Is your trash hauler or contractor a dangerous sex offender?

[Persepone]

As you may know, there was a murder on Cape Cod last year... Someone was finally caught and is being tried for the murder...

In an unrelated posting, I found out that many of the registered sex offenders here work for contractors, and they go to your house as carpenters, electricians, etc. to do repairs, renovations, etc. Scary thought! Interestingly enough, they work for the "reputable, established firms"--not fly-by-night operations or the marginal, shoestring operations. In many cases, these are the "reputable" contractors we're always told to pay the extra money for so that we get good repairs, good service, etc. But the idea of having a multi-offense violent sexual offender working in your house is sort of scary--not mentioned in the Better Business Bureau advice on selecting contractors.

Well, I'm quoting the following because you may want to check independently--but the woman who was murdered was allegedly murdered by her trash collection guy! And, yeah, the guy who collects your trash on a regular basis probably does know a lot about you from your trash. For one thing, he knows when you go on vacation, etc. and over time can get a pretty good idea about your being alone in your house, etc.

This woman was murdered in front of her two-year old daughter!

So give this some thought. Check your local sex offender website and see who those guys work for! You may find some unpleasant surprises!

I think we do have a right to demand that companies who hire employees that they send out to our homes do whatever background checks necessary to determine that those employees are not dangerous predators! Yes it is like a background check for working in a school or a nursing home because if you live in some isolated location alone, you are at risk if you trust your contractor and he sends some carpenter who is dangerous or if your trash collection company sends someone to your house week after week after week...

THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
Cape writer's family sues over death
$10m filing names murder defendant and his employer

By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | May 18, 2005

The family of slain Truro writer Christa Worthington has filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against her alleged killer and the Cape Cod trash-hauling business that employed him at the time of the slaying, lawyers said yesterday.

Christopher M. McCowen, 33, was arrested last month and charged with Worthington's rape and murder after a DNA sample he gave voluntarily was matched to evidence found at the crime scene. At the time, McCowen was working as a hauler for the Cape Cod Disposal Co. , and made weekly visits to Worthington's Depot Road home to pick up her garbage.

In a lawsuit made public yesterday, a lawyer for Worthington's estate made a $10 million wrongful death claim against both McCowen and CCDC Equipment Services, Cape Cod Disposal's parent company, alleging that both were culpable in her death.

The lawsuit charges that Worthington suffered ''great pain of body and anguish of mind" at McCowen's hands and that Cape Cod Disposal ''had an obligation to use reasonable care in selecting and retaining its employees to be sent to the homes of its customers."

The company, the lawsuit alleges, failed to use reasonable care in hiring McCowen, ''who had a history of criminal and violent behavior including but not limited to burglary, grand theft, trafficking in stolen property, felony assault, and threats to women which resulted in the issuance of restraining orders."

By hiring McCowen, the company put him in a position to familiarize himself with Worthington's home and routine, the lawsuit contends.

Weymouth lawyer Chester Tennyson Jr. confirmed yesterday that he filed the lawsuit earlier this month on behalf of Worthington's estate, which is administered by her father, Christopher Worthington, and BankNorth. Worthington's daughter, Ava, who was 2 years old at the time of the killing and was found clinging to her mother's lifeless body, is a beneficiary of the estate.

Tennyson said he would have no comment on the Barnstable Superior Court lawsuit and that he had asked Worthington's relatives to refrain from talking, as well.

''We'll do our only talking in the courtroom," he said.

Francis O'Boy, McCowen's Taunton-based lawyer, also declined to comment on the lawsuit yesterday. A lawyer for Cape Cod Disposal, however, said that the company admits no liability and plans to aggressively defend itself in the lawsuit.

''First of all, it has to be proven that he [McCowen] committed the act he is accused of committing," lawyer Bruce Bierhans said. ''Then the family has to prove that my client could not only have foreseen the crime, but could also have prevented it. Under Massachusetts law, the family has a very substantial burden of proof."

''This is not a nursing home or a day-care center; they are hiring people to pick up garbage," Bierhans said. ''We believe, and it will be our position in court that Cape Cod Disposal was fully in compliance with all of their obligations under the law."

In the criminal case, a state judge yesterday rejected O'Boy's petition that McCowen be released on $50,000 cash bail and ordered him to remain in jail pending trial.

According to recently unsealed court documents, McCowen insisted to police last year that he did not kill Worthington.

State Police investigators interviewed McCowen twice, once three months after the January 2002 slaying and again two years later. After the second interview, McCowen volunteered to have a sample of his DNA taken by swab. That sample was matched last month to DNA taken from Worthington's body, according to court documents made public yesterday.

According to the affidavit, McCowen said he had limited contact with Worthington; although he went to her house every Thursday, he said he did not know her and never went inside.

''Chris McCowen stated that Christa Worthington would occasionally watch him from inside her home through the front door and would sometimes wave," Trooper Christopher S. Mason wrote of the 2002 interview in an affidavit filed two months ago in support of the murder charges against McCowen.