Each day our local paper, the Syracuse Post Standard, brings new and increasingly disturbing news about the alleged abhorrent behavior of SU’s assistant basket ball coach, Bernie Fine. Fine is accused of pedophilia – crimes he committed while employed by Syracuse University, in some instance while on SU property.These revelations come on the heels of Penn State’s equally horrific child molestation case which cost the legendary football coach Joe Paterno, and others, their jobs. While these two cases differ in some important ways, they share one unsettling fact – neither employer (Penn State or SU) seems to have reported these incidents to law enforcement when they were first discovered.
These cases remind me of the call I received a few years ago from a client who accidentally intercepted an explicit, pornographic e-mail exchange between the CEO of his company and the recipient who appeared to be a child. We hired a forensic IT firm to identify the identity of the recipient. Within hours, we were able to determine that the exchange was a game of role-play between two consenting adults and not a case of child endangerment.
In that case, the company’s responsibility was clear – had the exchange involved child pornography, as we had initially suspected, federal law requires that we notify federal law enforcement. http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/childporn_faqs.html. Ironically, had the case involved the molestation of a child on company property, there is no federal law requiring mandatory notification on behalf of the employer. Current federal law relates to the trafficking of child pornography over the internet, not actual child molestation. Instead, what exists is a mis-mash of state regulations, most of which define mandatory reporters – those required to notify the police if harm is suspected – as teachers, child care providers and those in the healthcare industry, not employers or those who learn of such crimes.
It is hopeful that this lapse in federal child protection will be addressed in the months and years to come, but in the meantime, what is an employer to do? The best advice: if in your judgment it is apparent that something very bad may have happened, go to the police. No employer should be in the position of investigating serious criminal cases such as rape, whether it is of a child or an adult. Most employers lack the skills and authority to do so. But this is lack of authority should not be confused with a lack of responsibility.
The failure of the employers in these cases to notify the police upon learning of the alleged abuse may not have been illegal, but it was certainly immoral. One can only assume their failure to notify the authorities was related to the stature of the employee and the harm it would do to the reputation of the institution. These cases are never easy and the fear of falsely accusing someone is real. But not taking action only brings harm down the road.
Our firing of the CEO was harmful to the company, no doubt. But the content of the e-mail found on the company server could not be over-looked. Not only was it a violation of company policy, its content was grossly obscene. His termination came swiftly. The interesting footnote to that story is that, upon his termination, we discovered indiscretions and financial misdeeds that we never suspected and would not have discovered unless we had terminated him. Our CEO was a bad egg through and through. Most bad eggs are.
