Camp Chewonki in Wiscasset is reexamining its hiring process after an employee was charged with assaulting two of his co-workers at a cabin they shared.
Carlos Missioni, 22, faces charges of aggravated assault, criminal restraint, disorderly conduct, criminal threatening, refusal to submit to arrest and assaulting an officer, according to court records. The alleged assault happened June 24, two days before campers were scheduled to arrive.
Witnesses told police they heard Missioni yelling in his cabin, “I’m gonna [expletive] you up,” followed by screams one victim, according to the affidavit.
The victim said she woke up around 11:30 p.m. on June 24 and heard Missioni fighting with another co-worker outside. She said shortly after, Missioni reentered the cabin and pulled her out of bed and started “beating her head into the floor.” When she tried to protect herself, Missioni allegedly dragged her across the room by her feet and climbed on top of her.
“I am still in a fog because most of it was a head trauma that I endured,” the victim said in a phone interview with The Times Record. They asked not to be identified. “If this had happened to a kid, the way I was hit, they would have died. I thought I was going to die at that moment. This was not a small assault; I was brutally attacked.”
Witnesses told police a camp counselor intervened and pulled Missioni off of the victim, and she ran to a neighboring cabin with her pants partially torn off. Police inquired about a sexual assault, but the victim denied anything of that nature occurred, according to police documents.
When police and emergency services arrived, they determined she did not need to go to the hospital, but a male co-worker who had been assaulted outside the cabin needed to be treated for a possible detached retina, according to police documents.
“We are terribly sad that this unfolded,” said Cullen McGough, Chewonki Foundation vice president of marketing, enrollment and communications. “It was a big surprise. We have been running safe summer camps for 108 years now and this was just a big shock.”
McGough said all potential employees are vetted using background checks and three personal references. He said Missioni’s reference was a trusted local resident but that he applied using a false Social Security number that presented a clean record. Wiscasset police confirmed Missioni applied using an alias to give the appearance of a clean record.
“We follow the industry standard with the American Camping Association, the Chewonki Foundation’s attorneys and campbackgroundchecks.com,” McGough said. “As someone applies, we enter the name, Social Security and most recent address, and look for any criminal history.”
Police reported Missioni was under the influence of drugs and alcohol upon arrest.
McGough said the camp has a zero-tolerance policy for illegal drugs and alcohol on the premises and offenders will be fired. He said all campers undergo an inspection, but legally, they cannot search the belongings of adult employees.
Going forward, McGough said the camp and its risk management committee will look closer at their hiring process.
“At a minimum, we will look at how we handle the reference checks; I don’t know what we would have done differently in this case,” McGough said. “There is a certain point where you have to take people at their word. It’s sad that these things happen, but I was very glad it happened before any kids were on-site.”
He said emails were sent out immediately to all the camper’s parents, and both victims chose to leave the camp and were offered severance packages and workman’s compensation.
After Missioni’s arrest, he was taken to Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset, where he told officers he didn’t remember the alleged assault, only that his co-worker gave him “something to smoke” and he would like to apologize, according to a police report.
Missioni is scheduled to appear at Wiscasset Unified Court via Zoom at 3:30 p.m. on July 24.
Attempts to reach Missioni’s lawyer, James Mason, by phone and email were unsuccessful Wednesday and Thursday.
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