Worker arrested for embezzlement had criminal past

By MELANIE C. JOHNSON
The Press-Enterprise

REDLANDS - Court records show that a temporary worker arrested last week for allegedly embezzling money from the city of Redlands has a criminal record.

Robin Denise Bradford, arrested Aug. 6 on suspicion of stealing hundreds of dollars in cash, along with some checks and credit card receipts, plead guilty in July 2008 on a misdemeanor charge of grand theft of personal property, according to court records.

Three phone calls to a number listed for Bradford's Highland residence went unanswered Thursday.

Richard Young, supervising deputy district attorney, said his office is still reviewing the current case.

No charges have been filed yet, which lists the city of Redlands, Hillside Memorial Cemetery and the Redlands Police Department as the alleged victims, Young said.

Redlands officials do background checks for some of its own employees according to its personnel rules and regulations.

But Bradford, 50, was a temp brought in from an outside agency, not a city employee.

Carl Baker, Redlands spokesman, said Bradford was brought in under an existing contract with a temp agency called Ajilon Professional Staffing, so the city did not perform the background check.

Generally, the agency is responsible for performing background checks on the employees it provides. That policy is being revised, he said.

Anthony Guerrieri, an Ajilon spokesman, said by e-mail that he could not comment on the background checks or the incident, citing the investigation.

"We are just as disappointed as the City of Redlands that this incident has happened and we are in full support of any investigation by local authorities," he said.

Bradford came to the city in May to fill in for several weeks in the Treasurer's Office for a fulltime city employee who was out of the office for surgery, he said. Her duties included providing counter coverage and processing utility payments, he said.

In July, city employees noticed suspicious cash shortages. Several hundred dollars was missing, as were checks and credit card receipts, according to Baker.

On the morning of Aug. 6, Redlands Police Detective Leslie Martinez conducted an investigation and served a search warrant at Bradford's Highland home. Police recovered most of the stolen checks and credit card receipts, but not the cash, he said.

She was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement, possession of stolen property and grand theft.

Redlands' former city treasurer Michael Jon "Mike" Reynolds plead guilty in August 2008 of embezzling more than $38,000 from the petty cash fund over a 13-year period. That prompted the city to institute some verification procedures to make it easier to check for errors or discrepancies.

Finance Director Tina Kundig said in a statement that the changes helped finance office employees discover the thefts quickly.

Reach Melanie C. Johnson at 951-368-9489 or mjohnson@PE.com

Arrested cab driver has lengthy criminal record

The San Antonio cab driver accused of assaulting a female passenger has a long history of run-ins with the law.

Fifty-nine-year old John Willis’ criminal background includes two convictions for unlawful carry of a weapon, one for criminal mischief, two for criminal trespassing, three for driving with a suspended license, and two convictions for DWI. All of his convictions occurred more than six years prior to him receiving his operators permit from the city of San Antonio in 2003.

All cab driver must undergo a criminal background check with the police department before receiving a permit. SAPD says it was aware of Willis’ troubled past when it approved his permit.

“In this particular case this individual’s record was clean for many years," said Assistant Police Chief Geraldine Garcia.

San Antonio has an ordinance pertaining to issuing permits to individuals with criminal records, but Garcia said the ordinance is not clear as to what crimes make an applicant ineligible.

In 2008, the city rejected nearly one in four applications for cab driver permits.

Garcia said, "We can't predict the future, but we do as much as we can."

Driver Involved In Shooting Had Criminal Record

WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) ―
Court records show that a bus driver charged in the slaying of a fellow driver had a criminal record.

Glenn Wade of Woodbridge was charged with murder in the shooting death of Darnell McPherson of Dale City, both of whom drove buses for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transit Commission. Officials say the two had a fight before shooting broke out Monday.

Court records show that Wade had prior convictions for crack cocaine possession, evidence tampering and witness tampering. He also spent nearly four years in prison.

Officials with contractor First Transit say they didn't know about Wade's criminal background before they hired him in 2004. Spokeswoman Glenda Lamont says at the time, the company only conducted county and state background checks, not nationwide ones.

