Two men indicted for allegedly assaulting children

FARMINGTON – Two men were indicted on charges of assault of a child by the Franklin County grand jury Wednesday, following law enforcement investigations into two separate incidents.

Thomas Buzzell, 27 of Industry was indicted on one count of assault on a child less than 6 years old, a Class C felony, as well as misdemeanor criminal operating under the influence and operating after suspension. The charges stem from an incident that is alleged to have occurred in June in Farmington.

According to the arrest affidavit, dispatchers took a call from the child’s mother as she waited at Franklin Memorial Hospital with her son. Farmington Police Department officers went to FMH and interviewed the woman, learning that she believed that Buzzell had struck her child earlier that day.

According to the woman, she had picked up Buzzell from work with her child, leaving them both in the vehicle when she went into a store. When she returned to the vehicle, she told police that she had seen red marks on her child’s face. Buzzell reportedly denied he had struck the child. The woman drove to FMH and Buzzell left in her vehicle after she arrived.

Red marks and bruising were observed on the child’s face by the officer, running from the child’s nose area up to his forehead.

“It was clear by the size of the markings on [the child’s] face that he had been struck with a large object such as an adult hand,” Officer Brandon Sholan wrote in the affidavit.

The child was transported to Central Maine Medical Center as a precaution, the officer reported, although the doctor did not believe he was in any serious danger.

A friend of the mother had arranged to meet Buzzell at the head of Clearwater Lake, in order to get the car seat back. Farmington police also responded and met Buzzell, who reportedly drove to the location. He denied hitting the child, prior to the officers asking the Industry resident about the incident, saying that police were interviewing him due to allegations that the woman had likely made.

Police say that Buzzell was swaying, slurring his words and had a “strong odor of intoxicants coming from his breath.” He reportedly admitted to taking a few shots of Fireball whiskey prior to the Clearwater Lake meeting. Sholan conducted a field sobriety test on Buzzell, allegedly observing multiple signs of impairment. The Industry man was then arrested.

The second man indicted by the Franklin County grand jury was Dylan Czubaruk, 24 of Phillips; he was also indicted on one count of assault on a child less than 6 years old.

According to the arrest affidavit, the child’s mother called dispatchers from her home in New Hampshire in March, reporting that her child had been assaulted by his father, Czubaruk, at his home in Phillips. FCSO Sgt. Matthew Brann met with the mother and the child, with the investigator seeing bruises on the child’s shin and shoulder. The child told Brann that Czubaruk put those bruises on him with his fingers when he pushed him to the ground.

Brann spoke with Czubaruk, who was then in New Hampshire, about the bruises. Czubaruk reportedly said that he had spanked the child before but denied inflicting the injuries.

As part of the investigation, Brann visited the child’s school and determined that the child was consistently absent or tardy, having accumulated a large number of absences in the past few months.

FCSO personnel spoke to the child again on March 13, as part of a forensic interview. The child reportedly told the officers that he had been “messing with his Dad’s X-Box remote control” and that Czubaruk had become upset and “smashed him down.” He also described alleged incidents in which Czubaruk had slapped him and put fingers down his throat, causing him to choke. The child said that those incidents relating to the child “playing with the X-Box or tablet.”

Brann applied for an arrest warrant, which was issued on March 13. Czubaruk was arrested in New Hampshire and transported back to Franklin County Detention Center on March 15.

An indictment means that after considering the evidence the district attorney has presented, the grand jury believes there is probable cause, or a “reasonable belief” that the crime occurred.