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Editor’s Note: This article contains references to sexual assault.

Co-executive director of Vera House Randi Bregman stepped down Friday following news in early August that she knowingly hired a registered level 2 sex offender, according to a press release.

Bregman stepped down following an open letter signed by 28 former Vera House employees denouncing the decision to hire and retain Marcus Jackson as a victim advocate, and calling for change in the organization’s direction.

“We want all the victims and survivors in the Syracuse community to know that we are so sorry that Vera House has let you down in such an enormous way. Your anger and sense of betrayal are so real. They are gut-wrenching, they are life-changing,” the letter read. “This was not our Vera House. We are so sorry.”

Co-executive director Angela M. Douglas will assume the role as sole executive director following Bregman’s departure, according to the release. Though Bregman’s resignation is immediate, she will assist in the transition in an attempt to balance accountability and deliver on the organization’s mission, Bregman’s statement read.

“As soon as I realized the impact of my decisions, I began speaking with our Co-Executive Director, Board leadership and other stakeholders, wanting to honor the request for me to step down while recognizing the current needs of the agency and those we serve and calls for me to stay and help the agency through the crisis,” Bregman said.

Jackson is listed by The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services as a level-two sex offender. He was convicted in Florida in both 1998 and 2000 for sexual contact with two male victims who were at the time 15 and 16 years old, according to the registry.

Bregman, as well as two advocacy program leaders, were aware that Jackson was a convicted sex offender as well as of his history of failure to update his address in the sex offender registry, according to a Vera House press release from Aug. 18. In an Aug. 8 interview with CNY Central, Bregman attributed the decision to hire him to the organization’s belief in the “capacity for people to change.”

“We value the safety of all victims and survivors and potential victims. At the same time, we value the humanity of everyone, including somebody who may have committed harm,” Bregman told CNY Central at the time.

When Jackson was hired in October of 2020, according to the Aug. 18 release, Vera House put measures in place to prevent any contact with minors due to his convictions. In an internal review on Aug. 15, Vera House leadership discovered Jackson had contact with a 17 year-old at a local hospital in Dec. 2021.

New York state will require Vera House to pay back the around $64,000 in federal funding that was used to pay Jackson’s salary during his time with the organization due to the violation of a rule that sex offenders cannot work with minors.

In a statement, Douglas stated her priority of serving victims and survivors and moving forward while recognizing the “devastating” impact of recent weeks.

“It is now time for us to take another step. This is a parallel journey for us as we walk alongside beautiful humans every day pursuing freedom from the pain of impact. Not as an escape, but as a reclaim of who they are,” Douglas wrote. “Vera House is walking this same path today. May we continue to walk it together with tenacity and compassion.”

This post will be updated with additional reporting

Published on September 2, 2022 at 6:24 pm

Contact Jana: jlseal@syr.edu | @JanaLoSeal