Milford Schools Custodian Sent Unwanted Notes and Gifts to Elementary Student, Cops Say

By Brian McCready

A Milford schools custodian has been charged with repeatedly sending unwanted personal notes and gifts to an Orchard Hills Elementary School student, police said in a press release Thursday.

The notes and gifts continued even after the student demanded they stop in writing, police said. The custodian, Robert Rua, 55, of New Haven Avenue, has been placed on administrative leave pending the Police Department’s investigation.

School officials in a release say Rua never contacted the student face-to-face.

On September 9 the Milford Board of Education received a complaint from a grammar school student that she was receiving notes and gifts on her desk from an unknown person who was trying to develop a personal relationship with her, police said.

The Board of Education administrators contacted the Police Department to conduct an investigation because the writing and content of the written communication appeared to be that of an adult, police said.

The Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit was assigned the case and determined that the notes and gifts were being left since the beginning of the school year and that the student only reported it to her parents, police said.

The student left a note on her desk instructing whoever was leaving the notes and gifts to stop, however the communications and gifts continued, police said. She then reported it to the school administrators on Tuesday.

Through investigation, Rua, who is employed as a school custodian, was developed as a suspect, police said. Police obtained a search warrant for Rua’s residence and executed it on Tuesday. T

he search resulted in police locating items of a similar nature that were left for the student in Rua’s home, police said. Police developed enough information linking Rua to the incident which resulted in an arrest warrant being issued for him and he was taken into custody without incident.

He was charged with risk of injury to a minor, second-degree harassment, and disorderly conduct. He was held in lieu of $50,000 bond.