Aug 8, 2007 2:12 pm US/Central
Indiana Carnival Worker Accused Of Molesting Girls
Police: Judex Colon Touched Girls Inappropriately On Ride He Operated
By Ruth Ann Krause / Post-Tribune
CROWN POINT, Ind. (Post-Tribune) ―
A Lake County, Indiana, Fair carnival worker from Chicago is accused of molesting two girls on the Ghost Pirates ride Friday.
Judex J. Colon III, 24, of Chicago is charged in Lake Superior Court in Crown Point, Ind, with two counts of child molesting, two counts of criminal confinement and two counts of sexual battery. He is being held at the Lake County Jail on $60,000 bail.
After they left the fair, the girls, ages 5 and 8, told family members that Colon, who was operating the ride, held down their arms, licked the 8-year-old girl's face and kissed the 5-year-old on the lips.
Afterward, the girls reported he said, "shhh," and ran his hand perpendicular to his neck.
Relatives of the girls told police they saw Colon put out a cigarette and walk into the first section of the ride, look back at them and smile. The girls emerged three or four minutes later.
The owner of All Star Amusement, Richard Wyatt, told police investigators the operator would only enter the ride if a cart got stuck. Freeing a cart would take a maximum of three seconds, and the entire ride lasts about 1 minute 10 seconds.
In a statement to police, Colon said he "accidentally" kissed the two girls while they were on the ride and later said he "just kissed them out of habit," according to the probable cause affidavit.
Colon said he sometimes goes inside the ride if children seem scared and assures them that everything is OK.
"He added that they probably pushed their cheeks up against his lips and that it may have felt like a kiss to them," Colon is quoted as telling police.
The child molesting and criminal confinement charges carry a sentence range of two to eight years, and sexual battery charges carry a sentence range of six months to three years.
This year, Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez began requiring criminal background checks for fair vendors and gate workers.
(CBS 2 and the Post-Tribune are news partners covering stories in the communities of northwest Indiana. If you know of stories happening in this region, contact us.
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