Man charged with child rape volunteered with senior college
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A retired drama teacher accused of sexually assaulting boys in Massachusetts and New York was allowed to teach in a program for senior citizens that's affiliated with the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn campus.
USM staff and faculty members are subject to criminal background checks, but they're not required for senior college volunteers like 75-year-old Reynold “Rey” Buono, who's free on bail while awaiting trial in Massachusetts, according to the University of Maine System.
The senior college's board severed connections with him immediately upon learning of the charges, said Lucy Bisson, the board's chair.
Massachusetts attorney Eric MacLeish, who represents several of Buono's alleged victims, said it was an institutional oversight that there was no background check, or at least a simple Google search.
“I find it hard to believe that they don’t have some sort of screening. I find that really, really hard to understand,” said MacLeish, who described Buono as “one of the worst, hard-core pedophiles that I’ve come across.”
A year ago, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reinstated charges against Buono, who’s accused of raping a Milton Academy student in the 1980s. Also, a former student who sued an elite private school in New York City names Buono as an abuser. That lawsuit was settled last month, said Gil Santamarina, lawyer for the plaintiff. Details weren't immediately available.
An attorney for Buono, who has an address in Lewiston, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
Buono's move to Maine was approved by officials in Massachusetts, and he remains free on $50,000 bail with conditions preventing unsupervised conduct with anyone under 18, said David Traub, spokesperson for the...