Randy Ronning – Why Background Checks Are A Good Idea
Randy Lee Ronning, of Bloomington, Minnesota, is another one of those perverts that the justice system lets loose for us to watch out for. Sometimes, though, the people that need to be watching out for these guys slack off a bit. They seem to believe that we live in some Pollyanna world where everyone that volunteers to work with children is a good, decent citizen. If they need a few good people to help coach little kids sports teams, they just find a guy somebody else knows and put him to work. It’s not like he’ll be working with money or anything –just kids. Fortunately, that strategy, which was actually employed, doesn’t appear to have resulted in tragic circumstances. I hope that remains the case as police continue their investigation into volunteer Randy Ronning, who was, as a simple and inexpensive background check would have revealed –a convicted sex offender.
Ronning, 36, coached girls’ floor hockey and softball for the Bloomington Athletic Association. Prior to that, he was convicted of fifth-degree criminal sexual misconduct. Ronning was not the type of guy you wanted hanging around a group of little girls who were only between 8 and 10 years of age –yet, that’s exactly where he was. Even though the BAA was aware and even warned that such a background check policy was in place, they failed to run one on Ronning. At this point, investigators do not believe that Ronning has victimized any of the children he worked with in association with the BAA.
Ronning did, however, prey on two other little girls. A woman who was staying with Ronning at a local hotel with two children became aware of her acquaintance’s sinister proclivities on April 4. The woman woke up around 4:00 one morning and discovered Randy Ronning molesting the nine-year-old girl. She then watched as the girl stirred in her slumber, prompting Ronning to return to his own bed. The woman then watched Ronning go back to the the child and continue his attack. She waited until Ronning finished his assault on the girl and went back to his own bed before getting up to call police from another room. Investigators from the Bloomington Police Department interviewed both children. While the other child, ten years old, stated that she was not sure if she was molested that night, she told of previous incidents that occurred over a period of years. Ronning admitted to police that he had molested both children. Randy Lee Ronning faces first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges. He is being held at the Hennepin County Jail on a bond of $500,000.
You can read the official complaint here. I must warn you, it is very graphic and very disturbing.
Randy Ronning has a MySpace page (two of them, actually.). One of the nicknames he uses is "Party Animal." Some of his interests are (the spelling is his) "fishing bowlig girls budweiser." His one and only blog post, written a few years ago, reads "some one help me iam bord need some friends to chat with on this kind of days." If you check out his list of friends, you’ll notice that a good many of them are deleted. On his Children status, he has selected "someday." I hope that someday never comes for him again.
If you have any information concerning other incidents related to Randy Ronning, please, call the Bloomington Police Department at (952) 563-4924.
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