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Worker arrested for embezzlement had criminal past

2009-08-17T18:34:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-17T18:26:00.001-04:00

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

2009-06-23T19:32:00.000-04:00

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

2009-06-23T19:26:00.000-04:00

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

2009-06-15T13:01:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-20T17:43:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-12T18:48:00.000-04:00

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.

Instant Background Checks vs. Investigator Assisted Background Checks

2009-04-30T12:49:00.002-04:00

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Assault Suspect Had Murder Conviction

2009-04-22T14:38:00.002-04:00

Mentor Worked in School DespiteMurder Conviction
Last Edited: Wednesday, 22 Apr 2009, 11:41 AM EDT

Created On: Tuesday, 21 Apr 2009, 7:39 PM EDT

Paul Wagner
By PAUL WAGNER/myfoxdc

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Peacoholics mentor who is facing charges of molesting a teenage girl was allowed to work inside a Northeast D.C. high school despite having a previous conviction for murder, investigators say.

It was a job he shouldn't have gotten if a criminal background check had been properly done. The co-founders of Peaceoholics, a group that works with at-risk youth, say background checks for its workers go back 10 years, but there is nothing in the D.C. code that puts a limit on the number of years. In fact, if the check had been done, according to law, Barry Harrison would never have been cleared to work at Spingarn High School.

The D.C. code says background checks are required from:

"An applicant who is under consideration for paid employment by a covered child or youth services provider."

It also says:

"An applicant, employee, or volunteer required to apply for a criminal background check...shall submit to a criminal background check by means of fingerprint and National Criminal Information Center checks conducted by the Mayor and the FBI."

At the top of the list of crimes that would prevent employment is murder. Records show 50-year-old Barry Harrison was convicted of murder in 1986. He was released in 2006, and he was serving as a paid intern with the Peaceoholics when police say he molested a 15-year-old girl in the basement of Spingarn High School.

"You can't condemn an entire organization because of the action of one, an awful act," said Marion Barry, a City Council member representing Ward eight, "Peaceoholics have about a hundred people on its payroll, that's the first thing. Secondly its obvious Peaceoholics need to do a better job of screening people-- gotta get a rap sheet, a background check."

Barry says the Peaceoholics should be responsible for screening their own people, but councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. of ward five, whose district includes Spingarn, doesn't see it that way.

"I don't even put the onus on the Peaceoholics, I put the onus on this government," Thomas said. "I put the onus on us as leaders we should have the most stringent safe guards in place of any outside vendors that come in contact because in essence we are funding those sources."

The Peaceoholics say had they known Barry Harrison had been in prison for murder, they would never have sent him to work in the school. They say they need to employ ex-offenders in order to mediate disputes in some of the District's toughest neighborhoods.

For the second day in a row, FOX 5 asked Mayor Adrian Fenty's office to provide us with the policy allowing Peaceoholics to work inside D.C. schools. Late Tuesday, a document was emailed to FOX 5 by mayoral spokesperson Mafara Hobson. It was signed by the previous superintendent of schools, Clifford Janey, and expired last year.

There is nothing in the document that requires Peaceoholics employees to undergo background checks. Hobson says D.C. Schools is now conducting an investigation into how Harrison was permitted to work in the school. She says he should have been fingerprinted with the prints sent to the FBI.

Bloomington sex offender worked with children after record missed

2009-04-21T16:28:00.003-04:00

Despite a sexual misconduct conviction, Randy Ronning slipped through the cracks when he applied for a job in the Bloomington school system and later as a coach.

By ABBY SIMONS, Star Tribune

Last update: April 17, 2009 - 12:55 AM

A convicted sex offender and former Bloomington youth sports coach recently charged with molesting two girls apparently slipped through a background check to work for Bloomington Public schools a decade ago.

Randy Lee Ronning, 36, of Bloomington, was charged last week with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after a witness allegedly saw him molesting a girl in a motel room at a Bloomington Days Inn, where he was babysitting.

Police talked to one girl who said Ronning touched her inappropriately, while a second said that Ronning, her longtime babysitter, had molested her since she was 8 years old.

Ronning helped coach floor hockey in early 2008 and softball in the spring of 2006 for the Bloomington Athletic Association (BAA). The teams were for girls ages 8 to 10.

The BAA did not do a background check on Ronning, the group said. Police said they will work with the BAA on how to do such checks.

