Pre-employment screening may have identified alleged sex offender

Two former employees at the nonprofit Center for the Arts in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, were recently arrested on statutory rape charges after being accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy, according to the Daily News Journal. According to the center's executive director, Tony Cimino, background checks on employees and volunteers are not in place. Such pre-employment screening would likely have uncovered a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in one of the men's criminal histories. Detectives told the news source that 22-year-old Justin Mangrum confessed to sexually assaulting the boy at the end of summer to the early fall of 2010, both at the center and the house he shared with 36-year-old Jared E. Scott, whom he also implicated. "We believe there are cases where they would separate the young man from the rest of the group and then sexually abuse him," Officer Kyle Evans of the Murfreesboro police department told the news source. Detectives are concerned that there may be more victims who have yet to come forward. Another city resident was recently arrested for sexual exploitation of a minor, according to the Murfreesboro Post. The investigation began after a computer repair shop found images on the man's hard drive.