Xavier Cruz’s guilty plea for the rape and indecent assault and battery of a 14-year-old resident at the now-shuttered Greylock group home in Springfield has revealed what a victim’s rights attorney describes as a catastrophic failure of the Massachusetts state background check system.
While the 34-year-old was recently sentenced to 13 to 15 years at Souza-Baranowski State Prison, an investigation into his employment history reveals that Cruz was licensed to work with vulnerable children despite a specific court order that should have disqualified him from the position.
25 Investigates reviewed Cruz’s criminal history. It began nearly two decades ago with charges ranging from assault and battery to larceny, but it was his actions in 2020 that should have sounded alarms with state regulators…