Tiverton school officer, already suspended over use of Taser, now charged with child abuse
PROVIDENCE – A District Court judge jailed a suspended Tiverton police officer on Thursday after he was charged with second-degree child abuse.
Warren police arrested the officer, Jacob Rapoza, on the strength of a warrant stemming from injuries that sent a juvenile to Hasbro Children's Hospital, according to Warren police Lt. Christopher Perreault. At the time of the arrest, Rapoza was out on bail for disorderly conduct and assault charges that Tiverton police filed against him in March.
Following his arraignment Thursday on the Warren police charges, Rapoza appeared before Judge Melissa Dubose in Providence District Court for a bail hearing related to the older charges out of Tiverton.
Dubose found Rapoza in violation and ordered him held without bail.
Warrant filed after juvenile was brought to hospital
A news release from Perreault does not describe the nature of the alleged child abuse in detail, saying only Warren police detectives investigated a report of child abuse after a juvenile was brought to the hospital.
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They secured a warrant and Rapoza then turned himself in, it says.
An online court record says Rapoza is accused of carrying out the offense of second-degree child abuse on Wednesday.
Previous charges stem from allegedly misusing a Taser at a school
The earlier charges against Rapoza were filed on March 8 and stem from incidents in which he allegedly misused his department-issued Taser in school settings as a student resource officer, according to a report in the Newport Daily News.
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On one occasion, the arrest warrant states Rapoza activated the Taser, generating sparks, just prior to a school assembly on Sept. 30, 2022.
The following month, court records say, Rapoza took out his Taser during a school-sponsored football game. He was near a Tiverton High School guidance counselor when he pointed and activated the device, it says.
Rapoza was suspended from his duties on Dec. 23, says the Daily News report.
Rapoza posted online about a prank at school
This was after he posted comments online in response to a prank, court records say, in which students had decorated Rapoza’s office door.
At the time, Rapoza asserted on Instagram that the prank was vandalism and questioned whether a particular student should “really be messing with someone who can deck your driving record with citations,” says the Daily News' report.
As of Friday, Rapoza had an inmate ID at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston. He was at the ACI's Anthony P. Travisono Intake Service Center.
His next scheduled court appearance is Aug. 17.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Tiverton school resource officer Rapoza charged with child abuse
