Maine man assaulted stepdaughter during 'road trip' stop

A Maine man was arrested Friday and accused of sexually assaulting his then 9-year-old stepdaughter at an I-95 rest area in Bridgeport in February 2017, according to a state police warrant for his arrest. Chad J. Harris, 40, was charged with second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. He was held on a bail set at $150,000.

Harris, a tractor-trailer driver, invited his stepdaughter on a work trip to drop off a load in Pennsylvania on Feb. 19, 2017, according to the warrant. Along the way, Harris stopped the truck off of I-95 south at the Fairfield Service Plaza to rest for the night in the sleeper portion of the trailer, where he later assaulted his stepdaughter, it says. “The first night we were there he asked me ‘Is it okay if I sleep naked with you because I miss sleeping naked with [my wife],’” the girl told police. The girl rebuffed her stepfather’s advances, but later woke up to find him on top of her.

Harris had a history of sexual assault charges, according to police records.

In 2006, one of his stepdaughters also disclosed that Harris had abused her in his tractor trailer pick-up truck in Maine when she was 9, the warrant says. Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services investigated and found that Harris had sexually assaulted his stepdaughter, but he was characterized as a low-risk offender ... Harris pleaded guilty and was discharged the same day of his arrest, according to Connecticut state police records.

http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-br-maine-sexual-assault-connecticut-rest-stop20180817-story.html