Babysitter Hired Through Sittercity Charged With Child Porn, Sex Assault

February 8, 2012 4:49 PM

David Ettlinger photo from Facebook.

Reporting Roseanne Tellez

Filed under

Watch + Listen, Seen on CBS 2, News, Local, Syndicated Local

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CHICAGO (CBS) – A former Boston area elementary school teacher has been charged with taking inappropriate pictures of a girl he babysat after he was hired through the Chicago-based babysitter service website Sittercity.com.

As CBS 2’s Roseanne Tellez reports, David Ettlinger is accused of taking sexual photographs of a girl he was hired to watch. He is also accused of assaulting a girl he babysat.

It was a frightening discovery for many parents who use such services, especially since Ettlinger is a former 2nd grade teacher, who sounded like a great candidate.

Sittercity officials said they want parents who use their services to know the company took all the precautions available.

Kelly Vranesic, a broadcast designer at CBS 2, said she was nervous using a website to find childcare for her 7-month-old daughter, Penelope.

“Anything on the Internet, meeting people and bringing them into your home, it’s very scary,” she said.

For a Sittercity client in Boston, the worst fears came true. Ettlinger, 34, has been charged with child pornography, for allegedly making a secret recording of a nude child who was in his care. He also has been charged with five counts of aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14.

Ettlinger was targeted by federal investigators in Louisiana for allegedly participating in a global child pornography network.

He was arraigned on the assault charges on Wednesday.

Sittercity, based on Kinzie Street in Chicago, released a statement saying “Sittercity is deeply saddened … and took action to remove (Ettlinger) from the network, terminate his membership and notify any parent who had ever had any communications with him.”

The company, which offers background checks online, said it verifies all caregivers’ identifications and checks them against public sex offender registries before allowing them to register at the site. But Ettlinger had no prior record.

Marisa Fetter said Ettlinger’s arrest wouldn’t deter her from going online again to find a babysitter. “People depend on those websites to find their babysitters. Most people I know have their nannies or babysitters that come from a site similar to sitter city.”

Laura Palm said, “They’re very convenient and it is hard to find a babysitter sometimes. And the people I know that have used them have had very good luck.”

Vranesic said she would use an online babysitter site again, “but especially after hearing this, I would be even more careful.”

Again, Sittercity checks public sex offender registries automatically for all candidates before they can register with the site. Additional background checks are available for a fee.

It’s important not to assume all sites conduct these checks at all and using a site like this may be a shortcut, but parents shouldn’t cut corners on checking references and conducting interviews of potential sitters.

Step One: Read the online reviews and ratings listed directly on caregiver profiles on Sittercity.

Step Two: Conduct an interview with all caregivers.

Step Three: Check a caregiver’s references (also listed directly on caregiver profiles on Sittercity).

Step Four: Run a background check. Additional available checks include an enhanced background check and a motor vehicles record check.

You can also check the following websites for help:

National Sex Offender Public Website

Family Watchdog National Sex Offender Registry

Lexis Nexis Background Screening

Babysitter Hired Through Sittercity Charged With Child Porn, Sex Assault

the rapture

people lie about their background – it’s a given – just look at our elected officials – has anyone of them told the truth ??

people that take baby sitter jobs to troll on young children should be …. removed from society – forever

are you reading this catholic church…
I Am You Wicked Uncle Ernie

Fiddle about, fiddle about.
Vicky Kujawa

Stories like this are why I watched my own kids; no babysitters for me, thanks,. Too many nutjobs out there.
Roberta Waker

Stories like this are the reason many parents will only let relatives watch their children. Of course, relatives have been known to sexually abuse children too. I would recommend placing security cameras in your house to see exactly what is going on when you’re not there. There is an inexpensive system that works great and you can watch the video on your cell phone or work computer and it is well worth the investment. Not sure if I can give the name of the system, so I won’t unless asked.
juju

Here we go again with these kind. Please someone send them back to where the belong.
Candi

Finding and hiring the right nanny for your family can seem like a daunting task. We at Nannies4hire.com are here to make the process easier for you. Below are some tips to help.

1. Determine what you want in a nanny. What traits do you want your nanny to possess? (For example, do you want her to be bilingual or CPR/First Aid Certified?) What job duties will you expect your nanny to perform? (For example, do you want her to do your children’s laundry?)
2. Write a job description and a draft nanny contract. A sample contract is available to registered members at Nannies4hire.com.
3. Search the database of available nannies for free at Nannies4hire.com.
4. By telephone, give a brief interview to each nanny candidate that meets your baseline qualifications. Ask basic, job-related questions such as, “What do you like about being a nanny?” or “Please tell me about your most difficult experience as a nanny and how you handled it.”
5. For each nanny candidate that met your expectations through step 4, set an in-person interview to be held in a neutral location such as a coffee shop. These “screening” interviews should not involve your children. During these interviews, ask your nanny candidates more in-depth, job-related questions (i.e, “Have you ever been convicted of a felony or any potentially job-related misdemeanor?” or “What hours are you available to work?”); provide each nanny candidate with the job description and respond to any questions she may have about its contents; and have her sign authorizations for you to perform background checks.
6. Perform background checks (Online Investigation Service available at Nannies4hire.com).
7. For each nanny candidate that met your expectations through step 6, set an in-person interview to be held in your home. These “selection” interviews should include your children so that you can observe how each nanny candidate relates with your children and also so that your children can form an opinion about which nanny candidate they prefer (it is wise for you to consider their perspectives, but do not feel required to hire whomever your children prefer . . . you as the parent have to hire based on your wisdom and parental perspective).
8. Offer your nanny position to your best candidate.
9. Negotiate compensation, benefits, start date, and other terms and conditions of employment.
10. Update your nanny contract with information from step 9.
11. Have your new nanny sign and date the nanny contract on or before her first day of employment with you.
Shana Rowan

This is the problem with the registry. It doesn’t include the majority of actual sexual predators.

These things would not happen nearly as often if we started paying attention to facts instead of hype.

http://www.endsexcrime.org
Smash Crasher

Typical DEMOCRATIC public education teacher CHILD RAPIST.
Barbara Fenton

Sittercity does not vet the babysitters at all – they are thus the same as Craigslist. They also had a sitter arrested for stealing $40,000 in jewelry who was using another name and it is very easy to do a social security search to match a person’s name so Sittercity does not even do this. There are no barriers to entry thus they attract the predators. There are some new babysitter sites that let you do babysitting shares or swaps and thus there is accountability. Sittercity has had many, many more arrests than this – a child molestor last year and another one already in 2012 and those are just the ones we know about. At least Craigslist is free. There are also no child care experts involved at Sittercity which is another redflag. When you use a nanny placement agency, they are experienced in what they do and do the proper screening and there is accountability. I would stay away from websites like Sittercity that do not have a CEO who is a child care expert.