She says the company is trying to independently confirm Wade's prior convictions.

___

Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

Registered sex offender fired from Renaissance Festival

FAIRPLAY - 9NEWS got a tip from a viewer Thursday about a sex offender working at the Colorado Renaissance Festival. We contacted the organization and found out that yes - a registered sex offender was working for one of the vendors.

According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, he did everything right when he moved, he registered and wasn't restricted from having access to children.

That is why 9NEWS is choosing not to name the man or show his picture. The man's criminal record shows a 2001 conviction in Minnesota. His crime was punishable by one year in prison and a fine.

T. R. Rice, an attorney for the festival, told 9NEWS the festival doesn't do background checks and doesn't require vendors to do so.

The Renaissance Festival said it employs about 150 high school and college students to work for 16 days each summer.

It also contracts with 200 vendors who sell arts and crafts. The festival says it didn't do anything wrong, the vendor hired this man and the man was fired as soon as his charges came to light.

Rice says the organization doesn't have plans to change its policy and start checking all employees' backgrounds.

"The children we have out at the festival are routinely accompanied by their parents and they need to be accompanied by their parents," Rice said. "Because we haven't had a problem in 33 years, there isn't a reason to go overboard on this."

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation does background checks for various professions. The agency's spokesperson, Lance Clem, says the legislature has indicated that if a profession comes in regular contact with children, then background checks are required.

Clem said the Renaissance Festival may not be included in that because it deals with a broader age group. Certain child care facilities or organizations dealing with children are required by law to background check their employees.

Water World and Elitch Gardens tell 9NEWS they do so.

(Copyright KUSA*TV, All Rights Reserved)

Child-care providers with criminal past getting licenses, state funds

A couple of days before Thanksgiving in 1996, Lisa Johnson took her 12-year-old foster daughter to the basement, pulled out an extension cord and whipped her with it, repeatedly.

Johnson turned on some music and cranked up the volume to drown out the girl's cries. Still, other foster children in the house later told Milwaukee police that they could hear the girl beg for mercy.

"I swear to God, Mama, I will be good," the children reported hearing.

Good - meaning she would never chew gum in school again.

Johnson, now 42, was charged with felony child abuse and in 1997 pleaded guilty to battery and domestic abuse. Her foster license was revoked.

Yet three years later, she opened a certified day care center in Milwaukee County called Planting Seeds.

And as of April 2009, she had taken in more than $430,000 from the taxpayer-supported Wisconsin Shares child-care program, while running a center with numerous violations and recurring problems.

Johnson's story isn't that unusual. The Journal Sentinel found that child abusers and people who have committed other serious crimes are becoming licensed child-care providers and are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars through the Wisconsin Shares system. Nearly 500 child-care providers in Wisconsin with criminal records have received funding from the state in the first half of 2009 alone, according to a computer analysis by the Journal Sentinel.

The $350 million-a-year program subsidizes child-care costs for roughly 35,000 low-income working families. But the system has been easily scammed by parents and providers.

In addition to posing a potential safety risk to the state's neediest children, some criminals appear to be conning the child-care system, doctoring attendance records, the Journal Sentinel found.

It's difficult to gauge the full scope of child abusers in the system because even when police and child-welfare workers find substantiated cases, not all abusers are criminally charged. And when they have been charged, many of the details are considered private information. To tell this story, the Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of public documents and obtained from sources dozens of additional documents that state and county regulators refused to release.

State regulators typically conduct background checks on a child-care provider every two years, when the provider's license needs to be renewed. If a provider commits a crime in the interim, the person is supposed to report it to regulators. The state does not run systemwide criminal-activity scans of providers.

"That makes me nervous," said Beverly Anderson, executive director of Ebenezer Child Care Centers and co-chairwoman of the Milwaukee Child Care Alliance. "I certainly hope someone is taking a look at this."

