was the subject of a similar investigation in January, when a 4-year-old at the daycare center told her parents that Duran had “touched her…in the bathroom.”

Personnel at the center said that they were “not allowed to talk about [the case],” citing a confidentiality policy. The director of the center, Mary McCain, would not comment for the story. Questions about the case were referred to Auraria Higher Education Center spokesman Blaine Nickeson, who was out of the office for the week and unavailable for comment.

However, Nickeson told 7News two weeks ago that the daycare takes precautions, including “multiple background checks” and “regular evaluations” for employees, to ensure that cases like this do not occur.

Lynn Kimbrough, director of communications for the District Attorney’s office, said that, “since we do have a case open against Duran, we are limited in what we can say” about the alleged assault in January.

She did confirm, however, that the police investigated Duran, but that the DA determined that the evidence they gathered about that incident was not sufficient to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, though Kimbrough declined to discuss any specifics of what evidence was gathered.

The DA ultimately declined to proceed in that incident, and no charges were brought against Duran. Kimbrough said, however, that evidence gathered in the January investigation would be used to build the current case against Duran.

Despite the previous inquiry into Duran’s conduct, the investigating officer said in the affidavit that Duran was asked on Sept. 2 to cover a classroom during naptime he did not normally cover, an arrangement, the director of the center confirmed to the officer, that would have given Duran access to the victim. It was not clear from the context of the affidavit whether Duran and the victim were left alone.

Duran is currently out of jail on a $25,000 bond, awaiting a preliminary hearing on Oct. 20.
 

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5 comments

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Wed Dec 2 2009 17:54

What difference does it make if it's an aid or not? Aids go through the same orientation, training, and background checks that the superior and assisting teachers go through. Working at ANY center for a year and a half is more than enough time to become an assisting teacher and I think that this would've happened no matter his job title. As a parent I know that my children can be trusted with teacher aids and that they are in the best care no matter assistant teacher or not.

Terri

Sat Oct 31 2009 21:45

I too heard the school had covered up previous allegations of abuse by a former employee. The school should have come forward with this when the second allegation came out. They allowed him to do it again. They allowed someone who was suspected of abuse to be alone with the children? The rules are only a teacher or assistant teacher should ever be allowed alone but routinely this is not the case. Aids take children alone back into the bathroom all the time when the children have recess, and during numerous other times. Ask any employee there. Why should another child have to go through this?

l.b.

Mon Oct 12 2009 21:07

That's bullshit, Why wasn't he fired in January? Sounds like a lawsuit. They put all the children at risk by keeping him on staff.

K.W

Thu Oct 8 2009 10:59

I could not dissagree more. As a parent of a child who attended the Auraria center I am glad to have found out about this previous accusation, poor article or not. Releasing the information in this article sooner gives parents information that the center was not giving out. Hiding information IS NOT OKAY, waiting for a good story is not acceptable. Albeit that there could be more information not listed in this article, more information can be published as it is found out. Waiting a week for someone to get back into town for comment, in my opinion, would be sloppy. This is a very serious issue, lets not hide it.

Julie Maas

Sun Oct 4 2009 23:38

As a parent of a child at the center (for about 4 years now), and an Auraria student, I'm surprised at the content quality of this article. You might want to put together a more complete story before printing-this is a bit one sided. You mention that Nickeson was not available for comment but this is a student paper with a story that could have waited. Did you try to talk to the police or did you just want to stick with the DA? Before upsetting people further about the incident, you might want to get all the info. I'm shocked at how easily you are willing to release information about a victim (especially such a small child) with so little story to go along with it. This is a very upsetting situation for all families who go to the center (or have children in daycare anywhere) and to have it so poorly covered is almost offensive like it isn't taken seriously. Maybe when you have children you will understand.

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