SPRINGFIELD, MA - In what’s being described as a “catastrophic failure” of the Massachusetts state background check system, a man who was never supposed to be allowed to work with vulnerable people has pleaded guilty to the rape and indecent assault of a 14-year-old girl he met while working at a group home.
In a recent article by Boston 25 News, it was revealed that 34-year-old Xavier Cruz assaulted the 14-year-old resident of the Greylock home in Springfield, a Department of Children and Families-affiliated group home supposedly aimed at helping troubled minors who were growing up in state custody.
According to a court order from 2020, he should never have been allowed to work around children at all.
While Cruz has a long criminal history spanning over two decades and including assault, battery, and larceny, it was his 2020 stint as a home healthcare worker that should have barred him from ever seeing the inside of the Greylock group home.
Cruz was caught stealing an engagement ring and a wedding band from a housebound 91-year-old woman and her daughter. In response, he was placed on probation and ordered by the court to refrain from any employment involving elders or people with disabilities.
In spite of this order, Massachusetts’ Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) approved Cruz to work as an overnight supervisor at the Greylock group home.
It was during this time that he groomed and sexually assaulted a teenager struggling with mental health issues while she remained in custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF).
According to Hampden County Assistant District Attorney Amy Wilson, Cruz enjoyed the attention he received from the vulnerable girls at Greylock, and even bragged that some of the girls had a crush on him.
The prosecution also stated that Cruz had a long history of misconduct within the care facility setting, including the alleged abuse of an 11-year-old at a different group home.
Perhaps more troubling than Cruz’s behavior is the fact that he was allowed near children at all.
Erica Brody, who represented the family of the teenage victim, described the situation as a “failure at every level” of a system designed to keep vulnerable people safe. “It truly boggles the mind that Xavier Cruz was hired by Greylock and licensed by EEC,” Brody said.
“You have a person who was on Superior Court probation. He was ordered not to work with disabled people and he was hired to work in a group home with disabled children.”
While the Greylock home has since been closed due to a string of allegations regarding the abuse, neglect, and safety violations that occurred there, this appears to be only one instance in an ongoing epidemic of Greater Boston-area home daycare providers who have been approved for operational licenses despite having open or pending criminal cases against them.
When asked by prosecutors to provide the specific records that were used to evaluate and clear Cruz for the role, the EEC denied the request.
As Brody stated, “This is a huge crisis that’s going on across the whole state.”
During sentencing, Prosecutor Wilson described how the victim suffers severe anxiety and exhibits patterns of self-harm directly related to the abuse she suffered by Cruz, and that even seeing cars resembling the one Cruz drove can trigger an extreme emotional response.
Cruz has been sentenced to 13-to-15 years at Souza-Baranowski State Prison, but Erica Brody says she will next be seeking to hold both the facility and the licensing agency responsible for the severe oversight that allowed Cruz to ever come near vulnerable children.
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