http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/166/metro/Day_care_worker_faces_sex_assaul t_chargesP.shtml Day care worker faces sex assault charges State shuts Revere center By Chris Frates, and Catherine E. Holahan, Globe Correspondents 6/15/2001 A 56-year-old Revere day care center employee was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting two sisters, age 5 and 6, who were placed in his care, prompting state child safety officials to shut the center down. Jaime Rincon was arraigned in Chelsea District Court on two counts each of rape, indecent assault, and battery of a child. He pleaded not guilty. Rincon, who most recently passed a criminal background check in September 1999, is the longtime boyfriend of Nubia Vargas, the owner of the center, which has operated from Vargas's two-family home on Revere Street since 1996. Authorities yesterday said the alleged assaults took place between June 2000 and this month, but they did not specify how many times. They accused Rincon of performing oral sex on one of the sisters while the other one ''was present and watched.'' Rincon was arrested by Revere police Wednesday night after one of the girls told her mother of the alleged assaults, prosecutors said. ''They said they had a secret they had to keep,'' said Lisa Dreitlein, the assistant Suffolk County district attorney prosecuting the case. The children are currently in their mother's care, she said. Rincon, who was held on $250,000 cash bail, was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for a 15-day psychiatric examination, which will determine if he is competent to stand trial. Afterward, the state Office of Child Care Services suspended Vargas's license to provide day care services, said Kate Arsenault, a spokeswoman. Vargas may appeal the suspension within five days, she said, after which the department will determine if the center's license should be revoked permanently. Arsenault said she could not comment on whether such charges, although not leveled at Vargas personally, would result in license revocation. But she did say the charges are serious. ''We take a handful of legal actions every year, and in my [three-year] tenure here, I have never seen charges this egregious,'' Arsenault said. ''This is very, very rare, and parents should know that.'' Rincon, who authorities said is an immigrant who came from Colombia 17 years ago, was the state-approved assistant at the center. In addition to passing a criminal background check, he was required to have training in cardiopulminary resusitation and first aid, and attended a child care orientation. In September 1999, three years after Vargas first opened her unnamed center, Vargas was approved to run a ''large family'' center that could care for up to 10 children, Arsenault said. Large family providers are required to employ an assistant. All people living in home-based day care centers are required by state law to submit to criminal background checks, she said. Since Vargas opened her business, she had been the subject of one minor complaint, which uncovered a minor record-keeping violation, Arsenault said. Martha DiBartolomeo, a neighbor of Rincon and Vargas, said the allegations were shocking and appalling. ''You can't have day care anymore in private homes. They can get away with more there,'' she said. Maria Flores, another neighbor, said ''thank God'' that she lived with her extended family, allowing her to avoid putting her children in day care under Rincon's watch. ''I will never let my kids go inside that house,'' Flores said. This story was written by Raphael Lewis of the Globe's staff.
