St. Louis man pleads guilty to rejecting job seekers with ‘ghetto names’

A group of job seekers in suburban St.Louis received denial letters last year from a testosterone clinic because of their “ghetto names,” although its owner claimed that an ex-employee was responsible. Now it turns out that individual has pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft for his role in perpetuating the hoax.

The owner of the clinic in Chesterfield, Mo., revealed a former employee used the Indeed.com profile of the business to send out the racist messages. The details provided by the owner have been confirmed in court as Cristopher Crivolio, 47, entered his plea.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release that Crivolio admitted to “unauthorized emails purporting to be from an employee of Mantality Health” without the knowledge of the company.”

St. Louis alternative newsweekly Riverfront Times reports the messages that were sent to hopeful applicants went out in August of 2018. Many of those who were in receipt were Black women.

One of those women was Dorneshia Zachery who shared the response to her with local station KMOV, which was initially assumed to be from the clinic. She said it told her that they “looked at my name and said we don’t care about what you’ve done in life.”

Zachery filed suit against Mantality Health because of the response to her application. But now that the Crivolio’s hoax has been discovered, the status of that litigation is unclear.

Another recipient of the message was Harmeisha Robinson, who was an applicant for a customer service position. Robinson shared an image of the response email on her Facebook page.

When the messages were issued by Crivolio, they were signed as if sent by the clinic’s Nurse Practioner, resulting in harassing messages online being sent to that individual and resulting in the identity theft charge against him.

“At no point in time had the employee, or anyone at Mantality Health, authorized Crivolio to use the employee’s identity or to send the communications purporting to be on behalf of Mantality Health,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release says.

Crivolio now faces five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He is set for sentencing on November 7.