The revelation prompted police to send letters to parents whose children might have had him as their coach, though there was no evidence that Ronning committed any offenses while coaching, said Bloomington police Sgt. Mark Stehlik.

In 1992, Ronning was convicted of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Hennepin County. Police say that although the circumstances were different, that crime also involved a juvenile female. Police say a background check would have revealed that conviction.

Despite the existence of that record, the Bloomington public schools system hired Ronning in June 1999 to work as a school bus aide in the transportation center. Though his 1992 conviction should have stood out on a background check, it slipped by, said Bloomington Schools spokesperson Rick Kaufman.

Kaufman said that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension performs the school system's background checks and that no offenses by Ronning were found.

"Had that conviction shown up, I can guarantee you he would not have been hired to work in the district," Kaufman said.

Julie Lackner, Minnesota Court Information System manager for the BCA, said the background check was performed too long ago to determine exactly what went wrong.

"The reason that might happen is law enforcement is required to report arrests to us by submitting fingerprints and demographic data," Lackner said. "If for some reason they don't fingerprint [a defendant] or don't submit the records, we will not have a record."

Ronning's duties as a part-time bus aide included transporting disabled children to and from the bus before and after school and during field trips. He was never left alone with the children, Kaufman said.

He resigned in October of 2000. There was no disciplinary action on his record, Kaufman said.

Upon learning of charges against Ronning, Bloomington school officials ran his name through their database. When they learned he was a former employee, they contacted police. The school does not plan to notify parents of children who may have ridden the bus at that time, Kaufman said.

"We feel very confident that the Bloomington Police Department has done an adequate job of sharing information and asking those with information, or victims, to come forward," he said.

Ronning was in the Hennepin County jail Thursday in lieu of $150,000 bail.

Julie Lackner, Minnesota Court Information System manager for the BCA, said the background check was performed too long ago to determine exactly what went wrong.

"The reason that might happen is law enforcement is required to report arrests to us by submitting fingerprints and demographic data," Lackner said. "If for some reason they don't fingerprint [a defendant] or don't submit the records, we will not have a record."

Ronning's duties as a part-time bus aide included transporting disabled children to and from the bus before and after school and during field trips. He was never left alone with the children, Kaufman said.

He resigned in October of 2000. There was no disciplinary action on his record, Kaufman said.
Upon learning of charges against Ronning, Bloomington school officials ran his name through their database. When they learned he was a former employee, they contacted police. The school does not plan to notify parents of children who may have ridden the bus at that time, Kaufman said.

"We feel very confident that the Bloomington Police Department has done an adequate job of sharing information and asking those with information, or victims, to come forward," he said.
Ronning was in the Hennepin County jail Thursday in lieu of $150,000 bail.
Abby Simons • 612-673-4921

Kids' Coach Arrested On Drug Charges

2009-03-18T19:16:00.003-04:00

Sheriff: Little League Coach Sold Pot To Undercover Officers

WJXT-TV

YULEE, Fla. - A man with whom some parents in Nassau County trusted their child turned out to be a criminal, according to Sheriff Tommy Seagraves.

On Monday, deputies arrested Yulee little league coach Charles Lloyd on drug charges after they said Lloyd sold drugs to undercover officers.

"It's demeaning to our community, and it's demeaning to the little league program," Seagraves said.

Just last weekend, the sheriff said he talked with the little league players and their parents as the season got under way. That's why he was very upset that one of the coaches has been arrested, accused of selling marijuana to undercover officers.

Seagraves said the drugs were not purchased at the little league field. Lloyd was arrested during a traffic stop.

"During the course of the investigation, we found that he was a coach here in the little league area in Yulee. He had some equipment that needed to get back to the little league board," Seagraves said. "We were able to return the equipment to someone there so they could continue with the program with the kids."

The sheriff said Lloyd coached little league for several years, and had a team of 7- and 8-year-old players.

The Yulee Little League Organization does background checks, but it only checks records for felonies.

Lloyd has one local drug-related arrest on his record. In 1985, he was charged with possession of marijuana and paraphernalia. However, because the arrest was for a misdemeanor it did not show up on his background check.

Lloyd is being held in the Nassau County Jail.

Ex-cons who got loan-originating licenses commit scores of frauds that cost customers millions

2009-03-18T19:00:00.004-04:00

Criminal past no barrier to mortgage field

By Cary Spivak of the Journal Sentinel

A killer, a handful of drug dealers and a onetime leader of the Latin Kings - these are just some of the criminals who have received state-issued licenses to write your mortgage loan.