Nothing in the regulations prohibits people convicted of crimes from getting into the child-care business. There is no permanent ban, no matter what crime has been committed. If the crimes are directly related to children or are considered serious, the child-care providers need to prove to regulators that they have been rehabilitated before they are eligible. Even those convicted of homicide or sexual assault can qualify, as long as they can convince a three- or four-member panel that they are fit to operate a center.

Proving rehabilitation
That's what Lisa Johnson did after her domestic abuse conviction. She told state and county panel members in July 2000 that she was going through a stressful time when she beat her foster child. Her husband had just been killed in a car accident, according to a hearing transcript. She said the girl was the most difficult of her four foster children, and the child had been shouting obscenities at her teachers the day of the beating.

"I guess I allowed a lot of anger to build up within myself," she told the panel. "I know what I did was wrong, and I'm not trying to minimize it. . . . And I do take full responsibility."

Johnson also acknowledged that it was not the first time she had whipped the girl with an electrical cord. But Johnson said she had since taken parenting classes that taught her it was not the proper way to discipline a child.

"I have changed," she said.

The panel was convinced. A few days later, the state Department of Health and Family Services issued a letter informing her, "You have demonstrated sufficient evidence to support rehabilitation approval."

Milwaukee County certified her as a day care provider, and a year later, she became licensed by the state with the stipulation that she take two anger management classes or consult with a mentor.

In subsequent years, she was cited repeatedly for numerous violations, including not keeping proper attendance records and not taking the biennial training classes on child abuse and neglect, but she had not been cited for abusing children.

State regulators revoked Johnson's license in April after questioning by the Journal Sentinel. The reason: She owed the Department of Revenue more than $5,700 in back taxes. Johnson did not pay the taxes or appeal within the required 30 days and was officially shut down May 14, according to Erika Monroe-Kane of the state Department of Children and Families.

But in an interview last week, Johnson said she had not lost her license and continues to operate her day care center. She said she was not aware of any back taxes and had never been notified by the state of any revocation.

In fact, she received nearly $2,000 in child-care subsidies June 6 for care delivered in the last two weeks in May, state records show.

State regulators said they sent the revocation letter by certified and regular mail but don't follow up with a phone call or visit.

"If the letter sent through the regular mail is not returned, the presumption is that this was received," Monroe-Kane wrote in an e-mail to the Journal Sentinel. "We expect that once a business has received a closure notice, they will cease operations. In our experience, it would be rare that a center continue to operate after this."

After her interview Wednesday with the newspaper, Johnson contacted the state and paid her back taxes. Monroe-Kane said Thursday that Johnson's day care license will be reinstated.

'This lady is really bad'
A lack of oversight and lax rules allow people whom the state has warned to stay away from day care centers to become licensed child-care providers.

In 2003, Willie Kohlheim was licensed by the state to care for up to eight children at his home on N. 17th St. Regulators granted Kohlheim the license with one stipulation: His wife, Pamela, would not be allowed on the premises.

Pamela Kohlheim had been denied certification to run a child-care business by Milwaukee County the prior year.

"This lady is really bad," a county worker warned in an e-mail to state regulators about Willie Kohlheim's pending license in 2002.

Pamela Kohlheim's history includes arrests, charges or convictions for various crimes such as dealing drugs and writing bad checks. She also was accused of threatening to kill Willie Kohlheim's ex-girlfriend. She was sentenced to 90 days in the House of Correction and 18 months' probation in 2002 for violating a domestic abuse order.

The state Department of Health and Family Services determined that Pamela Kohlheim had "exhibited past behavior that establishes a pattern of criminality." Her conduct gave regulators "concern for the health, safety and welfare of children," Cinda Jones, regional licensing chief with the state, wrote in the stipulation letter.

There were other red flags. Willie Kohlheim had a full-time job for 17 years, making it difficult for him to run a child-care center on the side.

"This lady will probably be doing the care. That is scary!!" a county worker wrote in an e-mail to the state.

But Willie Kohlheim claimed he was separated from his wife. He guaranteed she would not be involved in the day care center.

The state licensed Willie Kohlheim.

