Former DCF worker charged for relationship with a 15-year-old girl
By Kristina Russo
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WOLCOTT, Connecticut (WFSB) — Police enforcement was requested regarding an alleged inappropriate relationship between a 15-year-old girl and a DCF case worker.
The investigation revealed that the victim and DCF worker Eliezer Rijos, 40, had a relationship last year between the months of July and September.
DCF Special Investigations determined that Rijos used his stated issued phone to text the victim while at DSS in Waterbury.
He has reportedly transported the victim to supervised visits in the past. It was unknown at the time if the relationship became physical.
The text messages between them showed inappropriate messages that were sexual in nature.
Due to the severity of the case and possibility of additional victims, the case was taken over by Western District Major Crime.
On Wednesday August 30 of this year, detectives interviewed the victim disclosing the detail of her relationship with Rijos.
The victim said that she first med Rijos when he supervised visits between her and the victim’s mother at the DCF office in Waterbury.
He convinced the victim that it was normal procedure for Rijos to drive her to visits and sit in the front seat with him.
At one point, Rijos texted the victim after a visit with her mother asking about her well-being then transitioned to the question whether or not she had a boyfriend.
The victim replied yes then stated that Rijos responded with “if you were my age, I would date you.”
She further disclosed that Rijos asked her to send pictures, and that he would send pictures and videos of himself back via text messages.
The victim said that he was “flirty” by asking her to wear “more tight clothing” during the visits.
Uncomfortable with the situation, she eventually stopped texting Rijos but he persisted by using his personal phone to text her instead.
Once Rijos started texting her with his personal phone, she stopped communication with him.
According to the investigation, these inappropriate texts happened after Rijos was no longer her aid.
On July 25, 2022, Rijos initiated contact with the victim by texting “wassup I was doing a visit at the office today, I though your visits were on Mondays.”
Rijos then turned the conversation more sexual with the victim.
In August of 2022, the victim contacted Regarding needing a ride to the office for a visit with her mom since her current aid was not responding.
Rijos responded with, “don’t dress sexy please because them ima ask to bring you back home lol.”
The entire text conversation between the victim and Rijos was taken into evidence.
On September 7, 2022, Rijos was interviewed regarding his relationship with the victim.
Rijos said that he didn’t remember the content of the texts until DCF provided pictures of some of the conversations gathered.
He went on to explain that he deleted everything from both phones because he knew it was wrong.
Rijos did allow detectives access to his personal phone, but no contact with the victim’s number was present.
He stated that the victim sent him “explicit” pictures, but were unsolicited by Rijos. He stated that he didn’t send her any pictures or videos of himself.
Rijos tried explaining that he was “just in it for the texting” and that he would never “push the boundary” by taking it as far as anything physical with her.
According to Rijos, this type of incident has never happened with any other clients in the ten years that he was with DCF and that this is the first time.
Later into the interview, Rijos admitted that the text conversation between him and the victim was explicit in nature.
Police then charged Rijos with risk of injury and tampering with physical evidence.
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