Benjamin Mark Janicki, the 19-year-old day care center worker accused of molesting his charges, waived his right to hear charges against him in Denver County Court on Tuesday morning.
Janicki is accused of sexually assaulting three children at Park Hill United Methodist Children’s Center.
Janicki, who appeared in a jail jumpsuit with his brown hair falling to his shoulders, is scheduled to return to court Sept. 8. He is being held in the Denver detention center on $650,000 bail.
Parents continue to scramble to find care for their children as they wait for the center, closed by state investigators Aug. 6, to reopen.
In a visit to the center following the arrest, Colorado Department of Human Services employees found “serious and significant supervision issues.”
Investigations by DHS and Denver police are ongoing.
It is unclear when the center will reopen, though it won’t happen before the investigations — which involve questioning numerous children — are complete.
“At this point they are closed and won’t reopen until we are convinced that the children are safe there,” said DHS spokeswoman Liz McDonough.
In its report, DHS noted two staff members sitting in the playground for 15 minutes without actively supervising the children. “When asked how many children they had, they didn’t know and had to count them,” the report said.
The center also delayed sending Janicki’s fingerprints to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for almost two months after his first day on the job, May 30, the report said. “A full set of fingerprints must be sent to the CBI within five days of employment,” the report said.
In the wake of the charges, Children’s Center director Candis Robinson has resigned. The center’s interim executive, Dean Woodward, would not say if the center’s board of directors had asked for the resignation.
The center has begun implementing changes to address concerns raised in the DHS report, said Woodward, who will oversee the needed changes.
“This has been personally devastating and heartbreaking,” said board co-chair Beth Hendrix, whose two sons attended the center.
Some parents who plan to return their children to the center, which serves 125 families year-round, are finding temporary child care, while others are looking for a more permanent solution, board member Shandra Protzko said.
“This is a challenge for every single parent out there. The biggest challenge for myself and others is deciding whether to move to something more permanent,” Protzko said.
Some of the children will be going to Blessed Sacrament Catholic School nearby, said Beth Hendrix, board co-chair.
Blessed Sacrament is providing day care for 3- and 4-year-olds from 14 families.
Several older children are coming to the school for after-school care, said Lucy Hilbert, Blessed Sacrament’s director of development and communication.
“It’s not our idea to recruit anyone from that community,” Hilbert said, “just to bridge the gap they are experiencing for child care.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
