Police have made a second arrest in a case involving allegations that a guardian parent in Bristol sexually assaulted a girl in his care numerous times and fathered her child when she was 13 years old.
Darlene Barriault, 48, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of risk of injury to a minor, according to Bristol Police Department records.
She was held on a $25,000 bond following her arrest and was arraigned Thursday in New Britain Superior Court.
Barriault’s arrest comes weeks after her husband, Roger Barriault, 63, was arrested and charged with one count each of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. The arrest warrant affidavit in the case against Darlene Barriault was not immediately available following her arraignment.
Both Roger and Darlene Barriault have been named in a lawsuit filed last July in the New Britain courthouse by Middletown-based attorney Nate Baber on behalf of the victim. In it, Baber contends that Darlene Barriault knew of her husband’s sexual abuse and was not only complacent in allowing it to persist but also helped cover it up.
The arrest warrant affidavit filed supporting the charges against Roger Barriault said the victim went to police as an adult in May 2023 and told investigators he sexually assaulted her almost daily between 2004 and 2015, estimating that it happened between 3,800 to 4,000 times.
According to the affidavit, the victim alleged that she had been placed in foster care by the Department of Children and Families when she was between 6 months and 2 years old and was placed in a home in Bristol around 2004 when she was 8 or 9. It was around this time that the girl was introduced to Roger Barriault, who was “often allowed to be left alone” with her and “nearly immediately” allegedly began grooming her, Baber’s lawsuit contends.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the victim told police Roger Barriault first performed a sex act on her in 2004 when she was in her bedroom at her foster mother’s home.
The victim said Roger Barriault stopped upon hearing someone downstairs and threatened to tell everyone she had wanted him to do what he did if she disclosed what happened to anyone, the warrant affidavit said. According to the affidavit, there were two more similar instances involving Roger Barriault before the girl’s foster mother moved to another state, at which point she began living at a residence with the Barriaults, where he allegedly began having sex with her.
Baber contends in the lawsuit that, around 2006, DCF learned that the girl was living with Barriault while he was being investigated for sexual abuse allegations involving another minor child. Police wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit that Barriault was reportedly arrested for “similar sexual misconduct” in 2007, at which point the victim in the most recent allegations was temporarily removed from his home.
In October 2007, the Barriaults filed a petition with the Bristol Probate Court to obtain guardianship of the victim, according to the lawsuit. By April 2008, Baber contends, DCF “approved and recommended” a plan to return the victim to the Barriaults when the charges were dropped. It was around this time that the victim became pregnant at 12 years old and would later give birth to Roger Barriault’s child when she was 13, according to the arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Bristol police and the lawsuit filed by Baber.
During their investigation, Bristol police conducted a DNA test to confirm Barriault was the child’s father, the arrest warrant affidavit said.
From approximately 2005 until 2016, Darlene Barriault knew that her husband Roger Barriault was continuously sexually abusing (the victim) on a near daily basis,” Baber contends in his lawsuit.
Baber alleges that Darlene Barriault failed to do anything about it.
“Instead, she willingly concealed, hid, covered up and conspired to hide Roger Barriault’s depraved sexual abuse of (the victim),” Baber wrote.
Roger Barriault’s criminal case remains pending in New Britain court. He is free on a $200,000 bond and is next scheduled to appear in court on March 26.
