WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Mary Clancy frequently orders pizzas from Hungry Howies, and particularly liked one deliveryman, Charles Drasko, who had recently been bringing the food to her front door.
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"He seems like such a nice guy," said Clancy, who was impressed by Drasko's politeness and prompt service.
Clancy was surprised to learn recently that Drasko is a convicted sex predator. In 2004, when Drasko was 18 years old, Marion County sheriff's deputies arrested him for sexually molesting his friend's 10-year-old sister. While being questioned by detectives, Drasko informed them he was on juvenile sex offender probation for inappropriately touching a 10-year-old boy.
Drasko later served more than four years in prison for lewd and lascivious molestation.
"We all make mistakes in life. Hopefully he's learned from his," said Clancy. "But if I was an owner of a store, or a manager, and I knew someone had that kind of problem, I wouldn't let him be out delivering to neighborhoods with children in them."
A Local 6 investigation into Florida's 65,000 registered sex offenders and predators reveals many hold jobs that put them in close contact with customers, sometimes with little or no company supervision.
According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, many convicted sex offenders and predators are employed as handymen, plumbers, and electricians. Others work as locksmiths, even though some states, like Illinois, prohibit sex offenders from holding that job. At least one convicted sex offender is as a new car salesman, taking customers on test drives.
Like Drasko, Richard Jason Cox is a pizza delivery driver. And like Drasko, Cox is a registered sexual predator. A judge can designate someone as a predator if the defendant used physical violence, preyed on children or had repeat violations.
Just months before his 18th birthday, Cox was arrested near Panama City for sexually battering a child under the age of 16. Specific details of the 1996 incident were not immediately available. A judge later sentenced Cox to more than six years in prison. In 2006, just a few years after his release, Cox was convicted of possessing child pornography, a crime that sent him back to prison for nearly four more years.
Cox had been working for a Pizza Hut restaurant in Orlando since at least May 2013, according to state records. Several times a day, he made deliveries to homes occupied by families, babysitters, and others who are unaware of his prior sex crimes.
Cox would not comment about his employment at Pizza Hut or whether he had told his supervisors about his past. A shift manager working at the Orlando store said she was unaware of Cox's history and referred questions to the franchise owner, CFL Pizza.
"We are observant of the industry hiring standards and law around employment and have been in the process of updating our policies," CFL Pizza CEO Andy Rosen wrote in a statement. "As part of that review, we are conducting background checks on all current and future employees. As a result, one employee has been terminated, and two have been suspended by CFL Pizza, pending the outcome of our investigation."
Besides Cox, two other registered sex offenders, Samuel Flowers and Christian Skapczynski, reported to the FDLE around May 2014 that they were employed by Pizza Hut restaurants owned by CFL Pizza. Local 6 has been unable to verify whether those offenders worked at the restaurants recently, or what positions they may have held.
With the exception of working in schools, law enforcement and some government jobs, there are few restrictions prohibiting where sex offenders and predators can be employed in Florida. Most offenders are eligible to work, and many criminal justice experts believe employment is important to the offenders' rehabilitation.
But hiring sex offenders for certain jobs may present risks.
"If something were to happen at a customer's home, the employer could certainly be held liable for that," said labor attorney Steve Ball, who agrees sex offenders and predators should be given opportunities to work.
"Employers cannot simply say, 'We're not going to hire this person because they have a criminal record,'" according to Ball.
However, he believes employers have a duty to consider the employee's past sex offenses in deciding which jobs the worker should be assigned.
"The other side's going to argue, if something did happen, that there was that propensity (for crime)," he said. "The employer knew, or should have known had they done any reasonable due diligence, that this person could pose a threat."
Ellen Mulligan said she is "1000 percent" confident in her boyfriend, Monte Casteel, and has no concerns with the convicted sex predator working in the spa she owns in Melbourne.
Casteel, 48, is a licensed cosmetologist who specializes in nails, according to state records. In 1990, a jury convicted Casteel of exposing himself to a juvenile girl. Four years later, a woman claims Casteel exposed himself and attempted to force her to perform a sex act. He later pleaded no contest to the sexual battery charge and was sentenced to probation.
"I have not seen anyone crucified as much, except for Jesus Christ," said Mulligan, who acknowledged that her boyfriend occasionally works unsupervised at the Petals Skin Spa.
Despite being a convicted sex predator, Timothy Poole is allowed to drive a cab for his family's taxi business, Triangle Cab, since there are few regulations governing vehicles-for-hire in Lake County. "It may be hard for some to believe, but sometimes people are wrongly accused," said Poole, 43, who insists he poses no risk to his passengers. In 2002, as part of a plea agreement, Poole pleaded guilty to attempted sexual battery against a child.
"To say that anyone classified as a predator may not work in a position where he encounters other people is discriminatory," said Sandy Rozek with Reform Sex Offender Laws, Inc., an organization that promotes the civil rights of convicted sex offenders. "We believe that if a registrant's situation of offense suggests that he should not be around a certain category of people, then those conditions should be individualized for him, and that should be done as part of his court-ordered conditions, not ex-post fact."
Russell Rowe has worked for a Dollar Tree store in Rockledge since at least May 2014. A judge designated him a predator, following convictions on four different sex crimes since 1996. Although Rowe has frequent contact with customers who check out at his register, he said he is under constant supervision by store managers and security cameras.
"I need this job. It took me two years to find it," said Rowe. He claims he informed his employers about his criminal background before he was hired. A Dollar Tree spokesman declined to comment.
Mary Clancy, the Hungry Howies customer, believes deliveryman Charles Drasko should have been assigned a different job at the restaurant.
"Maybe running the register, doing the cooking and cleaning, but I wouldn't let him be out on the roads," said Clancy.
Drasko's employer, Kirk Farr, said he was aware of Drasko's designation as a sexual predator but did not know the specific details of the crimes. Less than 24 hours after being contacted by Local 6 for comment, Farr said that Drasko and the restaurant had "decided to part ways".
"As a company, I can't have that kind of person around kids," said the franchise owner.