Census Workers and the Background Checks

Two job applicants with minor criminal records have filed challenges in court with the Census Bureau and their pre-employment screening process.

They claim they were unfairly rejected because the could not provide court records surrounding their settled cases.

Records are no longer available for misdemeanor offenses committed long ago. The two African American men claim the screening process is racially charged as the majority of applicants with these types of offenses will be black, Latino, or Native American.

The Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, declined to comment, but their spokesperson, Nick Kimball did state that safety was the reason for the screening process:

"Americans must be confident that if they don't mail back their forms and a census taker must come to their door, we've taken steps to ensure their safety."

The Census Bureau is expected to hire more than 700,000 temporary employees and will use FBI fingerprint checks for the first time.

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Foster Care Agency Terminated by L.A. County

The foster care agency that allowed a 2 year old girl to be placed with a woman who is now under investigation for the child's death was terminated as a foster facility by Los Angeles County in a unanimous decision last week.

United care oversaw 88 homes and 216 foster children and had been repeatedly cited in recent years as allegations of abuse escalated from choking, hitting, and whipping with a belt. In 2007 a child drowned while swimming unsupervised in a pool.

United Care was responsible for certifying the foster parents and checking regularly on the home. United Care certified Kiana Barker despite her criminal history.

Barker and her boyfriend were arrested earlier in March on suspicion of murder. Their foster child, Viola had been killed while trapped underneath a bed. Barker told investigators that she accidentally struck the child with a hammer while trying to free her. There were multiple bruises on her body and the child's death was ruled a homicide.

Barker had been the subject of five child abuse complaints, including on substantiated case involving her biological child. United Care knew of Barker's criminal record but did not believe it was a problem because she was deemed by state regulators to not pose a danger.

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Nurse Hides Deadly Criminal Past

Joseph Angelo Mannino was hired as a data entry clerk at Lehigh Valley Hospital in North Carolina in 2005 - 13 years after injecting his college roommate with a deadly cocktail of drugs.

He spent two years in prison on manslaughter charges. Mannino eventually became a registered nurse at the hospital before another employee alerted the hospital to his past indiscretions.

Lehigh Valley Hospital spokesman, Brian Downs says that Maninno lied to the hospital about his criminal history on both his job and school applications. A criminal background check was conducted on Mannino at the time of his hire in 2005, but it wasn't comprehensive and didn't cover convictions in other jurisdictions.

The hospital now runs national criminal background checks and Maninno admitted to hiding his conviction. His license was revoked in 2009.

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Police Chief Lies about Criminal Past

Fired by the Lewisville, Minnesota City Council last Wednesday, former police chief Dave Kleinschmidt had a criminal past and lied about his previous employment.

He lied to investigators about a car crash 2000 when he was a private citizen - that an unknown person had hit his car and fled, however, the person was a friend of Kleinschmidt's.

He was convicted of falsifying a police report - a conviction that was later overlooked when he was hired in February 2008. He was named police chief a year later. City officials don't agree on whether he passed a background check, the standard for all city employees. They cannot determine if council members were aware of his conviction before they hired him.

"The council has found that Mr. Kleinschmidt was not truthful, honest and candid with the council," the board wrote in a resolution to fire the chief.

City officials are considering disbanding the troubled Lewisville police department.

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Dear Liberty...Your Questions, Answered

Liberty received a great email the other day from a concerned employer:

"My current vendor for pre-employment background checks gave me an All-Clear on a candidate I screened in May 2009. The person has been employed at my company since then, but was recently arrested, ON SITE, for their active warrants!! When I contacted our vendor about it, they said the type of investigation we elected to implement didn't include the outstanding warrant! Of course, our company had no choice but to discontinue service, but my question to you is: How is it possible this wouldn't show up??"

There are many types of pre-employment criminal investigations, and they are not created equal. The type of search performed on your employee is not comprehensive and that is how records can be missed.

Many companies, especially in this day and age, choose these types of searches, called database searches, because they are less expensive. Be wary, often, when you're paying for less, you're getting less.

Liberty utilizes these database searches as well, but for very different reasons. Our QuickCheck search is a national criminal records search, but Liberty uses it as a pre-screening tool, a stop-gap measure that has the possibility to eliminate candidates in a matter of minutes.

