The parents of an 8-year-old boy are suing Aramark, alleging an employee abused their son in a bathroom at NRG Stadium during an NFL game.
According to USA Today, the parents say an Aramark employee allegedly pulled down their son's pants and attempted to assault him in the bathroom during a game between the Houston Texans and the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 14.
The family filed the civil lawsuit in Harris County, Texas, on Jan. 12.
“He’s been having some night terrors since then and asking questions like, “Why did God let this happen to me?’” the boy’s mother, who wished to remain anonymous told USA TODAY.
The accused former Aramark employee, Ushay Nixon, is named as a defendant in the suit and is also facing criminal charges related to the incident. Other defendants are Aramark and ASM Global (now known as Legends Global), the company that manages NRG Park where the Texans' stadium is located.
The suit claims that Aramark was negligent in hiring Nixon who has a criminal history of sexual misconduct. The suit argues that both Aramark and ASM Global failed their duty to provide a safe environment at NFG Stadium.
“There’s a lot of people here that need to look within and that are ultimately responsible for this,” the boy’s father, JS, told USA TODAY. “He’s a very, very strong kid. I said, ‘We are going to make sure that we tell this story so that it doesn’t happen to any other kids and you’re going to be the hero that they didn’t even know about, because we’re going to put a stop to this.’”
The boy's mother took her son to the bathroom in the third quarter and waited outside the bathroom. When they returned to their seats, another man came up to the family and said that he'd seen an employee with her son in the bathroom, noting that something "just didn't look right."
The boy admitted to his parents that a man had pulled down his pants in the restroom. The parents then took the boy back to the bathroom and asked him to identify the man. The boy pointed to Nixon.
Nixon, 21, is in Harris County jail awaiting a scheduled hearing on Feb. 5. He is charged with one felony count of indecency with a child and one felony count of attempted aggravated sexual assault of a child.