Soon after, complaints began rolling in. Parents and employees reported in 2004 and 2005 that Pamela Kohlheim actually was running her husband's business while he worked elsewhere.

In fact, the state's own documents show he earned nearly $75,000 in 2004 and 2005 working for Metz Baking Co. Those same years, the state paid him about $175,000 for reportedly taking care of children.

Other complaints at the time claimed that Pamela Kohlheim offered parents employment and kickbacks if they would enroll their children. Employees told inspectors that the Kohlheims billed for kids not in attendance and left older kids in charge while they stayed in their bedroom.

Sometimes, the Kohlheims fought in front of children, kicking over furniture, punching each other and using obscenities, employees said.

In the midst of it all, Willie Kohlheim received more than $725,000 from the Wisconsin Shares program from 2003 to 2008.

And then, in 2008, instead of shutting down the day care center, the state licensed Pamela Kohlheim to care for up to 31 children at a new Milwaukee day care center called From Up Above on N. Humboldt Blvd.

Throughout the year, as she received public funding, Pamela Kohlheim repeatedly was cited by the department for not keeping accurate attendance reports, not properly supervising children, keeping or serving leftover milk and old food, not cleaning the diaper changing area, leaving dangerous materials within reach of children and other violations.

Inspectors visited her center 13 times in 2008, mostly in response to complaints, records show.

Also that year, the Kohlheims filed restraining orders against each other, with both claiming that one had threatened to kill the other. The court granted the injunctions.

Yet the Kohlheims still qualified to care for kids.

In that one year alone, Pamela Kohlheim received more than $540,000 from Wisconsin Shares.

Billing suggests scam
And if December's billing is indicative of earlier months, the money was spent on what police and regulators consider a likely scam.

All 19 children for whom Pamela Kohlheim charged the state that month belonged to employees of the center. Authorities say that type of situation often indicates fraud. Parents would not need to show up for work, under those circumstances, if they were just taking care of their own kids.

In December, Pamela Kohlheim voluntarily closed her center with the hopes of reopening a smaller center in her home.

She was denied a license in February when she reapplied. State regulators now are considering legal options to recover some of the $540,000 she received in 2008.

Regulators can't say why Pamela Kohlheim went from being barred from her husband's business to being licensed to run her own center.

"I don't want there to be any confusion about our opinion of the service they were providing," Monroe-Kane said. "This is not a quality center, and as result they no longer have a license."

Willie Kohlheim voluntarily closed his business in 2008, shortly after Pamela Kohlheim opened hers. He reapplied in January of this year for a new child-care license. The state Department of Children and Families denied his application May 29, weeks after the Journal Sentinel began asking questions.

New rules being put in place or considered by lawmakers will make it easier for regulators to shut down providers like Willie and Pamela Kohlheim more swiftly, Monroe-Kane said.

State-county miscues
Poor communication between state and local agencies allows some providers to remain in the system when they shouldn't.

In the case of Patricia Carter-Lee, the state and Milwaukee County were aware of accusations that she had abused a child. Yet they failed to communicate, and Carter-Lee's home-based business, Joy's Day Care Center on N. 25th St., kept on chugging.

In April 2002, regulators with the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare investigated accusations that Carter-Lee hit one of her foster children with a belt.

Carter-Lee was certified by the county to provide day care for as many as six children. She also was licensed by the state to care for eight children.

State regulators suspended her day care license immediately during the investigation.

Carter-Lee and her husband, Terry Lee, denied physically punishing their foster children, records show. They did, however, admit to using belts, paddles and their hands to "whoop" their own children.

Still, an attorney with the state division of appeals wasn't convinced that Carter-Lee was a threat to children. Attorney Brian Schneider ordered that the suspension be rescinded. There were no allegations that Carter-Lee abused children in the day care, Schneider reasoned.

"I question whether there is imminent danger to the day care children, even with the investigation pending," Schneider wrote.

Then in July 2002, when county welfare workers concluded their investigation and found the allegations to be substantiated, Milwaukee County regulators yanked her child-care provider certification.

The state allowed her to keep her child-care license.

