Crime & Safety

Carnival Worker For Wilmington-Based Company Arrested at Beverly High School

The owner of the Wilmington-based carnival defends the work habits and records check policy after a carnival worker was arrested on a warrant connected to a murder case out of Maine on Thursday.


By Robert Gates


The Cushing Amusements carnival worker who was arrested on Thursdayas the carnival was setting up at Beverly High School passed a criminal record check when he was first hired in April, according to the family-owned carnival's manager.

Larry Cushing, a Wilmington youth hockey coach, said he does criminal background checks on all of the employees the company hires.

“They are told ‘if you have a warrant don’t bother coming to work for us,’” he said.

Cushing Amusements is based out of Wilmington at 196 Wildwood Street. 

Sebastian Moody-Dabney’s criminal history was checked in April, when the 22-year-old was hired, Moody said. An Androscoggin County grand jury in Maine did not hand up the indictment on a hindering apprehension and prosecution charge until May 8.

“That wasn’t in (the system) when we hired him,” Moody said.

Moody-Dabney was arrested by Beverly police at about 2:30 p.m. on Thursday as they were doing check on a list of employees at the carnival, which opened that evening. Police found a warrant out of Maine, where he was wanted for the charge in connection to the investigation into the murder of 20-year-old Romeo Parent in Greene, near Lewiston, in April.

He had been working for Cushing since April and police in other communities have done criminal record checks on the carnival workers but Thursday in Beverly was the first time police got a hit on Moody-Dabney, Cushing said.

“We’re a family company and those are the kinds of people we hire,” he said.

As a youth hockey coach in Wilmington, Cushing said that he has undergone a criminal records check himself ”and they should.”

Beverly police’s request to review the company’s “employee manifest” on Thursday was not unusual but Cushing said it is not done in every community.

Moody-Dabney was arraigned on Friday in Salem District Court on a charge of fugitive from justice and was planned to be returned to Maine as soon as Friday afternoon.

As a family-owned and operated business, Cushing said he gets to know the employees well. Moody-Dabney was a quiet person who never caused a problem, he said.

“I can vouch for the kid,” Cushing said, “I’ve had nothing but glowing reports about him.”

If he had been a bad employee or had been causing problems, Cushing said he would have been the first person to know.

Like most of the carnival workers, Moody-Dabney’s job was to check tickets and operate one of the rides.

The carnival makes stops in Maine, but Cushing said Moody-Dabney got the job with Cushing Amusements after getting referred by another, existing employee.

Cushing said he has been running the business for the past five years and his family has been in the amusement business since the 1930s with “next to no trouble” for that entire time. He said he did not know of another time where a carnival employee had been arrested.


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