High school umpire, sex offender evades background screening

Authorities of Arizona's high school sports association are bewildered that a convicted sex offender avoided a background screening and officiated softball games, azcentral.com reports. Representatives of Arizona's youth sports explained such a blatant mistake reveals the lack of information that both the federal and state governments provide to schools regarding sex offenders. Unfortunately, detailed background checks are both expensive and time consuming, the news source states. Mark Mignella, attorney for the Arizona Interscholastic Association, told the news source that his organization cannot guarantee it will locate every criminal's application. "Can we say with absolute certainty that every conviction of every person who ever may register as an Arizona Interscholastic Association official will always be discoverable? I think the investigative companies would say there is no absolute, complete certainty," he said. In this case, umpire Edward Lee Hartley may have been overlooked because his criminal record dates back to 1973. Although he has six counts of sexual offense, AIA's associate executive director Chuck Schmidt said Hartley passed a background check in 2009 and officiated approximately 70 games.