Staffing3 min read

Not on the registry, still on the job: a staffing agency worker with a rape conviction

A man convicted of first-degree rape in New York moved to Indiana and never registered as a sex offender. For two and a half years he worked through a staffing agency at hotels, a stadium, a university and an elementary school. A registry search would have found nothing. A criminal search in New York would have.

Based on reporting by the U.S. Department of Justice and The Indiana Lawyer. All sources

Seen from behind, students with backpacks walk up the steps into a school building — Illustrative photo: RDNE Stock project / Pexels

In 2001, Roberto Cruz-Rivera was convicted in New York of first-degree rape and assault and sentenced to 20 years. After his release from a New York prison, he moved to Indianapolis. Federal law required him to register as a sex offender there. He never did.

From September 2017 to March 2020, he worked through a staffing agency at sites across Indianapolis: the Indiana Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium, the JW Marriott, Butler University, and an elementary school. In February 2022, he was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for failing to register.

A registry only lists the people who registered. The record that mattered was a conviction in another state.

What the case shows

The court case was about his failure to register, not about the staffing agency or the school. The sources do not say what screening the agency ran, and no source reports harm to any child. What the case does show is a gap that any employer can fall into: a sex offender registry check in Indiana would have come back empty, because he never registered there.

His conviction still existed. It was a matter of public record in New York. In July 2023, the Seventh Circuit upheld the sentence and the conditions of his supervised release.

From the conviction to the appeal

2001
Conviction in New York
First-degree rape and assault. Sentenced to 20 years and required to register as a sex offender.
After release
Moves to Indianapolis
He never registers as a sex offender in Indiana.
Sep 2017
Agency placements begin
A staffing agency sends him to the convention center, a stadium, hotels, a university and an elementary school.
Mar 2020
The period charged ends
Two and a half years of work without registering.
Feb 2022
41-month sentence
Convicted of failing to register, plus five years of supervised release.
Jul 2023
Sentence upheld
The Seventh Circuit affirms the sentence and release conditions.

0Indiana registry entries for a man with a rape conviction in New York

Three lessons for employers

1. A registry check is not a criminal search

Sex offender registries depend on offenders registering. Someone who moves states and never registers can be invisible to a registry search in the new state. Criminal record searches look for court records, whether or not the person registered.

2. Search where the person has lived

The conviction was in New York, and the job was in Indiana. An SSN trace shows the addresses linked to a person, and criminal searches in those places find records a local search would miss.

3. Screen agency workers for the strictest site

A staffing agency may send the same worker to a stadium on Saturday and a school on Monday. Screening has to match the most sensitive place a worker can be sent, not the most common one.

The PROFID version

How PROFID would have handled this hire

Here is the same agency worker run through PROFID.

Package by site. Workers who can be placed in schools get identity verification, an SSN trace with address history, county, state and federal criminal searches and the national sex offender registry.
Identity first. The worker verifies their ID on their phone, so every search runs on the right person.
Address history. The SSN trace shows past addresses in New York, so the criminal searches cover New York as well as Indiana.
The record goes to a person. The New York conviction goes to the agency's reviewer, with the case details, before any placement.
The employer decides. The agency applies its policy for school placements, and any adverse decision follows the FCRA notice steps.
Monitoring after placement. With the worker's authorization, the monitoring add-on alerts the agency to new records. It checks records, not people's private lives.

The same agency worker in the PROFID dashboard: the sex offender registry comes back clear, but the address history leads to a New York criminal search that returns a felony record. No school placement until the agency reviews it. Fictional person and agency.

A registry search answers one question. The address history tells you where else to look.

Questions employers ask

Does a sex offender registry search find every sex offender?

No. It finds people who are registered. Someone who fails to register, or whose offense does not require registration, may not appear. Criminal record searches cover court records directly.

What is an SSN trace?

It is a search that returns the names and addresses associated with a Social Security number. Employers use it to decide which counties and states to search for criminal records. It is not a criminal record itself.

Can staffing agencies screen workers for a specific client site?

Yes. Many agencies use different packages for different placements, such as a stricter package for schools, healthcare or homes, within the worker's authorization and the FCRA.

Who is responsible for screening agency workers placed at a school?

It depends on the contract and on state law. Many schools require contractors and agencies to certify that every worker placed on site has passed a specific background check.

Screen every placement before the first shift

Compare staffing packages for agency workers placed in sensitive sites.

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General information based on public records and reporting, not legal advice. The person named was convicted; the victims and the staffing agency are not named.