Field of Screams, the popular haunted attraction in central Pennsylvania, allowed a man convicted of exposing his genitals to children to volunteer alongside teenagers for three years.
Christopher Rohrbaugh, a 62-year-old Manheim Township man, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure and corruption of minors in 2011.
A video and photos from social media reviewed by Spotlight PA show Rohrbaugh was a volunteer at Field of Screams from 2023 to 2024. Field of Screams confirmed Rohrbaugh was a volunteer at the attraction, adding that he also volunteered in 2022.
The revelation raises new questions about how the attraction protects the minors in its volunteer workforce.
Spotlight PA interviewed 18 current and former volunteers who worked there from 2006 through 2024 and who described a hostile environment in which some unpaid adult staff sexually harassed, forcibly grabbed, and groped young volunteers, and pressured teenagers into sex.
After volunteers went public in 2020 with some of these allegations, Field of Screams vowed to do better and began to perform background checks through a third-party vendor.
The company claims Rohrbaugh’s criminal history did not show up on a background check because of the age of the conviction.
“The response Field of Screams received from its background check company noted that it limits its search for misdemeanor conviction records for employees and volunteers to seven years to comply with federal and state employment laws,” a spokesperson for Field of Screams said in a statement to Spotlight PA.
Field of Screams referred additional questions about the statutes to the company’s third-party background check provider, Topchecked, which did not respond to requests for comment.
While some states do limit how far back background checks can go for criminal convictions, Pennsylvania is not among them, and Spotlight PA was unable to independently identify any other state or federal laws that would apply to Rohrbaugh’s conviction.
Lawyers who spoke with Spotlight PA said they were unaware of any state or federal laws that would limit how far back a background check can go.
There is a Pennsylvania law that requires people who want to volunteer in certain environments to secure child clearances. They must obtain a child abuse history clearance from the state Department of Human Services, a report of criminal history from Pennsylvania State Police, and a fingerprint-based federal criminal history from the FBI if they haven’t lived in the state for 10 consecutive years.
Rohrbaugh’s convictions would have prevented him from getting a child clearance.
In a statement to Spotlight PA, a spokesperson for Field of Screams said the company strongly believes this law doesn’t apply to businesses like itself.
“As is true for all other for-profit businesses serving the general public, such as amusement parks, other haunted attractions, restaurants, retail stores, and similar entities, Field of Screams is not required to observe or comply with the [Child Protective Services Law’s] background check requirements,” the spokesperson wrote.
Legal experts who spoke to Spotlight PA were split on whether the business falls under those requirements.
However, state Rep. Dan Moul (R., Adams), who sponsored the law’s expansion in 2014, told Spotlight PA its intent is clear.
“If you are with minors, you need child clearances,” he said.
A history of volunteering
In 2010, a then 47-year-old Christopher Rohrbaugh exposed his genitals to two girls, aged 9 and 12, while nude, according to court documents. Rohrbaugh told the investigating detective that he knew that the girls were in the room before he entered.
Rohrbaugh pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure and corruption of minors in June 2011 and was sentenced by a judge to five years' probation.
He began volunteering at Field of Screams in 2022, the company said. He is seen in 2023 photos posted to his Facebook account in costume and on Field of Screams property. That same year, Rohrbaugh posted a photo leaning in for a selfie with owner Jim Schopf. The two were at a Field of Screams masquerade party held for staff.
A video posted on Sept. 30, 2024, to the company’s Facebook page — captioned “a day in the life of an actor at Field of Screams” — starts with a volunteer heading into a building lined with costumes. The volunteer checks in at a desk and then picks up his costume assignment from a man identified by Spotlight PA as Rohrbaugh.
Field of Screams told Spotlight PA that Rohrbaugh underwent a background check through a third-party vendor that did not reveal a criminal history.
A spokesperson said the attraction first became aware of Rohrbaugh’s convictions at the end of the 2023 season, when a staff member brought it to the attention of company leadership.
“Upon hearing this information from an unofficial source, Field of Screams contacted its third-party employee background check vendor to verify the information. The vendor verified that their background check for Mr. Rohrbaugh did not show a conviction,” the statement said. “Field of Screams leadership then contacted local law enforcement, who conducted their own search and confirmed that Mr. Rohrbaugh had been convicted of misdemeanor indecent exposure and corruption of minors in 2011.”
