Asher Klein

Uxbridge Firefighter Accused of Inappropriately Touching Girl, Kissing Another

Abraham Rodas was convicted of assault and battery on a child while he was a firefighter in a nearby town a decade ago

A 45-year-old Uxbridge firefighter was charged Friday with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

Abraham Rodas, of Douglas, sexually assaulted two girls around the age of 10, multiple times inside his home, prosecutors allege. He is accused of inappropriately kissing one of the girls and inappropriately touching and rubbing his genitals up against the other.

Rodas is on paid administrative leave from the department, and a top Uxbridge official called the incident "disappointing."

"Obviously, it's very disappointing to be dealing with this, but we need to respect the employee's presumption of innocence until proven or pleading guilty," interim Uxbridge Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner said.

Rodas faced similar charges back in 2007 when he was a firefighter in Douglas, nearby.

He was acquitted of statutory rape of a child in that case, but convicted of assault and battery on a child and put on probation for two years.

Rodas was fired from the Douglas Fire Department shortly after that 2009 conviction.

"Certainly the fire community is a fairly small community of people, they - people know each other from town to town," Hechenbleikner said.

But despite fire community's traditionally close working relationship with neighboring towns, Hechenbleikner said he believes Rodas was hired by Uxbridge shortly after he was fired from Douglas.

"Currently most fire departments and police departments do background checks on potential employees, whether that was done at that time I really don't know," Hechenbleikner said.

Rodas was released on $10,000 bail Friday and is due back in court Sept. 10.

Town officials plan to meet with town council on Monday to determine Rodas' status going forward.

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