Candidates that clear through the QuickCheck are sent on to perform a deeper more comprehensive background investigation that thoroughly searches criminal records from counties the candidate has resided in, and looks under any alias name we can find on the candidate.

Of course, that deeper investigation costs a legitimate amount more than our QuickCheck, but our clients know what they've got as soon as we do: peace of mind.

submit your questions here.

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Pittsburgh Company Employs Felons for Fundraising

Outreach Associates, Inc. appears to have violated a twenty-year old law making it unlawful anybody with a criminal history of dishonesty to solicit charitable donations.

Outreach president, Dennis McCarthy commented, "The statute was out there although Outreach operated apparently for decades without anybody saying anything. Ignorance is no excuse."

He went on to explain this his lawyers informed his criminals with offenses older than seven years with non-work related crimes could be employed.

10 employees with criminal backgrounds have been put on suspension. McCarthy pledged a thorough check of the company's 150 employees to determine whether anyone else has a criminal background.

The solicitors are provided their potential donors' home addresses and donation information, including the highest amount they pledged. Those who charge their donations provide the solicitors their credit card numbers.

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Missing Convictions, Why Database Searches are not Foolproof

It is always interesting to discuss what people do for a living. How we all come together from different walks of life and how each of participates in making the world work in it's strange and unique way.

I love being among a group of people that are casual acquaintances. Inevitably, the subject of profession arises. Pre-employment background investigations always receives a raised eyebrow or two, and the "wink" and elbow jab - "Don't pull my information! You don't want to know!"

I tend to think these types of comments are usually joking, however, one night a casual acquaintance had several probing questions for me. Turns out he was able to obtain a job though he had a felony level conviction on his record. He was probing me to find out how that could have happened,

"It's been so hard finding work since it happened, I know they did a background check, but I didn't disclose the information! And they didn't find it!"

The company probably ran a criminal "Database" search. Database searches are inexpensive, making them a great pre-screening tool. But more and more, especially as the economy continues to struggle, companies are relying solely on these searches to weed out former criminals.

But obviously, they're not catching everybody. Lucky for a few of the unemployed. When I asked my acquaintance the nature of his crime? Felony level fraud: Identity Theft.

He is currently employed at your local bank.

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Nurse Hides Murderous Criminal Past

When Nurse Charles Cullen admitted to killing 29 of his patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, you would think Pennsylvania authorities would get serious about screening procedures.

Just four years after Cullen's arrest, another murderous nurse slipped into the area's nursing ranks.

Joseph A. Mannino killed a friend by injecting a lethal dose of medicine into a system. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and was apparently attempting to treat his friend's headache.

After receiving his nursing degree, he began working at Lehigh Valley Hospital until authorities there fired him in 2008 after discovering "he had not revealed on his application for employment that he had been convicted of a felony in North Carolina."

Mannino told the nursing board he couldn't get a job due to the felony conviction, so he simply stopped revealing it "out of frustration."

According to the order that revoked Mannino's Pennsylvania nursing license, "when he applied to nursing school, a criminal background check failed to reveal his conviction in North Carolina and he testified that he then believed it was in the past and was no longer relevant."

The nursing school Mannino attending, St. Luke's, began doing national criminal background checks on all students in 2008, a year after Mannino graduated - at the top of his class.

Since 2001, St. Luke's checked criminal records through the state police, who only look for offenses in Pennsylvania. Only those students who had lived in Pennsylvania less than two years were checked at a national level.

Though Mannino was fired once knowledge of his criminal past came to light, there were no complaints against him, and there is nothing in his patient care records to raise any flags. "He was dismissed for lying on his application. His work here was satisfactory and we have no cause of concerns based on his work."

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NM Job Seekers Don't Have to Disclose Criminal Records

New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson, became the second governor to sign into law a prohibition on criminal records disclosure.

The new law prohibits employment applications for government agencies from asking job seekers if they have been convicted of a crime. The measure covers job applications for state, county, or local government. Private businesses are not covered.

Employers may ask the question once they're face-to-face with applicants and they are still allowed to complete background checks on the candidates.

