Inset: Aaden Moreno. Background: Tony Moreno reenacting what he claims happened the day he threw his 7-month-old son, Aaden Moreno, from a bridge in Connecticut (WTIC).
A lawsuit claims that the Connecticut Department of Children and Families neglected to safeguard a 7-month-old boy who was tragically thrown from a bridge by his father, despite numerous alerts from the child’s mother about the father’s potential threat.
The legal complaint, filed by Adrianne Oyola, the mother of Aaden Moreno, states that her son was killed on July 7, 2015, shortly after a temporary restraining order against his father, Tony Moreno, expired. The lapse occurred because state officials were absent to support the continuation of the order, as detailed in legal documents.
In a recent development, a Connecticut superior court judge has allowed the lawsuit to proceed to trial, indicating there are significant factual disputes that warrant examination, according to his ruling.
At the age of 21, Tony Moreno committed the heinous act of throwing his son, Aaden, from the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown into the Connecticut River on July 5, 2015. Moreno also attempted to jump off the bridge himself but survived the fall.
The refiled complaint outlines that on June 17, 2015, both Aaden and his mother were granted a temporary restraining order against Tony Moreno, with a hearing scheduled for June 29, 2015, to discuss its extension.
The document accuses the State of Connecticut and its representatives of being aware of the threat Tony Moreno posed to his son. It further alleges that the state knew Adrianne Oyola was not equipped to represent herself in court and had assured her they would provide support during the restraining order proceedings.
According to Oyola, DCF officials “promised” that they would be at the June 29 hearing. But nobody showed up, per the complaint. This happened after multiple interviews with Oyola, her sister, Tony Moreno’s mother, Aaden’s pediatrician, and Moreno himself allegedly corroborated Oyola’s claims that the dad displayed dangerous and threatening behavior, the complaint says.
Oyola wrote in the application for her restraining order that Moreno’s behavior allegedly included an incident where he “told me he could make my son disappear any time of the day,” according to the judge’s ruling last week.
“Told me how he could make me disappear,” Oyola wrote in the application. “Told me how he could kill me … Told me he would put me in the ground and put something on me to make me disintegrate faster.”
Oyola said that the threats were made in February 2015, just a few months before Aaden’s death, according to the judge.
“Had someone representing the Department of Children and Families attended the June 29, 2015 hearing, that person would have recommended that the restraining order remain in place and would have provided evidence to the court that Tony Moreno was a danger,” the complaint explains. “Before June 29, 2015, the defendant, State of Connecticut, its agents, servants, and/or employees, knew that if a representative of the Department of Children and Families attended the June 29, 2015, hearing, the restraining order would have continued.”
Oyola’s complaint says that the state considered Aaden “safe at home because there was a restraining order in place” against Moreno, who was on probation for “risk of injury and sexual assault,” according to court documents.
The judge overseeing the case terminated the restraining order and directed Oyola and Moreno to work out a custody agreement for Aaden, with a meeting being arranged for July 8, 2015. Moreno threw Aaden into the river three days before the scheduled meeting.
“The death of Aaden Moreno was caused by the negligence [of] defendant,” the complaint says. “They failed to protect the minor decedent … by failing to take action, including but not limited to, invoking a 96-hour hold pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. section 17a-101g (e), and/or filing a motion for an order of temporary custody to administratively remove the decedent from his familial home.”
DCF officials knew Tony Moreno was a danger to Aaden “but failed to act,” the complaint repeats. They allegedly failed to conduct any follow-up interviews or meetings with Oyola after the TRO ended and failed to follow “adequate” procedures.
Aaden and his mother were living with Oyola’s sister after she filed the TRO against Moreno. The judge who moved Oyola’s lawsuit forward last week outlined in his ruling how the court that scheduled the custody meeting had denied the TRO extension without knowing that Moreno was on probation.
“I think the two of you don’t have a good relationship, and … somebody needs to go downstairs and file a custody application, and you need to work out a parental rights agreement where the child is going to be, when the child is going to be with mom, when the child is going to be with dad, work out a child support order,” the court commented, according to the judge’s ruling.
“On July 5, 2015, Tony Moreno had custody of the child in accordance with the custody/parenting plan that the parties had agreed to,” the judge said. “That day, he threw the child from the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown, killing him.”
Moreno was convicted in 2017 of murder and risk of injury to a child. He was sentenced to 70 years in prison.
