A Goodwill store in Indiana failed to protect employees by hiring a registered sex offender who allegedly recorded 14 coworkers using the bathroom, a lawsuit alleges.
Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana “did not act with reasonable care” in hiring Ritchie Lee Hodges, a 58-year-old registered sex offender who was convicted in 2012 of using a hidden camera to record a girl using a bathroom in Boone County, the Indianapolis Star reports.
Hodges was arrested after a coworker found a hidden camera beneath a sink at the nonprofit in February. Prosecutors in Hamilton County said Hodges secretly recorded 14 colleagues as they used a bathroom at the Goodwill store in Fishers.
Five employees, including two minors, now claim in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Hamilton Superior Court that Goodwill erred in giving Hodges a second chance at the location.
“Goodwill did not act with reasonable care in hiring Hodges, in retaining him to work in the store with female employees, and in giving him access to the store premises including the bathroom,” attorney Dan Chamberlain wrote in the lawsuit.
Hodges admitted to hiding the phone when interviewed by police and investigators later found 48 videos of his coworkers using the bathroom, prosecutors said. Three of the victims were juveniles and all of them except one were female, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Hodges was scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday, the Indianapolis Star reports.
In a statement to The Post, Goodwill representatives said they contacted police immediately after learning of the allegations against Hodges.
“Goodwill cooperated fully with the investigation, which was coordinated by Fishers Police and the Hamilton County Metropolitan Child Exploitation Task Force,” the statement read. “Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana is reviewing our employment and retail policies and procedures.”