Golden – A day-care operator accused of sexually assaulting four students was investigated for abuse two years ago and ignored numerous orders to shut down one of his centers for failing to meet state standards.
Joseph Renander, 28, had a long list of complaints against his two Golden Beginnings centers, one in Golden and the other in Lakewood, including a child bitten by a snake, according to a review of state records.
Three sisters ranging in age from 5 to 8 and a 4-year-old girl have told authorities they were assaulted by Renander in reading and nap rooms, in a shed behind the center, in a bathroom, inside a center van and at Renander’s apartment in Golden.
The charges allege the sexual assaults took place from June 2001 through December 2004 – six months after Renander’s center was ordered closed in June 2004.
State child-care officials couldn’t padlock the doors at Renander’s day-care center and had to follow “due process,” said Terry Santi, a licensing administrator with the Colorado Division of Child Care.
Renander’s centers had repeated violations including:
In April 2002, a complaint was filed about Renander’s keeping two snakes, one about 1 foot long and the other about 2 feet long, at the Golden center.
One snake bit a child. Renander admitted to the incident, according to a report, but noted that Burmese pythons are not poisonous.
The snakes were ordered removed, and Renander complied.
Allegations of sexual assault against Renander were investigated as far back as 2003, Santi said.
Golden police and Jefferson County investigators didn’t have enough evidence to make an arrest at that time, she said.
State officials issued a “probationary license” to Renander in November 2003 to open his Lakewood center. The Golden center opened in June 2000 and closed at the end of 2003.
“The agreement states that Joe Renander will never be in the presence of less than two children at any time either at the facility or away from the facility,” the probationary license stated.
“We felt that safety was an issue with this provider,” said Liz McDonough, a spokeswoman for the state human services department. “We felt it was an issue of immediate concern.”
But it wasn’t until June 2004 that the state ordered Renander to shut down, and when he was arrested March 10 on sex-assault charges, the Lakewood center was still open.
“For a while we were going out there every day,” Santi said. “He finally closed after his arrest, because part of the bond was he could not be near anyone under 18.”
As Renander ignored dozens of “cease and desist orders,” state child-care officials asked the Colorado attorney general’s office to file a motion in Jefferson County District Court seeking an injunction to shut down the center “due to serious concerns about repeated failures to abide by the child care facility rules.”
The attorney general’s office filed on Aug. 4, 2004, and an attorney representing Renander filed a response about three weeks later.
On Sept. 16, the state was supposed to obtain a hearing date from the district court, but that never happened.
Chief District Court Judge Brooke Jackson said the attorney general’s office should have followed up.
“It is the responsibility of the party seeking the hearing to set the hearing,” Jackson said in a written response.
Renander, 28, is scheduled to appear Tuesday in district court in Jefferson County at a preliminary hearing on multiple felony counts of sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust, enticement of a child and sexual exploitation of a child.
He could not be reached for comment.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
