A female bus driver is due to face court charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old passenger.
Police in Middletown, Connecticut, have accused Wendy Valero of stripping the boy naked and raping him in her bathroom in June this year, after luring him to her home to play video games with her son.
Police allege the 27-year-old groomed the child over the course of a year after accepting his friend request on Facebook.
According to local news outlet, The Middletown Press, the teen sent her a message via the social media site in June 2016 saying, “hi,” to which she responded “hi, sweetie, how are you doing?” and said that he’d been on her mind.
When the teen said he was doubtful she’d been thinking of him and she allegedly replied, “Of course, it’s hard to forget you, lol, you’re crazy!!!”
It’s alleged the pair exchanged a handful of messages, but communication ceased until May 2016 when the teen sent Valero a Snapchat message.
The pair then exchanged “friendly” messages for the next fortnight, before the city bus driver sent the boy a photograph of her breasts and requested that he respond, reports The Middletown Press. Police claim he then sent her a picture of his genital area.
This was the beginning of a exchange of several naked images, that culminated with Valero expressing her desire to sleep with the boy.
According to the teenager’s statement, on June 14 Valero invited him to her home to play video games with her son, then cornered him in the bathroom where she stripped him, performed oral sex on him then had sexual intercourse with him.
The Middletown Press reports that Valero claims she thought the boy was 16-year-old. She also allegedly said that they’d only been in communication for a week and a half prior to having sex, which she claims he initiated.
Valero has been charged with felony second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child and released on a US$35,000 bond. She is due to front court again on August 2.
