Bus Co. Finishes National Background Checks; All Clear

The company hired by Ocean State Transit to conduct national background checks on all its bus drivers and monitors has completed its work and all the employees cleared, OST head Tony Murgo confirmed Wednesday.

OST hired HireRight to conduct the checks after OST bus monitor Scott Sanford was arrested Oct. 31 for possessing and distributing child pornography. Sanford was among 11 men arrested that day in a sweep carried out by the Rhode Island State Police.

State law requires only that private bus companies conduct state background checks, although EG state representative Anthony Giarrusso has said he plans to file legislation in the General Assembly session that begins in January requiring national background checks too.

Murgo said OST plans to conduct state and national checks on all employees on a yearly basis going forward.

Supt. Victor Mercurio sent an email Wednesday updating parents on the background check results.

One caveat in all this, however, is that prior to the Oct. 31 arrest, Sanford had no record, local or national. Murgo ran checks on Sanford immediately following the arrest (before it would have become part of Sanford’s background information) and they both came back clean.

“We could have never found out” through background checks, Murgo said. “He had no record prior. There was no way that anybody could have seen this happening.”

Murgo said Sanford's wife and mother-in-law (a bus driver and monitor, respectively) "no longer work for the company." He would not elaborate.