A guardian parent in Bristol who was arrested on sexual assault and child endangerment charges allegedly sexually assaulted a girl in his care almost every day for about a decade and fathered her child when she was 13 — allegations an attorney representing the victim says could have been prevented through numerous involvements with the state Department of Children and Families.

The victim told police she estimated that Roger Barriault — who has guardianship over two children still living in his home — sexually assaulted her from 3,800 to 4,000 times between 2004 and 2015, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Barriault, 63, was arrested by members of the Bristol Police Department on Friday on one count of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor, records show.

He was initially held in lieu of a $500,000 bond until his arraignment Monday in New Britain Superior Court, where a judge reduced it to $200,000, which he has since posted, records show. He is due back in court on Feb. 14.

During the hearing, prosecutors expressed “serious concerns” upon being informed by Barriault’s attorney, Kerry Robair, that he currently has two children, both boys, living with him.

Barriault — whose limited criminal history dates back to the 1990s and includes convictions of third-degree assault and disorderly conduct — was issued a protective order during the hearing that prohibits him from contacting the alleged sexual assault victim or coming within 100 yards of her or her child. He was also ordered not to have unsupervised contact with anyone under 16 years old, with the exception of the two children under his guardianship.

“We can confirm we jointly investigated these allegations with law enforcement,” a spokesperson for DCF said following Barriault’s arrest. “Given this is an active criminal investigation we are unable to comment further at this time.”

In addition to the criminal charges, Barriault is facing a lawsuit filed in July 2023 by Middletown-based attorney Nate Baber on behalf of the alleged victim. Baber has also filed a notice of claim against DCF that he hopes will serve as the first step in bringing civil litigation against the agency for what he alleged are repeated failures to protect his client.

“It was immediately obvious and, more importantly alarming, how much DCF was involved in this family, how many opportunities they had to stop this rampant (alleged) abuse and how many times they failed to provide the most basic and cursory effort to stop it,” Baber told the Courant. “The (DCF) reports speak to an agency that really put very minimal effort into doing anything more than trying to close investigations as quickly as possible with as little work as possible.

“The records reflect that even agency employees reported to investigators who were investigating this family that not only was she being sexually abused, but that he was the father of her child when she became pregnant at 12,” he continued. “We’re talking about police officers, agency employees, family members.”

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the alleged victim first reported the allegations to Bristol police as an adult in May 2023. The girl had been placed in foster care by DCF when she was between 6 months and 2 years old and was placed in a home in Bristol around 2004 when she was 8 or 9. It was around this time that the girl was introduced to Barriault, who was “often allowed to be left alone” with her and “nearly immediately” allegedly began grooming her, Baber’s lawsuit contends.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the victim told police Barriault first performed a sex act on her in 2004 when she was in her bedroom at her foster mother’s home. She said she remembered asking “Wait, what’s going on?” to which Barriault allegedly replied, “Everything is going to be OK,” the affidavit says.

The victim said Barriault stopped upon hearing someone downstairs and threatened to tell everyone she had wanted him to do what he did if she disclosed what happened to anyone, the warrant affidavit said. According to the affidavit, there were two more similar instances involving Barriault before the girl’s foster mother moved to another state, at which point she began living at a residence with Barriault and his wife, where he allegedly began having sex with her.

Baber contends in the lawsuit that, around 2006, DCF learned that the girl was living with Barriault while he was being investigated for sexual abuse allegations involving another minor child. Police wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit that Barriault was reportedly arrested for “similar sexual misconduct” in 2007, at which point the victim in the most recent allegations was temporarily removed from his home before being returned to his custody when the charges were dropped.

In September 2008, the girl, who had since turned 13, gave birth to Barriault’s child, according to court papers. During their investigation, Bristol police conducted a DNA test to confirm Barriault was the child’s father, the arrest warrant affidavit said.

During an interview with detectives, the victim told police she estimated Barriault sexually assaulted her thousands of times “almost daily” until she was about 20 years old, the arrest warrant affidavit said.

Bristol detectives spoke to a relative of Barriault during the investigation who said she felt Barriault had groomed the girl by making her get dressed in front of him each day, according to the affidavit.

Bristol police in the arrest warrant affidavit — which was signed by a judge last Thursday — did not indicate that Barriault was ever interviewed by investigators. When police obtained a search warrant to collect a DNA sample from Barriault in December he told an officer “This is all over a few thousand dollars” and that he had recently seen the victim when he changed her car brakes, the warrant affidavit said.

“I wouldn’t give her $3,000,” he told an officer.

According to the affidavit, Barriault also asked police to contact him if they obtained a warrant for his arrest so he could turn himself in.

The lawsuit filed by Baber also names other people who lived in the house as defendants.

The victim suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as “emotional distress and anguish, humiliation, fear and other associated symptoms such as anxiety,” the lawsuit states. The civil action, which remains pending in New Britain Superior Court, seeks more than $15,000 in damages and other relief.

Baber, who said he and his wife have had care of multiple children, said he will be looking to bring a lawsuit against DCF to make sure his client not only is compensated for what she has endured but also to bring about changes to protect further victims. He said the agency has made changes over the years to try to better ensure children’s safety and that most of its frontline workers are “really hard-working people who have the best interest of kids in mind.”

“Those frontline workers are put in a position, at least these days, where they have to operate in a system that doesn’t really serve their job very well,” Baber said. “And they’re in, sometimes, a lose-lose situation.

“Every one of these cases that come out is just another indication of how bad it was and how far they have to go in order to remedy all the errors in the policies and procedures they have,” he continued. “So that’s certainly another goal. In any case like this the ultimate goal is to make sure that other abuse survivors are either heard or other abuse is prevented.”