43
Ride operator charged with sex offense
CANFIELD
For the second time during fair week, an amusement-ride operator was arrested at the fairgrounds on a sex-related offense.
Police on Saturday arrested Jose Eduardo Moreno-Benites, 29, of Veracruz, Mexico, on a charge of sexual imposition, according to a Canfield Fair Police Department report. The report lists his employer as Bates Amusements, which operates amusement rides at the fair.
According to the report, a female reported to police that a Bates employee had inappropriately touched her while he was working in the Kiddie Land area of the fairgrounds. A Bates foreman denied the incident took place, according to the report, but two people told police they saw it happen. The female identified Moreno-Benites as the person she claimed touched her, according to the report.
Bates officials declined to comment on the incident. The fair’s board of directors released a statement Monday.
“Every individual working the rides at the fair has been subjected to a sexual predator criminal background check. That process is conducted by the operator or the United States Department of Homeland Security,” the statement reads.
“The case at hand involves an individual who has been an employee of the ride operator for three years, subjected to a background check each year and as recently as two weeks ago. This individual would not have been on fairground property without a satisfactory background check,” it continues.
The statement goes on to say that the “subject individual” was removed from the fairgrounds and that criminal-trespass charges will be pursued if he attempts to return. An eviction notice issued Monday against Moreno-Benites was attached to a police report provided to The Vindicator by fair police.
On Thursday, U.S. Marshals, assisted by several other law-enforcement agencies, arrested Brandon Walsh, 30, at a ride he was operating at the fair. Walsh was wanted on a child-sex charge out of South Carolina, according to the Marshals.