Authorities are investigating the theft of several memory cards containing photographs from two area day- care centers, and the suspect is a convicted sex offender who was working for a janitorial service at the time.
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Denver police have issued an arrest warrant for Ken Kinder, 37, who was convicted of sexual assault on a child in 1999 and was on probation for felony theft when he briefly worked at the centers.
Details about Kinder’s crimes were not immediately available Monday, but Aurora police say his victim was 14 years old at the time of the assault.
The Children’s Corner Learning Center in Denver has terminated its contract with the cleaning service that allowed Kinder to work unmonitored Sept. 27.
Josh Mehlem’s daughter has attended the child-care center for three years.
“It’s definitely disconcerting,” Mehlem said. “But it seems like they are taking the proper steps to get the issue resolved.”
Operators of the day-care centers, where police believe Kinder took $320 and five memory cards, said they are still gathering information about the incident and declined to comment.
Children’s Garden Learning Center in Broomfield, where two cameras and $140 went missing, also has terminated its contract with the cleaning service.
The owner declined to comment on the record, except to confirm that employees undergo background checks and that she no longer employs the cleaning service.
Both day cares serve children from infants on up through preschoolers.
Police have not determined whether any of the photos have been uploaded to the Internet, according to department spokesman Sonny Jackson.
“That is still under investigation,” he said.
A search of Kinder’s Denver home Nov. 16 turned up several cameras, memory cards and other digital storage devices.
State law requires child-care centers to run background checks on their employees, but no such requirement exists for contractors who don’t come into contact with kids, said Colorado Department of Human Services spokeswoman Liz McDonough.
“If the janitor was coming in after hours, there would be no requirement to perform a background check,” McDonough said.
In both instances, Kinder worked during off hours, and operators returned the day after his shift to find the money and electronics missing.
Denver-based cleaning service Great Visions employed Kinder, according to a recent search-warrant affidavit.
Great Visions owner Greg Ensley said he fired Kinder shortly after the second theft allegation was made, and he said a background check performed on the Internet showed no criminal history for Kinder. Kinder worked for the company for three months.
“I didn’t know he was a sex offender, though,” Ensley said. “Our background checks don’t go that extensive.”
Great Visions is an independent franchisee of the national commercial cleaning firm Jan- Pro Cleaning Systems.
A Jan-Pro employee at the Lakewood branch said the company conducts background checks on its franchisees and requires those franchisees to check their employees.
However, franchise owners are responsible for their own hiring and day-to-day operations, said the woman, who declined to give her name.
Kinder has a lengthy criminal history. Aside from the 1999 sex-assault conviction, he pleaded guilty to providing false information on his sex-offender registry in 2005.
He was charged with theft in Adams County in 1994 and 1995, though in at least one instance, charges were dropped.
Kinder pleaded guilty in 2010 to theft of between $1,000 and $20,000 — a Class 4 felony — and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Read more: Denver-area sex offender working as janitor accused of taking photos from day care – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19477874#ixzz1flN5uYw2
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