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Litchfield County resident Kevin Brathwaite, of Sharon, was arrested on Monday, Aug. 19, and charged with second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor, Connecticut State Police said.
The teen told police she met Brathwaite in Dutchess County at Thomas J. Boyce Park in Wingdale, where she was watching her friends play basketball. He offered to drive her home, but she declined. She was 13 years old at the time.
However, she received a friend request on the social media app Snapchat later that day. She told police she didn't know how he got her username. She accepted, and they began a relationship that became sexual, police said.
New York State Police learned about it in July 2023 when a woman confronted Brathwaite after finding messages on his phone, authorities said. He had texted with multiple minors on the app because "he only likes virgins," she told investigators.
Officers interviewed the teen girl who said she had sex with Brathwaite at some point in New York while driving home from Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall, the court filing said. But the girl couldn't recall the exact date, time, or location of the incident.
She said they also had sex at a friend's Connecticut home.
New York police eventually dropped the case of lack of specifics and the girl's refusal to cooperate further with the investigation. But they passed the evidence they had collected to Connecticut State Police, who picked up the investigation.
According to a forensic investigation of the girl's phone, the relationship lasted over a year. She told someone in a text that Brathwaite said they would get married when she turned 18.
The person replied that Brathwaite had told them about the relationship with the child, “like he was proud or something,” according to the court filing.
Connecticut police contacted the girl's mother, who said she still wanted to press charges.
Brathwaite was being held on $50,000 bail, according to a court filing.
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