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Uproar Over Background Checks for BP Oil Spill Workers Following Rape Allegation Against Sex Offender
by David M. Reutter
A brouhaha has erupted in Mississippi after an unregistered sex offender, who was working on the BP oil spill cleanup, was charged with raping a co-worker. The uproar revolves around the failure to perform background checks.
Rundy Charles Robertson, 41, was supervising a crew of cleanup workers. When one of his co-workers wasn’t feeling well one day in June 2010, Robertson offered to take her home. Upon reaching her motel room, he asked to use the restroom. The victim alleged that when Robertson came out he raped her. Robertson said the sex was consensual.
Several weeks before the alleged rape, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd learned that the oil spill cleanup workers received only drug screenings, not background checks. Byrd detailed his conversation with a BP representative.
“I said, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘There’s so many of them, we were told to do drug screens and that was it,’” Byrd stated. He then told the BP official, “Well, that’s not good at all. You’re going to have every type of person coming in here looking for a job, and you’re going to have the criminal element in here, and we’re not going to know who we’re dealing with if we don’t do background checks on these people.”
Who was ultimately responsible for conducting background checks has resulted in finger pointing. According to BP spokesman Robert Wine, “BP does conduct full checks on its employees, and under normal business conditions can make it a part of the contract for full backgrounds to be conducted by our long-term contractors. This was not done for all contractors in this response; the responsibility lies with the employing company for their own staff. The requirement on sub-contractors to BP’s contractors is one further step beyond BP’s scope of control.”
The company that hired Robertson, Aerotek, said it was only following its contract with Miller Environmental Group, which did not require background checks. Miller Environmental Group was hired by BP to assist with the oil spill cleanup.
“We are a staffing company. Our policy is at the client’s request,” said Aerotek general counsel Jeff Reichert. “We are not liable for anything that happens. Once we deliver the people to be supervised by our client, we don’t have anything to do with them anymore.”
Police records indicate that Robertson’s criminal history dates back to 1991. In 1996 he was put on the national sex offender registry for contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Louisiana. A 2003 Georgia conviction for cruelty to children resulted in his being placed on probation.
Following the rape accusation, Robertson was jailed in Jackson County on charges of sexual battery and failure to register as a sex offender. “Its sad because you get a victim now by a sex offender and he’s in our jail. Had we known this, he would have been arrested before the crime could have been committed,” said Sheriff Byrd, who also said his department would have performed the background checks for free if asked.
Less than a month after the alleged rape, Miller Environmental Group asked Aerotek to conduct criminal background checks on all current and future employees working on the oil spill cleanup.
Other jurisdictions had already been conducting background checks, including Grand Isle, Louisiana. Police chief Euris Dubois said around one-fourth of the oil spill workers had criminal records, though most were misdemeanors. Three of the workers were registered sex offenders. The Sheriff’s Office in LaFourche Parish, Louisiana checked approximately 1,500 workers and found 20 with outstanding warrants or sex offense convictions.
However, in some cases background checks would be superfluous, as state and local prisoners have been drafted to help clean up the BP oil spill – and their criminal records are fairly obvious. [See: PLN, March 2011, p.32].
Source: CNN
A brouhaha has erupted in Mississippi after an unregistered sex offender, who was working on the BP oil spill cleanup, was charged with raping a co-worker. The uproar revolves around the failure to perform background checks.
Rundy Charles Robertson, 41, was supervising a crew of cleanup workers. When one of his co-workers wasn’t feeling well one day in June 2010, Robertson offered to take her home. Upon reaching her motel room, he asked to use the restroom. The victim alleged that when Robertson came out he raped her. Robertson said the sex was consensual.
Several weeks before the alleged rape, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd learned that the oil spill cleanup workers received only drug screenings, not background checks. Byrd detailed his conversation with a BP representative.
“I said, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘There’s so many of them, we were told to do drug screens and that was it,’” Byrd stated. He then told the BP official, “Well, that’s not good at all. You’re going to have every type of person coming in here looking for a job, and you’re going to have the criminal element in here, and we’re not going to know who we’re dealing with if we don’t do background checks on these people.”
Who was ultimately responsible for conducting background checks has resulted in finger pointing. According to BP spokesman Robert Wine, “BP does conduct full checks on its employees, and under normal business conditions can make it a part of the contract for full backgrounds to be conducted by our long-term contractors. This was not done for all contractors in this response; the responsibility lies with the employing company for their own staff. The requirement on sub-contractors to BP’s contractors is one further step beyond BP’s scope of control.”
The company that hired Robertson, Aerotek, said it was only following its contract with Miller Environmental Group, which did not require background checks. Miller Environmental Group was hired by BP to assist with the oil spill cleanup.
“We are a staffing company. Our policy is at the client’s request,” said Aerotek general counsel Jeff Reichert. “We are not liable for anything that happens. Once we deliver the people to be supervised by our client, we don’t have anything to do with them anymore.”
Police records indicate that Robertson’s criminal history dates back to 1991. In 1996 he was put on the national sex offender registry for contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Louisiana. A 2003 Georgia conviction for cruelty to children resulted in his being placed on probation.
Following the rape accusation, Robertson was jailed in Jackson County on charges of sexual battery and failure to register as a sex offender. “Its sad because you get a victim now by a sex offender and he’s in our jail. Had we known this, he would have been arrested before the crime could have been committed,” said Sheriff Byrd, who also said his department would have performed the background checks for free if asked.
Less than a month after the alleged rape, Miller Environmental Group asked Aerotek to conduct criminal background checks on all current and future employees working on the oil spill cleanup.
Other jurisdictions had already been conducting background checks, including Grand Isle, Louisiana. Police chief Euris Dubois said around one-fourth of the oil spill workers had criminal records, though most were misdemeanors. Three of the workers were registered sex offenders. The Sheriff’s Office in LaFourche Parish, Louisiana checked approximately 1,500 workers and found 20 with outstanding warrants or sex offense convictions.
However, in some cases background checks would be superfluous, as state and local prisoners have been drafted to help clean up the BP oil spill – and their criminal records are fairly obvious. [See: PLN, March 2011, p.32].
Source: CNN
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