Former day care teacher suspected of molesting child

A former day care teacher jailed this week is suspected of molesting a 4-year-old girl in a bathroom stall after the child told her parents “Mister Chris” had assaulted her, according to court records.

Christopher James Ribertone, 27, was arrested Monday on a complaint of lewd acts with a child. He denied assaulting the girl July 20 at Childcare Network in Oklahoma City, where he worked as a prekindergarten teacher, according to police. He also denied “being with her in the bathroom,” a detective reported in an arrest warrant affidavit.

The child told her mother the assault happened in the bathroom at her day care and “no one else saw,” the detective reported. She told her father it happened while another teacher “was on a break,” he said.

During a forensic interview, the child said something “not-OK” happened in the bathroom, authorities said.

“(The victim) said she and Mr. Chris were in the bathroom by themselves in the stall with the broken door, and he told her to face the purple wall,” the detective stated. “She said Mr. Chris made her do it, so she left.”

A co-teacher told police that “when she and Chris took the kids to the bathroom in the afternoon, they were never out of each other's sight.”

That co-worker, though, left early on July 20 and was relieved by another teacher, according to the affidavit.

The other teacher said she and Ribertone took the kids to the bathroom and “Chris was supervising the kids in the bathroom and would go into both the boys' and girls' bathroom out of her sight,” the detective stated.

Ribertone told police he had been accused of assaulting a 4-year-old girl in 2017 at a New Jersey day care where he worked. The results of that investigation were “Not Established,” the detective reported.

Ribertone provided a resume showing he was either currently or previously involved as a youth hockey referee, a volunteer at OU Children's Hospital, a volunteer at the Halo Project for foster children and a youth ministry volunteer, according to the affidavit.