MCPS Employee Sentenced to Six Months for Sexually Abusing Child

A former child-care worker and school system employee who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child in 2018 was sentenced this week to six months in jail.

Thomas Ridges, an 18-year employee of Horizon Child Care Inc. in Silver Spring, pleaded guilty in April to the charge after inappropriately touching a teenage girl during a summer school program in 2016, according to court records.

Ridges, 39, was driving the girl home July 20, 2018, when he asked if she remembered that he had touched her two years earlier in a “private area” and said “it was purposeful,” according to police and court records.

The girl had believed the touching was accidental, according to police. Ridges, of Beltsville, also asked about the girl’s sexual history and asked her to send naked photographs to him via text message.

The matter was reported in September, and Ridges was arrested about a week later and charged by a grand jury with two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and fourth-degree sexual offense...

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/courts/former-child-care-worker-mcps-employee-sentenced-to-six-months-for-sexually-abusing-child/#disqus_thread