It's unclear if the state was aware of the county's findings. The state declined to release some of the documents that would explain exactly what transpired, citing confidentiality laws.

There was another allegation of child abuse against Carter-Lee in 2001 that was unsubstantiated. And one in 1997 that was substantiated by local child welfare workers but overruled years later by a state administrative law judge.

It's also unclear whether state regulators knew that Milwaukee County had revoked her child-care certification.

Carter-Lee did nothing to clue in state regulators. In fact, records show, she lied repeatedly on her license renewal applications. On four separate occasions, she denied that she had ever had a certification revoked.

Repeated violations
Over the years, Carter-Lee expanded her business, collecting more and more Wisconsin Shares funding. In 2008, she brought in nearly $125,000. By April 2009, she was on pace to make more than $140,000.

All the while, state regulators have cited her repeatedly for not keeping accurate attendance records. She also has been cited for inadequate training of her staff, failure to serve proper meals to children and other serious rule violations.

In 2003, her day care center was investigated for reported sexual abuse of a child. Milwaukee child welfare workers could not substantiate the allegation, according to records.

In 2005, someone complained that kids were left alone in Carter-Lee's van in the parking lot of a Dollar Store for 20 minutes, records show. A state inspector at the time, Mark Mitchell, confronted Carter-Lee a week later. She denied the allegation.

"Not able to substantiate," Mitchell wrote in his report.

Regulators suspected her of fraudulent billing in 2007. And that same year, she admitted that all the children in her care belonged to people who worked for her center.

In April, she was cited for 18 rule violations, including not keeping accurate attendance reports, state records show. Regulators issued yet another warning in May.

That hasn't stopped Carter-Lee.

When the Journal Sentinel stopped by her house last month, she had two children in her care. She usually bills for between 16 and 24 kids per day. She said the others wouldn't be coming that day because her husband had jury duty and couldn't pick them up.

None of her employees was available to help, either, she said. She said she wrote a letter to parents notifying them that they would have to find other arrangements. But she could not find a copy of the letter.

She said she has never abused a child at her day care center.

"I ain't going to whip no day care kids," she said. "That ain't my responsibility."

Still around kids
Sometimes, it's not the provider who commits the crime or abuse, but someone who lives in the house and is around the children in the day care center.

Regulators with Milwaukee County revoked Rodney Bowman's child-care provider certification in 2003, based on criminal arrests for battery in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

"You have established a pattern of behavior that could put day care children at risk," the revocation letter states.

Bowman had run his home-based operation, called Milwaukee's Finest Child Care, for two years out of a house on W. Galena St., around the corner from a day care of the same name run by his mother, Fannie Bowman. Fannie Bowman's business also is based in her home.

Within weeks of his license revocation, Rodney Bowman moved in with his mother, according to court records and interviews with the Bowmans.

He lived there while he had been convicted of felony drug dealing and violating a domestic abuse order. Documents show he lived there in 2006, when he was charged with felony child abuse, and in 2007, when he was convicted of criminal trespassing and violating another domestic abuse order. That same year, he also was found guilty of obstructing an officer.

Rules require home-based day care providers to disclose the names of all individuals living in their homes. And day care providers are restricted from having certain types of felons, such as convicted drug dealers, living in the home where they care for kids, unless they've received approval from regulators.

Fannie Bowman told the Journal Sentinel that her son moved out a couple of months ago but that it was no secret that he lived there all those years. State regulators knew it all along, she said.

"He had to live somewhere," she said. "He was always here when they (state inspectors) came around."

Rodney Bowman was at his mother's house while she cared for children when the Journal Sentinel stopped by last month.

He said he regretted having drugs in his mother's house and said he had learned from his mistakes. He said all the other criminal charges against him were fabricated by a former girlfriend.

Over a two-year period, Fannie Bowman was cited by the state for violating rules nearly 30 times - including not keeping accurate attendance records. In January, regulators issued an enforcement order warning her to comply with transportation, safety and record-keeping rules, records show.

State regulators said they were never notified by Fannie Bowman that Rodney Bowman was living in her home.

