Quarter Of Juvenile Center's Workers Have Criminal Records

INDIANAPOLIS -- Recent background checks revealed that more than 25 percent of Marion County's juvenile detention center employees have criminal records, the center's interim superintendent said Friday.

The checks, initiated two weeks ago, showed that 24 of the center's 90 workers have criminal histories. The finding comes less than two months after nine former employees were charged with having sex with female detainees at the center between 2000 and 2005.

Interim Superintendent Robert Bingham said it is "outrageous" that so many people with criminal records were hired at a detention center. He said background checks on applicants were not regularly done.

"This never should have happened," Bingham said at a news conference. "It is a major standard within our industry to have a criminal records background check conducted prior to employment."

Of the 24 with criminal histories, eight have been suspended without pay. Twelve are still working and will receive some sort of administrative follow-up, and four others are still working but are undergoing a review of their arrests and job performance, 6News' Derrik Thomas reported.

One of the suspended workers is Gates Robertson, 54, who was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of possessing heroin at a strip mall across the street from the detention center.

Robertson was convicted of felony theft in 1996, misdemeanor criminal conversion in 1995, and felony battery in 1987.

Bingham said background checks will be required for all future applicants, and drug testing will be a condition of employment.

The suspensions have worsened a shortage of youth managers at the center. Some probation officers have volunteered to fill the gap, Thomas reported.