Field of Screams initially told Spotlight PA that both its vendor and local law enforcement said that misdemeanor convictions are “automatically sealed” under Pennsylvania’s “clean slate” law if they happened more than 10 years ago.
Legal experts told Spotlight PA Rohrbaugh’s convictions would not be eligible for clean slate sealing. When asked about the discrepancy, Field of Screams then said the conviction was protected from background checks due to federal and state laws that restrict the disclosure of information on convictions older than seven years.
Neither Field of Screams nor Topchecked, the third-party background check provider, supplied the names of the laws. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act does restrict certain information from being disclosed during background checks, but it doesn’t apply to criminal convictions.
And Spotlight PA could not identify any Pennsylvania law that would apply to this situation. In fact, court documents for Rohrbaugh’s convictions are readily available on Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial System website.
After confirming Rohrbaugh’s convictions, Field of Screams allowed him to volunteer again in 2024.
“The decision was made to allow Mr. Rohrbaugh to rejoin the volunteer staff in 2024, with a recognition that he had no complaints against him while on staff at Field of Screams, he had no criminal convictions of any kind since 2011, and the company continues to have robust safety and security protocols in place,” said Field of Screams in its statement.
The company added that its legal counsel said the attraction would be at risk of violating anti-discrimination laws if it prohibited “employment for a misdemeanor criminal conviction that is more than a decade old.”
Confusion over Child Protective Services Law
In the years after football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse while at Penn State, the Pennsylvania legislature strengthened laws to protect minors.
In 2014, the legislature expanded the Child Protective Services Law to require “volunteers having contact with children” to have active child clearances.
Adults must complete a three-step process to be approved: obtain a child abuse history clearance from the state Department of Human Services, a report of criminal history from the Pennsylvania State Police, and a fingerprint-based federal criminal history from the FBI if they haven’t lived in the state for 10 consecutive years.
If they have been in the state for more than a decade, instead of the FBI check they can sign a waiver certifying they have not been convicted of a disqualifying offense, including abuse of children, aggravated assault, and kidnapping.
The applicant must then submit documentation to the employer. There are consequences laid out in state law for people who submit false information on their clearances, as well as penalties for businesses that fail to require volunteers to obtain background checks or knowingly allow people with disqualifying convictions to volunteer.
Field of Screams says this law does not apply to it, “as it is a for-profit company that is not affiliated with any program, activity or service covered under the law.”
In addition to voluntary background checks, the company told Spotlight PA that it also complies with child abuse reporting protocols:
“Although the law does not require Field of Screams to do either, the company chooses to go above and beyond its legal requirements as part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring a safe and secure environment for staff, volunteers and guests of all ages. Field of Screams’ safety and security protocols are industry leading, with a goal of keeping everyone safe at all times.”
One legal expert who spoke with Spotlight PA agreed with the company’s interpretation of the law.
“The Child Protective Services Law doesn't cover every kind of employment or volunteer activity,” said Amy L. Rosenberger, a Philadelphia-based lawyer familiar with state employment law.
Rosenberger said that the haunted attraction wouldn’t fall within one of the three categories to which the law applies.
However, Moul, the state representative, and other legal experts said the type of business or organization does not matter. If an adult has “routine interaction” with minors, then the law applies, they argued.
The simple fact that Field of Screams uses volunteers who are minors is enough to require background checks for all adult volunteers, said Brenner Fissel, a professor of law at Villanova University.
The state Department of Human Services tells only organizations it licenses — like daycares or family child care homes — whether they need to obtain clearances. Nonlicensed businesses that involve children, like Field of Screams, are left to self-police.
"We refer them to their own legal counsel to determine if they need to obtain proper clearances,” said Brandon Cwalina, a department spokesperson.
Cathleen Palm, founder of the Center for Children’s Justice, a Berks County nonprofit that advocates for policies to protect Pennsylvania youth from abuse, isn’t surprised by the confusion over which companies are subject to the law.
“I think the fact that you have differing legal opinions whether a business like Field of Screams falls under the provisions of the Child Protective Services Law is the first red flag that there is confusion, nuance, and likely loopholes that impact child safety,” Palm told Spotlight PA.
Crockett of Safe Communities said she is not surprised that there is no agreement among legal experts.
“The [Child Protective Services Law] is so complex and at the same time, vague, I don't think I've ever been in a meeting with more than one lawyer where there was not disagreement on interpretation of certain sections,” Crockett said.
Crockett urges state lawmakers to clarify the statute.