Woman sues ex-bus driver
Former student says 2014 molestation changed her life
A young woman is suing Berlin, its school system, the town’s school busing contractor and a former bus driver who is serving a prison sentence for molesting girls who rode his bus.
She filed suit in late October under the pseudonym Jane Doe, and said driver Michael Ranieri molested her for eight months in 2014 when she was a special education student at Mcgee Middle School. Prosecutors in Ranieri’s criminal case have said he also molested a second student several years earlier.
The plaintiff contends that the town, its school system and New Britain Transportation Co. share blame for allowing Ranieri to be in a position of trust with children, and claims that they failed to act on complaints that he had inappropriate contact with students.
The woman’s suit alleges pain and suffering, ongoing anxiety and fear, post-traumatic stress and more, and seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The suit was filed in New Britain Superior Court in late October, and the defendants are scheduled to submit responses at a Nov. 30 hearing.
On Monday, the Berlin schools administration said it wouldn’t be publicly discussing a pending lawsuit, and New Britain Transportation Co. did not respond to either an email or phone call seeking comment. Ranieri, 49, is currently imprisoned at the Cheshire Correctional Institution.
The lawsuit claims that Ranieri used his job as a school bus driver to groom the victim and gain her trust, and specifically that he gave her his cell phone number along with gifts including a homemade necklace. Ranieri also altered his normal bus route to drop her off
last, it says.
From February to October of 2014, Ranieri molested, abused or sexually exploited the girl repeatedly, according to the lawsuit. Prosecutors in his criminal trial said he got the girl, then 14, to work with his homebased disc jockey business in New Britain, where he would kiss her, give her massages and on at least one occasion groped her.
New Britain police
weren’t told about the incidents until 2016. After an investigation, they charged him with fourth-degree sexual assault and sexual contact without consent.
The 2016 investigation also uncovered evidence of a separate, more serious case involving Ranieri. A young woman said Ranieri had been her school bus driver and in 2010 had gotten her to work at his disc jockey business. She said he began kissing and fondling her that year, when she was 16, and that eventually the contact advanced to full intercourse.
She also accused him of drugging and forcibly raping her.
Ranieri was charged with first-degree sexual assault in that case, but that charge was dropped as part of a plea bargain in which he was sentenced to 12 years in prison — suspended after three — for risk of injury through sexual contact with a victim under 16 and sexual contact without consent.
Ranieri is in the first year of his sentence; Corrections Department records indicate he would be eligible for release in late 2024.
He must serve 15 years of probation leaving prison.
In her lawsuit, the first victim stated that she has needed medical and mental health treatment, and has been unable to enjoy her life as it had been before. She contends that the town, the school system and the bus company should have done a better job of ensuring that bus driver applicants are thoroughly screened. She said they failed their duty to her by not ensuring she had safe transportation to and from school.