An ex-employee at Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems has been criminally charged on allegations he had a romantic relationship with a student who lived there.

Brian Malachi McLaughlin, 29, of 431 W. Washington St., Bradford, was not on duty Monday night, when the allegations took place, according to John Policastro, director of corporate Communications, Journey Health System & Beacon Light Behavioral Health System.

Court records said on Monday night, Bradford City Police responded to a report that two juveniles females ran away from the Beacon Light shelter at 8 School St. It was one of these two girls — a 16-year-old — that McLaughlin was allegedly developing a relationship with.

As Policastro explained, “Beacon Light maintains multiple group homes for children throughout the Bradford community. These homes treat children with various behavioral health challenges when they have been removed from their families by the court system or their home county.

Beacon Light employs staff 24/7 in these homes, in therapeutic, night watch and direct care roles.”

Regarding the search, “the staff on duty followed policy in notifying both Beacon Light management as well as the local police,” Policastro stated.

“Within a few hours, both clients were located and safely returned to the group home. Our processes that are in place for when a client is absent from a facility were then followed,” he noted.

Policastro indicated that employees learned one of the juveniles who ran away may have had contact with an employee when she left the group home. McLaughlin does not normally work at the home where the girl was living, Policastro said.

Bradford City Police contacted Bradford Township Police when they learned one girl may have formed a relationship with a male employee who lives in Bradford Township, court records said. Bradford Township Police went to McLaughlin’s home, but McLaughlin was not there. He was asked by telephone to return home to talk to police about the missing teen.

Court records said the teen told police she left 8 School St. and went to the home of another juvenile who lived nearby. They walked to McDonald’s, where the teen met with McLaughlin and went with him in his car. McLaughlin and the teen had discussed her running away before she did it, court records stated.

The pair drove around for awhile, then parked at the McDowell Sports Center Fieldhouse parking lot on Campus Drive; they moved to the back seat and were kissing when he received the phone call from his father informing him the police wanted to talk to him, court records stated. He dropped her off in Bradford City and drove home.

McLaughlin is no longer employed at Beacon Light.

Policastro stated, “According to policy, when the accusations were made against an employee, the staff member in question was immediately suspended. Given the nature of the charges and subsequent arrest, the individual’s employment was terminated.”

In his statement, Policastro described the training Beacon Light staff members undergo, as well as the policies in place to keep group home residents safe.

He explained, “We are confident that the group home staff followed policy and protocol during the initial runaway incident, but are deeply disturbed to learn of the charges filed against an off-duty staff member. We will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation and have a zero tolerance policy against any staff/client interactions insinuated in the charges.

“We utilize multiple levels of supervision, policy, training and accountability in our staff, and want to stress that these criminal allegations were made to an individual not on duty at the agency at the time the incident occurred. We have treated and helped thousands of children with mental illness diagnoses in our group homes over the years and take every accusation against staff seriously. We employ nearly 600 people in our clinical companies, each of whom undergo extensive background checks prior to employment, and every two years after, along with undergoing dozens of hours of training each year. We take the safety and treatment of our clients with the utmost seriousness and will continue to work with local law enforcement and other oversight agencies in the ongoing investigation.”

McLaughlin was arraigned early Tuesday morning before Magisterial District Judge Dominic Cercone on charges of interference with custody of children, a second-degree felony; institutional sexual assault, corruption of minors and unlawful contact with a minor, all second-degree felonies, court records stated.

He was committed to McKean County Jail in Smethport in lieu of 10 percent of $25,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in Central Court on Nov. 3.