A former self-storage manager's convictions for raping and sodomizing a 15-year-old girl will ultimately cost the company that employed him $150,000.

In June 2004, a jury found Edward James Egan guilty of rape, sexual penetration with an inanimate object and two counts of forcible sodomy, and sentenced him to 130 years in prison. A month after Egan's conviction, the girl's family filed a $1.35 million lawsuit against the self-storage facility where the girl was molested.

Egan was a manager at 1st Security Self-Storage on South Barrens Road in Roanoke County. The lawsuit alleged that Egan used his position to lure the girl there and molest her undetected.

Three W Corp., owner of the facility, agreed to pay $150,000 to the girl's family in a settlement finalized Tuesday, said John Edwards, the girl's attorney.

The company sympathies with the girl, but still maintains it bears no liability in the case, said Janeen Koch, attorney for Three W. The corporation settled at the insistence of its insurance company to avoid a costly trial, she said.

Three W did a reasonable investigation into Egan's background, including calling previous employers and asking for reference letters, Koch said. "They're good people. Had they been aware that he might have committed these type of acts, they would have terminated him immediately."

Edwards agreed that Three W had performed a proper background check, but said Three W still could be held responsible for what Egan, a manager, did on the property while on company time. "He was doing his job at the time this happened," Edwards said.

The Roanoke Times is not identifying the girl, now 17, because of the sexual nature of the crimes.

According to court testimony, between June 8 and June 19, 2003, Egan, who knew the girl, asked her to come mop out a storage shed, and she agreed. But instead, he took her to his apartment above the facility's office, tried to make her perform oral sex, then raped her.

Between June 11 and June 25, 2003, Egan took her to an empty storage unit, used a sexual device on her, then performed oral sex on her, she testified at his trial.

Egan denied ever having any sexual contact with the girl.

Egan was also found guilty in 2004 of sexual battery of a different 15-year-old girl and assault and battery of her 11-year-old sister.

It's common for the victim of crime to sue an employer for the criminal acts of an employee. "You sue the deep pockets," said Ted Frank with the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Frank heads a project researching the extent of civil liability in the United States.

One of the risks for society of holding businesses responsible for employees' crimes and backgrounds is that "anybody who has any sort of criminal record can never find a job again, not with somebody that has a deep pocket," Frank said.

Recent cases show a precedent in the legal system for holding companies responsible.

In 2003, a federal judge ruled that a Virginia Tech freshman choked and beaten by a janitor could not sue the janitorial services firm. But the 4th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision, saying the company should have performed a background check. The parties settled for an undisclosed amount in 2005.