Darien man charged third time with selling alcohol, marijuana to minors as young as 12

DARIEN, Connecticut (WABC) -- A Connecticut man who was previously arrested twice for selling alcohol, marijuana and tobacco to minors has been arrested yet again.

Police in Darien say this is a most disturbing case.

Mark Yarish, a husband and father of two children, Darien Police say, was back in court, when he was charged with six counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count of reckless endangerment.

This is his third arrest on similar charges in the last six months.

Officials say he would buy alcohol at local establishments, and would deliver it to minors after they placed an order via text or phone call.

"We have him for providing alcohol to minors, providing vape devices to minors, using and distributing narcotics," said Det. James Palmieri, Darien Police Department.

Police detail dozens of incidents, some at Yarish's home, involving children of all ages, some as young as 12 years old.

"We were surprised at how widespread this was. How many kids he was interacting with and basically going unreported," Det. Palmieri said.

One of the more interesting encounters in the investigation was revealed in court documents, where a mother of one child told police she found a text message between her son and Yarish.

She called him and in part said, "I happened to be going through some of his text messages and I see that you are buying beer for him."

Yarish responded, "He had told me that he said it was okay from you."

The mother said, "Um, I highly doubt that because I don't allow him to drink."

"Kudos to her. She was the one parent that we were aware of that had to fortitude to step forward and come to us with the information," Det. Palmieri said.

The mother warned Yarish, "Do not ever in your life contact my son again, do not ever buy him alcohol."

Yarish said, "Okay."

The mother said, "No tobacco products or anything else because if I find out about anything I will go to the police."

In Darien, an affluent community in Fairfield County, word of the case is spreading.

"I think that is wrong because they are young kids and they don't really know what to do on their own and he's helping them make a bad decision," a resident said.

"There's a lot more of that going on in our neighborhoods, like burglaries and stuff, that we didn't have years ago," another resident said.

Yarish is being held on $250,000 bond.

Photo from July 2017 arrest.