2nd woman admits endangering boy by extorting molester
Sep. 9—A second woman has accepted a plea bargain and been convicted of risk of injury to a child based on accusations that she knew an elementary-age boy was being molested in East Hartford but failed to notify authorities, instead using the information to extort money from the molester.
AT A GLANCE
DEFENDANT: Cari Ann Oliveira, 31, who lived in East Hartford when the crime occurred in 2019.
CONVICTION: Risk of injury to a child.
SENTENCE: 10 years, suspended after 3 1/2 years in prison, followed by three years of probation.
Cari Ann Oliveira, 31, was sentenced this week in Hartford Superior Court to 3 1/2 years in prison, online court records show. After she is released, she will be on probation for three years, facing up to 6 1/2 more years behind bars for any violation of court-ordered conditions.
Charged along with Oliveira in the scheme was Angel Marie Carrillo, 34, described in a police affidavit as Oliveira's partner. Carrillo was convicted in a September 2021 plea bargain of risk of injury to a child and is serving a 4 1/2 -year prison sentence, also to be followed by probation with suspended prison time, online court records show.
The molester was Paul Grimsley, now 45, who lived in Hartford when he was arrested in early April 2019.
Grimsley, who has a past conviction for possessing child pornography, accepted a plea bargain in December in which he was convicted of molesting a boy under age 10 in East Hartford in 2019 and possessing more than 250 images of child pornography, including at least one picture of the boy.
Grimsley received an 18-year prison sentence, of which 15 years is a mandatory minimum, meaning that the state Department of Correction has to keep him in its custody at least that long. After he is released from prison, he will be on probation for 35 years. He will face up to 22 more years behind bars if he violates probation conditions.
A state Department of Children and Families social worker told East Hartford police in March 2019 that a former client, who requested anonymity, had reported that Grimsley had admitted to sexually assaulting a boy in their town, according to an affidavit by Detective Daniel Ortiz.
The anonymous source also reported that Carrillo and Oliveira were demanding $120 a week from Grimsley in exchange for not notifying police, according to the detective.
Grimsley was a registered sex offender as a result of a 2002 conviction for risk of injury to a child.
A search of the home then shared by Carrillo and Oliveira produced several smartphones, including one that Carrillo said had been "predominantly used by Grimsley," Ortiz reported. The detective said he found 253 pornographic pictures of children on that phone, including one showing the identified victim.
The boy disclosed in a forensic interview at the Klingberg Child Advocacy Center in Hartford that Grimsley had molested him.
The detective quoted text message exchanges he believed were between Grimsley and the two women. The detective believed the women took Grimsley's cellphone from him during a March 2, 2019, confrontation, then used it to communicate with a new number he was using.
A March 4, 2019, message — which refers to "Angel" in the third person and which the detective believes Oliveira wrote — suggests the recipient, believed to be Grimsley, "send it from the credit card or I'm going to get a little dial happy."
The detective quotes Oliveira as saying in a statement to police that she hit Grimsley with a belt during a confrontation. That was the basis for a misdemeanor charge of third-degree assault she was facing. That charge was dropped as part of her plea bargain, along with a charge of first-degree larceny by extortion.
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