Those ex-cons are among hundreds of people with convictions ranging from prostitution and drunken driving to burglary and armed robbery who obtained state permits to work as mortgage loan originators, commonly called loan brokers - a profession that operates with minimal state oversight.

The licenses give the ex-cons easy access to a client's personal financial information, including bank account and Social Security numbers. More importantly, the licenses open the door to the mortgage market, which was awash in billions of dollars until it crashed, sparking the national economic crisis.

Today, regulators and investigators nationally are discovering scores of illegal real estate schemes that helped contribute to the nation's mortgage meltdown, particularly in the now-moribund subprime market. Many of the illicit deals were hatched by people who had criminal histories before receiving state permits to enter the business.

A Journal Sentinel review of Wisconsin records related to licenses held by brokers last year found:

• More than 340 mortgage brokers who had licenses last year admitted to felony or misdemeanor convictions on their license applications, a number that balloons to more than 500 when drunken-driving convictions are included. Among the felons who have held licenses was James Lytle. He already had a long rap sheet - which he didn't disclose to regulators - when he obtained his license and used it to mastermind a $4 million mortgage fraud scheme. He is serving seven years.

• Licenses were held by about 40 people with drug convictions, including dealers who sold marijuana, cocaine and GHB, commonly known as a "date rape" drug. Cocaine dealer Michael Lock got his license right after walking out of prison and quickly became the brains behind a $2 million mortgage scam. He's now serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2007 for two murders - crimes he committed before he got his license.

• Theft convictions are on the rap sheets of more than a dozen loan brokers; five are burglars, and one did time and is still on state supervision for armed robbery.

Lorrie Keating Heinemann, secretary of the Department of Financial Institutions, defended her department's issuance of the licenses to known criminals, saying that state law prohibits employment discrimination.

"But we do realize that loan origination and mortgage fraud has been actually pretty rampant in the United States," Heinemann said.

The attraction of mortgage lending to criminals is simple:

"It's extremely lucrative and you are less likely to be prosecuted and less likely to be shot at," said Rachel Dollar, a California attorney who tracks mortgage crime nationally for her Mortgagefraudblog.com Web site.

The hurdles to entering the profession are relatively low. Even criminals on probation can receive a license, as long as they pass a test and pay the $250 fee.

Applicants are asked if they have convictions or disciplinary problems in any state, but regulators here run the applicants' names against only Wisconsin state criminal and court records. Regulators don't check the applicants' names against the computerized listings of federal court records available online.

State regulators admit they worry about some of the people who get licenses, but they say state laws give them no choice. Although a new federal law soon will require states to ban felons from getting a license within seven years of a conviction, regulators in Wisconsin say they are required to grant licenses to people who used to make a living selling drugs or even did hard time for violent crimes such as homicide, rape or battery.

"No application is DOA," said Christopher Green, the department's general counsel.

College of criminality

Sometimes the seeds for a real estate career are planted in the prison yard.

Real estate is a popular subject among the drug dealers and white-collar criminals doing time in low-security federal prisons - facilities often called Club Feds.

"A lot of the guys I dealt with in prison were good guys, sharp guys - a lot of businessmen, stockbrokers, lawyers," said one drug dealer turned mortgage broker who insisted on anonymity for fear of hurting his business. "Real estate is always an area guys talk about . . . they make it sound so easy."

Michael Rowsey's foray into real estate began almost the moment he was placed behind bars.
Rowsey was sentenced to 17 years in prison for first-degree reckless homicide for shooting and killing a Milwaukee man in 1991.

A cellmate at the Dodge Correctional Institution talked incessantly about real estate. When Rowsey transferred to the Waupun Correctional Institution, he made a visit to the prison library.

"The first book I picked up was a real estate book," he said.

Rowsey got his loan broker's license in 2005. Like many ex-cons who earn a license, Rowsey has drawn no complaints from law enforcement, state regulators or probation officials.

But other ex-cons have not kept out of trouble.

Consider the case of Billy Joe Cannon.

Cannon forged a relationship with Larry E. McKenzie while the two men were briefly locked up on separate drug charges in federal prison more than a decade ago. Both later received loan broker's licenses and worked together at a Mequon firm.