Minnesota passed a similar law in 2009. Both states took the measure to deter undue discrimination against those with a criminal past.

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Employee Fired after DWI Arrest

City Officials in Farmington, New Mexico are reconsidering the policy on criminal background checks after one employee was arrested in a DWI charge, revealing a significant criminal history.

Christos Derizotis, a court services coordinator for Farminton Municipal Court, was arrest on his seventh DWI charge on Feb. 21.

The DWI charge brought to light his extensive criminal past - aggravated battery, false imprisonment, criminal damage to property, impersonating a police officer among several others.

Donna Brooks, Human Resources Director for the city of Farmington said, "This will prompt us to do criminal background checks on probation type of people. We don't run criminal background checks on everyone, only those who handle money and IT people."

Derizotis drivers license was checked and revealed that the record was clean. The city also investigated his education history and check references.

Derizotis faces up to three years imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.

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Pain Clinic Raids - Florida

Three South Florida pain clinics were raided by Federal narcotics agents last week. They were suspected of sending painkillers along black-market pipelines to Kentucky and other Appalachian states.

American Pain - Lake Worth, Executive Pain and East Coast Pain Clinic - West Palm Beach watched as agents of the DEA, and sheriff's offices carted way boxes of records after serving the clinics with search warrants.

All three clinics are owned and operated by Christopher and Jeffery George - 29 year-old twin brothers with criminal records. The brothers were highlighted in a Miami Herald report for selling painkillers at a pace unseen elsewhere in the country.

The George brothers have been charged with felony levels crimes of theft, selling stolen property, resisting arrest, and possession of illegal substances.

No arrests have been made.

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Crimes Committed by Criminals

Each Wednesday, Liberty brings you Crimes Committed by Criminals, a new feature intended to highlight the most important reason to screen for criminals.

Most persons arrested for criminal offenses have prior arrest records, and many have arrest records in more than one state.(Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Marsha Kay Hardy - In jail since late December for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance and chemical endangerment of a child. Authorities believe Hardy and other were producing methamphetamine in the home while a 16-year-old juvenile was present.

Hardy now faces charges of criminal solicitation to commit murder. From a jail phone, a police detective overheard Hardy tell her 18-year-old son to "put a bullet in their head," and to "cut her throat, gut them like a fish and dispose of the bodies in Florida, and do it quick and clean." Hardy continued, "if he was going to do the thing he said he was, to do it quick and clean."

Hardy has been in and out of jail since 1995 on escape charges, forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument.

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What Failure to Research Costs

In a strange case, Russian mail-order bride agency appears to have defrauded an American man, Kevin Linehan, out of over $50,000.

Linehan believes that the parent company of the organization, KGA International, had a hand in the disappearance of his investment, "I don't know anything about where the money went, all I know is it disappeared."

One of the corporate officials of KGA, Anthony Lawhon, denied any wrongdoing, "I absolutely, unconditionally was not involved with dealing or defrauding Mr. Linehan. He's a disgruntled investor...If he believes Mr. Nichols {another KGA official} did these things, I had no participation in it."

Linehan's lawsuit claims that Lawhon know Mr. Nichols had a criminal record for felony crimes involving fraud, but didn't tell the partners. Further research indicates that Nichols has an extensive history of fraud and embezzlement.

"Do you think I would have signed papers and let my money get transferred if I had known he was a criminal?" Linehan said. "Lawhon had a duty to disclose that were going into business with a criminal."

The cost of failing to protect yourself and your interests is just this, easily preventable possible fraud. Unfortunately, it appears that Linehan has a long battle back to obtain his investment, and he adds, he still hasn't found a wife.

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Rampant Abuse of the Elderly: The Tribune Investigates

A three part series published by the Chicago Tribune this month exposed the mistakes made by Illinois nursing homes when caring for the elderly.

Mixed with the older nursing home patients were mentally ill felons. A dangerous combination of incomplete background checks on the younger criminals, low staffing, and a breakdown in reporting of assaults and crimes committed in the facilities

Illinois nursing homes have a good safety record, said Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, but he added that "the issue has always been people with criminal records -- what screening and what protections do you put in place. That will be looked at."

State Senate committees are currently meeting to fully investigate the matter and raise the standards for processing mentally ill criminals.

