After his arrest for child sexual assault, Widefield School District bus driver Robert Gordon admitted he had a sexual relationship with the victim, then a 12-year-old boy, about a decade ago, authorities said Wednesday.
The alleged relationship occurred at about the same time as an El Paso County jury acquitted Gordon in 2001 of child sexual assault in an unrelated case, court records show. In addition, Gordon pleaded guilty to harboring a runaway child in 1998, records show.
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The school district’s failure to turn up Gordon’s guilty plea has at least one Widefield official questioning its system for running background checks.
Gordon, 48, remained in the El Paso County jail in lieu of $250,000 bond on Wednesday on suspicion of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust.
El Paso County sheriff’s deputies arrested him after a yearlong investigation. The victim’s name has not been released.
The victim, now 23, told investigators that he went to Gordon’s house, sometimes with his mother’s permission, and had sleepovers, according to a sheriff’s arrest affidavit. They started watching pornography together and later had sex.
Gordon admitted to having sex with the boy, the affidavit said, though he said the boy “came on to him.”
In the affidavit, the victim also revealed he had sex with another boy as Gordon watched. Gordon told deputies he walked in on the boys once and was in the room another time as they had sex.
The school district placed Gordon on administrative leave upon his arrest Tuesday and district officials began questioning a day later why elements of his criminal record were not revealed in his background check.
“That’s a concern,” said James Drew, a district spokesman. “If we aren’t getting complete reports, that’s a problem.”
Drew said the district may change the way potential employees are vetted.
The district was aware that Gordon faced charges of child sex assault in 1999. A 14-year-old boy accused Gordon of having intercourse with him “quite a few” times while the boy slept over at Gordon’s house, according to an arrest warrant. The teen alleged that the first incident happened when he was 12 or 13, the warrant said.
A 13-year-old boy also claimed in 1999 that Gordon tried to have sex with him while sleeping at Gordon’s house, the warrant said.
A jury cleared Gordon of all charges in 2001 and the district reviewed the case before hiring Gordon to drive buses in 2006 and again in 2010, Drew said.
“He was found innocent,” Drew said. “Which means it didn’t happen.”
But Gordon’s 1998 guilty plea and one-year deferred sentence to a misdemeanor of harboring a runaway and obstructing a peace officer never surfaced. And that would have been a deal-breaker if the district had known of it, Drew said.
“If any of the crimes involved any kind of children, or any children at all, they’re not coming to work here,” Drew said. “Again, we’re talking about convictions.”
The district’s background checks also failed to reveal Gordon’s driving tickets, though court records show he pleaded guilty to driving without insurance in 1996.
The district receives background checks after applicants are fingerprinted and checked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Drew said. The Colorado Springs Police Department also supplies a report that include such items as traffic tickets from across the state, he said.
Background checks by the CBI generally include only cases where a person was arrested and fingerprints taken, said bureau spokeswoman Susan Medina.
“The background check is just part of the pie,” Medina said, “of examining someone’s history to determine whether or not you’re going to hire them.”
