Employer not liable for employee’s criminal acts despite skipping background check

We understand it’s hard to find good help in a tight labor market. And we recognize the success of your organization depends on having the people to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. So it can be tempting to skip background checks. But there are so many things that can go wrong when shortcuts are taken in your hiring process. (Although in the case summarized here, the employer dodged the legal bullet—just barely.)

Employee with violent criminal history

Robert Koontz stalked, attacked, and sexually assaulted a woman in Quincy, Massachusetts, late one night as she walked home from work. Although off-duty at the time, Koontz was in the city on an overnight job assignment for his employer, Mills Van Lines, Inc.

The company had hired Koontz as a truck helper although he had an extensive history of violent criminal conduct and substance abuse. His substance abuse history rendered him ineligible for a drivers’ license. A background check would have revealed more than 20 arrests, 10 felony convictions, and five incarcerations in three states for crimes ranging from threatening domestic violence and committing burglary to receiving stolen property from another moving company.

Mills Van Lines had a policy requiring background screens as part of its hiring process. It didn’t do one for Koontz. In fact, as a practice, it didn’t conduct checks on any of the truck helpers it hired because it knew a majority couldn’t pass them. If the company had conducted a background screen on Koontz, it would have been clear he didn’t meet the established standards, nor did he even have a license.