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Retailer faulted in molestation case

By Holly Johnson
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 17, 2005

SCOTTSDALE - A Phoenix law firm has filed a "Jane Doe" lawsuit against big-box retailer Wal-Mart for failing to check the background of an employee accused of molesting several young girls in a Scottsdale store.

The suit, filed by the law offices of Gregory A. Patton in Maricopa County Superior Court, alleges that Wal-Mart either did not check Mark D. Ricchetti's criminal background or hired him knowing of previous criminal charges when he came to work as a greeter in the company's store on Northsight Boulevard in 1998.

Both Wal-Mart and Ricchetti are named as defendants in the suit, which comes as Ricchetti is expected at a preliminary hearing today.

Ricchetti, 35, was charged with gross sexual imposition, a felony, in Columbus, Ohio in March 1998 after being accused of molesting young girls at a Big Bear market in Upper Arlington. In police reports from that incident, a mother says that Ricchetti "put his hand down her daughter's shirt, while he was passing out stickers to children in the store."

The Ohio case closely mirrors allegations now pending against Ricchetti, who is accused of fondling 3- and 4-year-old girls on two occasions June 1 and 2 in Scottsdale. A few days later, the mothers of two more reputed victims contacted police, police Detective Sam Bailey said.

He has been charged with three counts of sexual abuse and one count of child molestation.

One mother said she had her back turned briefly while pricing diapers when Ricchetti, a customer service employee who greets customers and, as in Ohio, passes out stickers, tickled her daughter's chest under her dress. When she reported the incident to police, she was told another mother had come forward with similar allegations.

Before Scottsdale, Ricchetti lived in Worthington, Ohio, and Lithonia, Ga. Attorney Rob Mosier of the law firm's Santa Ana, Calif., office said Wal-Mart should have checked Ricchetti's background before hiring him. "This guy was a customer-service employee. He's supposed to stay at the front of the store," Mosier said, adding that mothers involved in the suit have indicated Ricchetti would place stickers on young girls' chests and routinely followed them around the store.

"He would leave his post for long periods of time . . . you just have a guy being strange, being inappropriate, and following kids around, and Wal-Mart and its employees and managers should have been on notice," Mosier said.

The company began requiring background checks of all store associates in September 2004, according to Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires. They do not run background checks on current employees or associates hired before that date, however. The application does screen for felony convictions, he said.

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-- MDT

Labels: background checks