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Grand jury indicts bus driver
AMonmouth County grand jury returned an indictment May 1 charging a bus driver with assaulting a developmentally disabled passenger. According to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, Chinuphai Patel, 49, of East Brunswick, was indicted on charges of third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact. The indictment follows an investigation conducted by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office in conjunction with the Long Branch Police Department. The investigation began on Jan. 6, after the victim's mother observed bruises on the victim's body, according to a press release from the Prosecutor's Office. The victim is a 26-year-old woman who has Down syndrome. The victim's mother questioned her daughter about the bruises. When the victim alleged to her mother that the bruises were caused by Patel, the victim's mother called law enforcement authorities and an investigation was initiated, the press release states. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the investigation revealed that on Dec. 31, 2008, Patel, a bus driver employed by a private bus company based in Englishtown, entered a bus owned by the bus company while it was parked in Long Branch. The bus was not the one he was assigned to, the press release states. The victim, who had transferred from another bus in the process of returning to her Middletown home from her place of employment in Eatontown, was waiting on the bus for the assigned bus driver to board the bus. According to the indictment, Patel sat down next to the victim and began to speak to and touch the victim in an inappropriate, sexual manner. Under New Jersey law, a person commits the crime of aggravated criminal sexual contact by committing an act of sexual contact with an individual whom the accused knew, or should have known, was physically helpless, mentally defective or mentally incapacitated. Patel was arrested and charged on Jan. 7. He has been free on his own recognizance since that time, the press release states. If convicted, the maximum potential custodial sentence for a third-degree crime is a state prison term of up to five years. If convicted, Patel would also face parole supervision for life and be subject to the registration requirements of Megan's Law. Despite these charges, every defendant is presumed innocent, unless and until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, following a trial at which the defendant has all of the trial rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and state law. |
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