YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A former employee at a Hackensack group home for at-risk and special needs children was indicted today on charges of putting his finger in the vagina of a teenage patient.
The abuse began in February 2010 and continued for six months, a superseding indictment returned in Hackensack against 41-year-old Daniel Blathers of Paterson alleges.
According to Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli, Blathers was employed as a unit supervisor responsible for checking on the status of residents at Youth Consultation Services’ Holley Center.
Youth Consultation Services’ website states that the facility, which opened in 2005, provides “long-term intensive residence” for up to 45 children ages 6 to 13.
The alleged victim, now 18, reported in June 2012 that Blathers sexually abused her.
The prosecutor’s office and city police conducted a joint investigation which led to his arrest less than a month later on lesser charges of third-degree aggravated sexual contact and child endangerment.
Blathers, who stands 6 feet and is a shade under 300 pounds, posted $75,000 bail and was released from the Bergen County Jail the next day.
The superseding indictment charges him with first-degree aggravated sexual assault, touching the gir’s breast and vagina and impairing or debauching the morals or a minor he had a legal duty to care for.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter