WOONSOCKET – A Cumberland man was arrested Sunday on charges of sexually assaulting a girl, now 11, several years ago after the victim’s account emerged during a game of “Trauma Bowl” with friends, according to police reports.
A former Glocester resident, Christopher J. Blanchette, 42, was arrested on a warrant for second-degree child molestation after a motor vehicle stop.
Police reports trace a long and circuitous path that eventually led to the allegations materializing into a criminal charge against Blanchette.
The victim told police Blanchette molested her at his then-residence on Virginia Avenue in Woonsocket three to four years ago. Police reports say her family allowed her to stay at Blanchette’s house with friends because her father had been a co-worker with Blanchette at the Manville Fire Department. Blanchette’s Facebook page says he worked as a firefighter with the MFD from 2005-2014, which would have been prior to the alleged offense.
The police reports say the victim’s father and other family members first reported the alleged molestation to the Woonsocket Police Department in early April. This happened after a video recording was discovered on her phone in which she divulged the incident during a sleepover, while playing the “Trauma Game” with friends.
The idea is for players to dump a snack in a bowl every time one of them reveals a secret personal trauma.
The video had been on the phone for about two months before family members found it and brought her to the police station on April 2 to file a complaint.
That’s when the victim first told investigators that she was staying over Blanchette’s Virginia Avenue residence watching a movie in the basement, when she sat on Blanchette’s lap and he put his hands down her pants for five or 10 minutes. She would have been seven or eight years old at the time.
Det. Travis Young’s investigative summary helps explain why it took nearly two months from the time police received a complaint to bring a charge against Blanchette: After the victim’s family reported the incident, multiple efforts to get him to come to the police station for an interview were fruitless. He was a no-show for at least one appointment and when the detective reached out by phone to reschedule Blanchette did not answer or return messages.
Finally, on April 24, Young asked members of the attorney general’s office to review the available evidence. On May 20, state prosecutors green-lighted the allegations for formal criminal charges and police subsequently obtained a warrant for Blanchette’s arrest on May 23.
Two days later, after his vehicle was flagged by a FLOCK security camera, he was taken into custody.
After a preliminary appearance in Sixth District Court on Tuesday, Blanchette’s bail was set at $5,000 with surety, but it’s unknown whether he was able to post the necessary sum to be released. Court records say an order was issued remanding him to the Adult Correctional Institutions, at least temporarily. He has another hearing set for Aug. 25.
After leaving the employ of the Manville Fire Department, Blanchette went to work in maintenance at The Holiday, a Manville nursing home, and more recently became a supervisor at North Smithfield Landscaping, according to his Facebook page.