Fannie Bowman collected $46,000 from the state's subsidized child-care program in 2008. She is on pace this year to double her income from the program.

Ben Poston of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Man accused of assaulting girl was working at Burleson library

A 68-year-old Fort Worth man accused of sexually assaulting a family friend’s young daughter almost four years ago has been working at the Burleson Public Library as a part-time library aide.

Harold J. Ard has previous convictions for public lewdness and prostitution.



Library and city officials said that, until an inquiry by the Star-Telegram on Thursday morning, they were unaware of Ard’s past conviction and of the aggravated sexual assault of a child charge filed against him on Feb. 20.

City Manager Curtis Hawk said Ard was placed on administrative leave without pay pending an investigation.

"It’s obviously a situation that we cannot allow to continue," Hawk said. "He’s gone while we follow up on it."

Ard has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the pending charge, according to court documents. His attorney, Mark Daniel, declined to comment Thursday.

Ard, who previously worked as a full-time librarian for Fort Worth, was hired by Burleson in 2003 before the city began requiring criminal background checks for such positions.

"That’s how Harold, his situation, kind of slipped by on us," Hawk said. "We weren’t checking the backgrounds for people in his position at that time."

The affidavit

Fort Worth police began investigating Ard in September after a woman reported that her niece had made an outcry about the sexual abuse.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Ard had been friends with the family for many years, and the girl and her younger brother sometimes stayed overnight at his house. The girl, now 10, told a forensic interviewer that during one of those sleepovers, she had fallen asleep on Ard’s couch and awoke to find him carrying her to his bed. She said Ard and a second man at the residence sexually assaulted her after Ard removed her clothes and that Ard also made her perform a sex act.

"The victim said this happened more than one time," Detective R.J. Zomper wrote in the affidavit. "The first time she was 5 or 6 years old."

Sgt. Marie Ornelas, supervisor of the crimes against children unit, said Thursday that police are still trying to identify the second man.

According to the affidavit, Ard met with detectives and acknowledged that the girl had stayed at his house but denied touching her.

Criminal record

Ard was arrested Feb. 20 and released from jail upon posting $40,000 bail. Tarrant County court records show that on March 9, a judge ordered Ard have no unsupervised contact with any child under 17 as an added condition of his bail.

A Tarrant County prosecutor said Thursday that she believes that Ard’s work at the library would be a violation of his bail condition.

"It takes only a matter of moments to molest a child, and if those with whom he worked were unaware of his charges, then his contact with children was not supervised," said Christy Jack, an assistant district attorney. "I will notify the court immediately and request that he be remanded to custody for violating the conditions of his release.

"The public has a right to be safe — especially when they bring their children to the library, of all places."

Tarrant County court records show that Ard was convicted of two charges of public lewdness, one in 1985 and one in 1986. He was also convicted in 1998 of prostitution and sentenced to 10 days in jail and a $164.25 fine, records show.

DEANNA BOYD, 817-390-7655

Legislation signed to protect kids

Jessica Hayes - http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/news_team/Reporter_Jessica_Hayes

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Representative Clyde Kersey of Terre Haute called it the most important piece of legislation he's ever authored.

House Bill 1462 closes what he called loopholes regarding existing background checks for teachers.

Prior to this legislation, the Hoosier state required only limited background checks for school employees. This meant it was possible for convicted felons from other states to slip into our schools.

"There were problems with that because we have teachers moving in from outside state," said Representative Kersey. "They might have committed a felony in another state."

The new law requires a national criminal background check through the FBI once a teacher applies for a job in Indiana.

The law also covers other school corporation employees from bus drivers to janitors.

A move local parents were happy to hear.

"If someone was teaching my kid that was involved in some kind of criminal activity, I would be outraged," said Terre Haute parent Johnny Russell.

The law also requires school corporations run employees names through the national sex offender registry.

To ensure teachers and other school corporation employees maintain clean criminal records, House Bill 1462 mandates follow-up checks every five years.

This bill will go into effect July 1.