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Mexico Replaces all Border Agents

August 17 --

700 customs agents who work at borders across Mexico have been completely replaced in an effort to stamp out drug smuggling and corruption. More than 1,400 new agents were dispatched to 49 customs points near borders and at airports.

The major difference between these agents and the last? They have all undergone background checks to ensure they have no criminal records.

The new agents, more than 70 per cent of whom are university educated, were chosen in a "strict selection process that included psychological and toxicological checks, as well as the necessary investigations to ensure they have no criminal record", the tax administration said in a statement.

The 700 agents who were replaced – fewer than 10 per cent of whom have university degrees - would not be banned from reapplying for their jobs, but would have to meet the new, stricter requirements.

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Shoplifters Want to Clean Up

Shoplifters in Buffalo, New York have a new opportunity to clean up their record. They can now participate in a special rehabilitation program, The Stop Shoplifting Education Program.

Completing the 3 hour class, in conjunction with 25 hours of community service can walk away with no record of their conviction. According to in-house analysis backed up by researchers from the University at Buffalo, those who complete the course are 50 percent less likely to commit another criminal act than those who do not.

In a survey by Retail Industry Leaders Association, 61% of retail business owners reported an increase in shoplifting since the beginning of this year, and a huge 725 have seen an increase in "organized retail crime" — people who steal larger amounts of goods or larger-ticket items to sell for cash.

The economy is a good excuse, people with far less money and jobs available to them are taking matters into their owns hands. Sometimes even getting back at the business they feel are responsible. However, shoplifting is not a victimless crime, something the program emphasizes.

Shoplifting raises the cost of goods substantially, perpetuating the problem further.

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Why do Background Checks?

There was a murderer in a Florida middle school for 3 years, undetected.

Curtis McRae, a 59-year-old school custodian, never tried to hide that he'd served about 15 years behind bars for killing a liquor store manager in the 1970s in a $100 robbery gone wrong. He wrote it on his school district application.

Under Florida law, McRae should have never been hired, but a recent investigation showed that he had inside help, someone pulling strings for him.

Jacqueline Clervan-Harrell "basically circumvented the process for him to come on board," said Darron Davis, Chief of Human Resources. She was also listed as a reference on his application.

Once discovered, McRae was found to have an extensive record, including the murder charges as well as a rape charge. His extensive criminal history ends with a final arrest in 1999.

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Obama Administration Cracking Down on Criminal Immigrants

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is driving the changes to the immigration policy that is stalled in congress right now. The changes are primarily aimed at employers who hire undocumented workers with criminal records.

The recent administrative changes include:

• New guidelines directing immigration agents to target employers who hire illegal immigrants rather than simply arresting undocumented employees.
• A requirement that all local police agencies deputized to check immigration status and turn criminals over for possible deportation sign new agreements pledging to focus on those who pose a risk to public safety.
• The implementation of a rule that requires federal contractors to use E-Verify, an online employment-verification program.
• The expansion of a program that uses government databases during the booking process to find illegal immigrants in the nation's jails.

Article

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Massachusetts Bill To Limit Access to Criminal Records

Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick is supporting a bill to limit the expansion of criminal records. Records used to be limited to law enforcement, but then access was expanded to include employers and landlords.

The bill would tighten the level of access employers have to criminal records, essentially loosening the ropes that prevent criminals from Massachusetts from finding employment.


Business groups and other supporters of the existing system oppose the changes, saying they limit the ability of employers to screen job applicants.

A hearing is scheduled for Monday at the Statehouse.

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Las Vegas Hotel & Nighclub Lax on Background Checks

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino has agreed to pay $500,000 find to Nevada gaming regulators for failing to properly police the private club, Prive, inside their resort.

In a settlement with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Planet Hollywood agreed to pay another $250,000 in a year if changes are not made in the operation of the nightclub, which leases space in the resort. If no additional complaints are filed by then, the $250,000 payment will be waived.

Among other charges, Prive was accused of hiring employees with criminal records. Some employees have been accused of removing drunk club goers and dumping them in the Planet Hollywood Casino without help or supervision. Other have been accused of physically and sexually assaulting club goers.

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