By JIM HICKEY

A custodian at the Tisbury school was arraigned in Edgartown district court last Thursday on charges of sexual assault against a child. Richard McElhinney, 48, of Vineyard Haven, has been charged with rape of a child with force, indecent assault and battery of a child under the age of 15 and enticement of a child under the age of 16.

He is currently free on $15,000 bail, and is due back in court on June 24 for a pretrial conference. As a condition of bail, Mr. McElhinney is ordered to stay away from the alleged victim and the victim’s family, stay 100 yards away from any school or licensed day care facility in Dukes County, and avoid contact with children under the age of 16, except for his own family.

The alleged incidents took place at the Tisbury School where Mr. McElhinney works as a custodian, but did not involve any school students, or take place during school hours.

Superintendent of schools James H. Weiss said Mr. McElhinney has been placed on administrative leave with pay, while school officials conduct their own investigation. “That’s standard protocol in a situation like this; it’s not an indication of guilt. Once we were notified by police, we put him on leave with pay immediately,” he said.

Mr. Weiss said Tisbury School principal Richard Smith has met with faculty, the school advisory council, school committee and the parent-teacher organization. He said the school performed a criminal records check on Mr. McElhinney, standard for all employees, which did not reveal anything to prevent him from working at the school.

On Tuesday Mr. Smith sent a letter home to parents, explaining the situation.

“We are treating the unsettling arrest of one of our evening custodians, with the utmost seriousness and attention,” the letter read in part.

According to the Tisbury police report, the alleged victim was a four-year old girl routinely in the care of Richard and Kelly McElhinney, as part of an agreement through the Dukes County probate court. Mr. McElhinney on occasion would bring her to the Tisbury school while he worked.

The victim first reported inappropriate contact to her mother on March 25. The victim’s mother then contacted Mrs. McElhinney, and the two women then confronted Mr. McElhinney. The child was taken to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, where a doctor reportedly found no indication of trauma. The doctor contacted the Division of Children and Families, as required by law. An investigator from Children’s Cove in Barnstable, which assists in cases of child abuse, interviewed the child on March 29.

Tisbury police interviewed Mr. McElhinney on more than one occasion, and each time he denied the allegations, according to court records. He told police that he asked for the child to undergo a medical examination. He also requested that he be given a lie detector test.

Mr. McElhinney voluntarily went to the Tisbury police department on May 20 for a final interview, after which he was arrested.