Police Arrest NHS Head Custodian

On Sexual Assault Charge

By Andrew Gorosko

Newtown police on June 9 arrested the head custodian of Newtown High School on a warrant on one count of second-degree sexual assault. Police allege that he had had sexual intercourse with a student.

Police said that after learning that they held a warrant for his arrest, James P. Young, 39, of Middlebury, went to the police station and was charged with the felony offense.

Police charged Young with the version of second-degree sexual assault, which pertains to an employee of a school having sexual intercourse with a person who is a student at that school.

After arrest processing, police released Young on $100 bail for a June 22 arraignment on the charge at Danbury Superior Court.

Young, who has worked for the school system since 1996, is on paid administrative leave from his job as NHS head custodian, having been put on that status by school officials after they learned in March that he was under investigation by police concerning other criminal matters. On March 20, Southbury police had arrested Young on four criminal charges — disorderly conduct, second-degree threatening, second-degree criminal mischief, and third-degree assault.

Newtown Police Youth Officer Gladys Pisani is the investigator in the Newtown police case against Young.

On April 20, Middlebury police arrested Young in connection with his alleged consensual sexual relationship with a female former NHS student. Middlebury police charged Young with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of risk of injury to a child.

One of those sexual assault charges pertains to Young allegedly having had sexual intercourse with a person who was a student at the school. The other sexual assault charge concerns sexual intercourse with that person who was under age 16. Those charges allegedly stem from a September 2007 incident.

Young is scheduled to again appear in Waterbury Superior Court on July 7 on the criminal charges lodged by Middlebury police and by Southbury police. Young has not yet pleaded to those seven charges. He is free on $12,500 bail on those charges.

A conviction on a second-degree sexual assault charge carries a mandatory nine-month jail sentence.

In a statement that was issued by Middlebury police when they arrested Young in April, police said, “The arrest stems from an investigation which was initiated by Newtown Police Youth Officer Gladys Pisani after a former [Newtown] high school student came forward and reported a relationship with a custodian.” Middlebury and Newtown police conducted a joint investigation, corroborating information in the case, Middlebury police added.

“The investigation centered around a dating relationship between the victim, who was a student at Newtown High School, and Young, who worked there as a custodian. The relationship lasted about three years,” according to Middlebury police.

The Middlebury police charges against Young would stem from actions that occurred in Middlebury, while the Newtown charge against Young would concern actions that occurred in Newtown. 

Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week that the charges filed against Young by Newtown police and Middlebury police involve the same victim.

The female victim no longer is a student at the high school.