One of Cannon's ex-bosses, Sarabjeet Singh, said he didn't realize Cannon or a second employee had felony records, even though both had disclosed the information on their license applications.
"If they have these types of serious problems, how did they get a license?" said Singh, owner of the now-closed United Lending in Milwaukee. "It's a nightmare. If I had known they had this kind of background and they were this kind of people, I would have never hired them."

Cannon, who served about nine years for dealing cocaine, obtained his loan broker's license in 2004, one month after he completed probation. He has been involved in several questionable deals.

Criminal investigators from the Internal Revenue Service recently seized documents related to dozens of mortgages written by Cannon as part of an ongoing investigation of mortgage-related crimes.

The IRS and the FBI have launched separate investigations into the home purchase made by Pedro Medellin and the role Cannon played in the transaction.

Medellin is a learning-disabled bank teller from Waukesha who said he was duped into taking out a $103,500 mortgage and buying a central city house. The Journal Sentinel first chronicled his situation last summer.

Cannon, who was facing tax fraud charges at the time, was the mortgage broker on the deal.
In addition to the routine fees paid to a mortgage broker in such a transaction, a company Cannon owns pocketed more than $38,000 from the loan proceeds - a payment that wasn't disclosed on closing statements.

Alisia Flores also had dealings with Cannon. She bought four properties through him, three of them sight unseen.

She said Cannon in 2003 found the properties for her to buy and arranged the subprime mortgages to finance the deals. She put no money down and received mortgages totaling $244,000, according to Flores and county records.

"I was so young, I was thinking I could build my credit," said Flores, a 25-year-old mother of three who now lives in Atlanta.

When she couldn't make needed repairs or keep up with her mortgage payments, she told Cannon to find buyers for the properties.

That was the last she heard from him.

Unknown to Flores at the time, three of the properties - which she had bought for $174,800 - were sold for more than $255,000, according to county records.

Flores contends she was never told of the sales, didn't approve of the prices and did not sign any documents to complete the deals.

"I never got a dime," said Flores, who said she was interviewed at length by the FBI this year about the transactions.

Instead of boosting her credit score, she saw it fall as she missed payments on one of the high-interest loans.

"You'd think that if somebody has a state license, they would help you and be on your side," said Flores, adding that she often went to the United Lending offices searching for Cannon. "He used his license to his advantage and he took advantage of me."

Attempts to reach Cannon for this article were unsuccessful. Visitors who approach his modest Sherman Park home are greeted by a sensor light and recorded voice announcing, "You are trespassing."

Cannon's attorney, Michael Chernin, declined to comment.

New federal regulation

A new federal law requires states to ban felons such as Cannon from getting a license within seven years of their convictions.

During a January interview, Michael Mach, the state's top bank regulator, said Wisconsin would begin enforcing the new law by spring 2010. The timetable was moved up, however, when Gov. Jim Doyle inserted the tougher standards into the budget repair act signed into law last month. It orders enforcement of the tougher standards by Jan. 1.

The new rules also mandate national background checks for mortgage broker applicants. Certain felons, such as money launderers and those whose crimes involved fraud or dishonesty, will be forbidden from getting licensed. It will be up to the state to define which crimes will qualify for the lifetime ban.

Mach said Wisconsin will seek to revoke licenses granted in past years to felons who will no longer qualify under the new law, though attorneys predict that move will likely face a tough court challenge.

Dollar, the California fraud expert, said much of the nation's mortgage fraud was committed by people who had records before entering the business.

"The fact is that a lot of felons do become repeat offenders," she said. "We do see a significant number of mortgage fraudsters who engaged in similar conduct or in other forms of criminal conduct in the past before obtaining licenses."

The ranks of criminals with loan broker's licenses were likely trimmed in the past couple of years as thousands of brokers left the business. There are about 6,300 loan brokers licensed in Wisconsin today, down from more than 15,800 in 2005.

Current state law permits the Department of Financial Institutions to reject licenses for people who committed a crime that "constitutes improper, fraudulent, or dishonest dealing."

State regulators, however, say that doesn't extend to drug dealing. Law enforcement officials say that interpretation makes no sense.

"If you're trafficking drugs, you can't be honest. Period," said Sally Tess, regional chief of state probation.

Green, the lawyer for the Financial Institutions department, said it's not so clear cut.

"Is drug trafficking inherently dishonest?" Green said. "I don't think you could say that as a regulator.

"You could be the most honest drug dealer in the world," he added. "I'm not making light of it, or saying it's not illegal, but where is the dishonesty there?"

