Security company closes after employee charged with rape www.privateofficer.com

Memphis TN Feb 26 2010
By: Rick McCann/Staff
PRIVATE OFFICER NEWS
http://www.privateofficer.com/ The security company that employed a security guard who is accused of raping a shoplifter has closed down.

According SecurityPoint owner Huston Akins, 41, he had no idea that his employee Geryl Hill, had a previous charge for rape or any other criminal record.

He said that a former employee of the company ran a background check on hill in 2007 and that there was nothing on it.

Akins has now shut the doors to his company after losing Kroger as his only client, laying off all 48 employees as a result of the Feb. 16 incident involving Hill.

“We relied on the fact that he had an active license from the state of Tennessee to be a guard,” said Akins, who said he found out about the previous charge when news of the current arrest broke. “It shut me down. I have no business.”

Hill was charged with rape after detaining a woman on shoplifting charges at the Poplar Plaza Kroger.

According to police, Hill “forcefully propositioned” her for sexual favors, including putting his hand down her pants.

Authorities were alerted the next day, leading to Hill’s arrest.

Akins also said that he was unaware that state officials attempted to revoke Hill’s license in February 2009 after his plea of guilty in a statutory rape case.

That process led to a November hearing, but state officials have yet to rule on the revocation of Hill’s license.

Akins said he was relying on the fact that Hill’s license was renewed in 2005, 2007 and 2009.

Legislation has been introduced that would make it easier to revoke the licenses of guards convicted of serious crimes, said Christopher Garrett, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, which oversees security companies.

If the new legislation is approved, officials can automatically revoke a license after conviction of a serious crime, unless a hearing is requested within 30 days of conviction.

That bill is under consideration in the state House and Senate.

Akins, who is now unemployed himself said that he doesn’t know what he’ll do to support his family and blames this whole event and the closing of his company on Hill.

Kroger Security Rapes Shoplifter www.privateofficer.com

MEMPHIS, Tenn.Feb 24 2010 -

UPDATE:

 

Geryl Hill, a former Kroger security guard and confessed criminal, is now charged with another jaw dropping crime.Police say the 31-year-old man used his position of power to rape a 24-year-old woman while on the job at the Kroger in Poplar Plaza.

Investigators say the plain clothed security guard accused two cousins of stealing, then told a uniformed guard to follow them upstairs to conduct a search.

When nothing was found in one lady’s purse, police say the suspect told the woman and the uniformed guard to go downstairs and wait for police.

Court records say that’s when Hill took what he wanted “forcefully.

“Fearing she’d go to jail, the victim says she “reluctantly agreed” and didn’t tell police until the next day.

Documents show the assault didn’t stop there; Hill got her number and apparently “called her throughout the night.

State records show Hill is a fully licensed, armed, security guard.

A background check also shows he was charged with aggravated statutory rape in 2006.

A Kroger spokesman says they’re just as appalled as anyone else and that the company is cooperating with police on the investigation. He says Security Point handles the store’s security and that he didn’t know Hill had a previous record.

We weren’t able to reach officials, after hours, at Security Point. Just last year he pled guilty to a lesser charge and was granted a suspended sentence.

ORIGINAL POST

Memphis Police arrested a security guard accused of raping a shoplifting suspect at an East Memphis Kroger last week.

According to investigators, the 24-year old female victim was detained by 31-year old Geryl Hill for shoplifting at the Kroger in Poplar Plaza when the sexual assault occurred.

Hill was arrested Tuesday, February 16 and charged with Rape and Sexual Battery by an Authority Figure.

Kroger would not comment on this incident and would not confirm if Hill was an employee of Kroger or a contract guard agency.