There was about a half-decade stretch, covering roughly the back half of the '00s, when Mike Ribeiro was one of the Dallas Stars two best players. He was also, alleges a Collin County woman who babysat for Ribeiro and his wife, a handsy drunk who sexually assaulted her as she lay in bed with his children.
The babysitter's amended federal complaint, filed late Thursday in U,S, District Court, alleges years of sexual misbehavior by Ribeiro beginning when she was a child.
Mike and Tamara Ribeiro hired the babysitter in 2006 when she was the only person who responded to a community-wide email sent in search of childcare by Tamara Ribeiro. The babysitter was 12 at the time.
Throughout the years the babysitter was employed by the Ribeiros, she says Mike Ribeiro acted strangely toward her. When she was in the living room playing with his kids, she says, Ribeiro would "stare at her with his hands down his pants." The babysitter says that when she was doing dishes, Ribeiro would find ways to walk behind her, so he could touch her buttocks. Ribeiro also drove her home with his hand down his pants several times.
In either 2009 or 2010, the babysitter says she finally said something about Ribeiro's behavior to Tamara Ribeiro, after he grabbed her leg on another drive home. The babysitter says Tamara Ribeiro agreed that the babysitter should no longer be alone with her husband. Tamara now denies that the babysitter told her anything about her husband's behavior.
In 2012, Ribeiro was traded from the Stars to the Washington Capitals. The Ribeiros had a going away party at their home, according to the babysitter. While she was there, Ribeiro tried to isolate her, she says. She was scared to the point that she asked other guests to walk her to her car so she could leave.
As the Ribeiros moved to Washington D.C., Tamara asked the babysitter to come with the couple to help the children settle into their new home. She was supposed to stay two weeks. One night, the babysitter alleges, the Ribeiros went out with some of Mike Ribeiro's new teammates. When the couple got home, the babysitter says, Ribeiro sexually assaulted her as she lay in a bed with Ribeiro's children. When she later told Tamara Ribeiro, the babysitter says, she was encouraged to keep the incidents under wraps.
Ribeiro is being sued for sexual assault and false imprisonment; he and his wife say nothing happened.
“Mike and Tamara Ribeiro deny these allegations and will confront their accuser in a court of law,” attorney Brian Lauten said in a statement released Friday.