Catholic high school teacher fired for covering up previous employment, sex services charges

A Catholic high school in Kentucky has fired a teacher who had failed to disclose previous charges of soliciting prostitution while employed at another Catholic school.

Robert Pennington was recently terminated from his employment at Lexington Catholic High School in Lexington, Ky., upon discovery of the news, Edward Bauer, director of communications at the Diocese of Lexington, told OSV News in a statement.

In March, Pennington had been caught in an undercover sting operation by Charleston, W.Va, police.

According to a detective in that case, the 44-year-old had responded to an online advertisement for alleged sexual services, providing a photo of himself and arranging to meet in person. Police noted in their report that Pennington arrived in a “very impaired state” and had admitted to “heavy cocaine usage.” He received a summons and was released in that incident.

On March 17, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., sent a statement to Charleston Catholic High School parents advising Pennington had been “suspended from his duties” at the school and at Blessed Sacrament Church in South Charleston.

Pennington had served as a director of religious education at the parish, Tim Bishop, the diocese’s director of marketing and communications, told OSV News Sept. 19.

Bishop added he could not confirm if Pennington had been terminated “due to pending litigation.”

Pennington “neglected to include his tenure at Charleston (W.Va.) Catholic High School and did not disclose his arrest,” Bauer said in his statement. “Although never charged with a crime, he was cited by Charleston police. When this information was discovered by Lexington Catholic High School administration, they moved swiftly to investigate the situation and terminated his employment.”

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Pennington, who is no longer listed on the Lexington Catholic High School website, had been employed as a director of spiritual life and religion teacher there.

Bauer told OSV News he could not confirm Pennington’s former title, saying “the diocese will not elaborate on or respond to further questions, because this is a personnel issue.”

A supervisor within the Charleston Police Department in West Virginia, who was familiar with Pennington’s case there, told OSV News the former teacher’s misdemeanor would not necessarily have appeared on a typical background check.

However, he noted the importance of using law enforcement-level background checks in safe environment screenings.

“Law enforcement professionals have access to databases and information that the general public does not,” said the supervisor.

The term “background check” itself can be “very misleading,” said Terrance Dobrosky, supervising district attorney investigator with Ventura County, California’s High Tech Task Force and with the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.

Dobrosky told OSV News background checks can range from “doing a Google search of the person’s name” and social media profiles to simply checking a name against a list of registered sex offenders.

Law enforcement background checks come in “varying degrees as well … but one of the things we would do is determine whether or not (a person has) actually been arrested before,” he said.

Even then, such checks “won’t necessarily tell you at face value whether or not that person’s ever been under investigation,” said Dobrosky.

According to its website, the Diocese of Lexington uses CMG (Catholic Mutual Group) Connect for its safe environment verification, stating, “CMG connect will provide a streamlined screening process for employees and volunteers by use of a secure on-line background check and electronic signatures on our diocesan Code of Conduct documents.”

Asked for comment on the type of background check it provides, a senior official at the company told OSV News it has “a policy of not responding to media requests.”

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