Jermaine Vaden - Repeat Sex Offender

An Aurora city employee pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy Wednesday.

Jermaine Vaden was sentenced to 29 years with 20 years of sex offender intensive probation, said spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh.

Vaden was hired in May as a seasonal worker for the Aurora city parks department. He was also working at the city-sponsored KidSpree event in mid-July. He was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy he met at the event.

Aurora police admitted in July that even though officers had contact with Vaden and knew he was a sex offender in another state, they did nothing with the information.

During two prior incidents, officers were aware that Vaden, 29, a sex offender in another state but there was no requirement to notify the Aurora sex crimes unit. Vaden is a sex offender who served time in Oklahoma but who failed to register when he moved to Aurora.

On April 29, Vaden was involved in a domestic dispute with his mother, but no charges were filed, Aurora police said. And on May 12, Vaden was the victim of a strong-arm robbery.

In both instances, a criminal history check was conducted that showed no outstanding warrants and no reason to arrest him. However, both checks showed that he was a registered sex offender in Oklahoma who had served his time.

Aurora's police chief said a new policy requires notification of any case when a sex offender is involved.

"A memo was issued today, to every member of the department, saying in every case in which you contact a sex offender for any reason, you will make a notification to the sex crimes unit just so that they can make sure that the sex offender is properly registered. And if he is not, track him down and get him registered," said Chief Daniel Oates.

Oates said the idea is to be upfront and to learn from lessons and the policy change.

"Had we been aware of this disconnect and had we gotten a hold of Mr. Vaden, he merely would have registered. He would not have been arrested. We would have compelled him to register. It would not, I believe, have affected the subsequent outcome," Oates said.

Because of this case, Aurora has announced it would do background checks on all future and current employees.