School Aide Gets Life for Rape, Assault of Children

A 19-year-old teacher’s aide was sentenced today to life in prison after being convicted of rape and indecent assault of children at the day-care center where he worked.

Bernard F. Baran Jr. showed no emotion when he was sentenced by Judge William Simons. He will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

Prosecutors said Baran was like “a chocoholic in a candy store.”

Baran was convicted Wednesday of five counts of indecent assault and battery and three counts of rape of children at the Early Childhood Development Center in Pittsfield. He had worked there for 2 1/2 years and was arrested in October.

During the trial, jurors heard two boys and three girls ranging in age from 3 to 5 tell of being forced into sexual acts.

In his closing argument, assistant Dist. Atty. Daniel Ford described how one little girl held her teddy bear in front of her face to avoid looking at the defendant, and another girl’s “plain and simple fear” when her mother picked her up so she could see Baran.

Defense attorney Leonard B. Conway said he believed jurors were unnecessarily swayed by the sight of children testifying.

“I don’t think the jury was able to separate their emotion from fact. The very young age of the children just caused the jurors to be over-sympathetic toward them,” he said.

But Ford said Baran had told one little girl her mother would be killed if she told and frightened a boy with tales of wolves and devils.

“Why in God’s name would any parents, much less five, coach and coax their children to repeat the bloodcurdling things these children had to tell us over and over again?” Ford said.