City man faces 2nd sexual assault charge

TORRINGTON — For the second time in five years, Kim Bishop, 63, is facing sexual assault charges involving a young girl.

He is scheduled to appear at Superior Court in Torrington on March 15.

Bishop’s most recent arrest, on Dec. 11, came after a now-17-year-old told staff members of the state Department of Children and Families that Bishop had assaulted her when she was 6 years old, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

A four-page affidavit signed by Detective Kevin L. Tieman, notes that “Bishop has recently been released from jail and is on probation for assaulting another minor female juvenile... Bishop, and his wife... had regular contact with young children.”

The couple operated a foster home in Torrington where 10 children lived, court records show. Information on when the Bishops became foster parents was not available Tuesday.

Court records show Kim Bishop was sentenced in Dec. 2014 to 10 years in prison, suspended after 18 months, and 10 years of probation, on a charge of second-degree sexual assault of a victim between ages 13 and 15 with the

perpetrator being more than three years older than the victim.

He is now charged with attempt to commit sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault and illegal sexual contact with a minor, court records show. He is free on a $50,000 bond.

The most recent investigation began last

summer, the affidavit notes, when the juvenile, who is now 17, told staff members at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, that she allegedly had been “sexually assaulted by Kim Bishop, some years prior,” Tieman wrote in the warrant affidavit.

A doctor with the Center For Youth & Families in Torrington conducted the interview with the teen. The girl reported, according to the affidavit, that Bishop would do “nasty stuff.”

Tieman stated in the court document that the girl told investigators Bishop would make excuses to come into the bathroom and open the shower curtain. “He wouldn’t

rape me, but he would touch me,” the girl said, according to the warrant affidavit.

Bishop is represented by attorney Jonathan Sills of Hartford who took the case in January. Bishop pleaded not guilty to the charges when he was arrested, a practice that Sills said, is a strategy to allow the defense more time for discovery.

The firm, Tomeo Sills LLC, took the case when Bishop “reached out to us. He was looking for someone to defend him,” Sills said.

He said it could take four to six months, or more than a year for a trial to start. “It’s early on,” he said.

Bishop