Mach, who heads the department's banking division, said there are no ironclad rules for deciding what crimes should disqualify a person from being licensed. Instead, he said, regulators use a subjective approach that targets for rejection those who have "honesty, fraud type of convictions."

"Drug dealing is one I think we have to look pretty hard at," Mach said. "Is it at least reasonably related to the industry? . . . Our conclusion has been, I don't think we can say it's that related."

Adds Heinemann, whom Doyle named a cabinet secretary in 2003: "The great thing about America is we all have second chances."

Amazingly easy to get

Many in law enforcement are bewildered by how easy it is for a criminal to get a mortgage broker's license.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said he has toughened his stance since his office and federal prosecutors dealt with Lock, the drug dealer who obtained his loan broker's license less than three months after his release from prison in 2005.

Lock is serving life sentences for orchestrating two murders while running a crime group known as the Body Snatchers. He was convicted in December of mortgage fraud for running a scheme that caused more than $2 million in losses. Lock pocketed some $300,000 of that, according to the evidence in federal court, where he is scheduled to be sentenced this week.

"If you asked me that question before getting involved in the Lock case, I would say a ban on felons getting licenses is not needed," Chisholm said. "Now, I'd say yes, it does concern me. What it may reflect is people who have already engaged in criminal conduct on one level may find a new level to explore."

Carol Kraft, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Lock for mortgage fraud, said the ease of making money without the risks of violence makes the mortgage business irresistible to drug dealers who have no intention of giving up crime.

"Here's an enterprise that can bring in big money if you can figure out how to manipulate it, and it's fairly safe," Kraft said. "Somebody is not going to come in and shoot you because they want your mortgage records - not like a drug dealer who is in a transaction that could go bad."

As for Lock, he sees selling mortgages as a natural field for a drug salesman.

"When you look at the nature of a drug dealer or a drug deal, period, it's what you call wheeling and dealing," Lock said at the Waukesha County Jail.

Some experts say the access to other people's money attracted many ex-convicts to the business, especially during the subprime mortgage heyday.

"Big money, easy money," said H. James Browning, owner of MoneyLine Mortgage, a defunct Mequon brokerage that employed numerous felons, including several drug dealers and a rapist. "We created an industry where the demand was there, and you didn't have to work too hard."
Browning said he inherited some felons when he bought the company in 2003. He acknowledged that he also hired other felons. He said he fired several of them because he questioned the deals they were writing.

Ex-cons are especially attractive to brokerages looking for loan originators able to generate business in the inner city, which in Milwaukee was ground zero for subprime lending.

"They know the neighborhoods. They know the streets. They know the people," said Rodney Cubbie, a former federal prosecutor who now works as a defense lawyer.

Mach noted that the vast majority of loan originators with criminal pasts have few or no complaints. But he acknowledged that with just four people assigned to oversee more than 6,000 brokers and 485 brokerages, there is little active oversight of the industry.

"Unfortunately, the volume that we deal with in this particular area is at times staggering," Mach said.

Federal records unchecked

When brokers' licenses come up for renewal every two years, state regulators don't check federal court records to see if there have been any new convictions. So regulators wouldn't have known that Cannon was convicted of tax fraud in November 2007. The state didn't revoke his license until after the Journal Sentinel published the details of his conviction.

And the state only recently disciplined Rick Roloff, a Pewaukee loan originator who pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges in a scheme that prosecutors say cost lenders more than $100,000. On Jan. 29, Roloff agreed in federal court to plead guilty. But he kept his broker's license for another month, losing it only after regulators saw a Journal Sentinel story about his crime.

Several of the ex-cons contacted by the Journal Sentinel declined to be interviewed. They include Gamaliel Matos, a former Latin Kings leader now working in real estate. Matos said he simply wants to work during the day, go home to his family at night and not bring any attention to himself.

Matos' 2001 drug trial gained notoriety because prosecutors said he was a gang leader and because former Green Bay Packers great Reggie White urged the court not to send Matos to prison.

Matos was sentenced to eight years. He was released in December 2004. He obtained his loan broker's license seven months later and got a real estate license in 2006.

He lost his loan broker's license last year over delinquent tax bills.

On his honor

Joseph DeFilippo, an Outagamie County loan originator, shows what can happen when the state relies on an honor system during the application process.

DeFilippo received licenses to be a loan originator and to own a brokerage in 2000 - even though he failed to disclose a 1996 felony drug conviction in Texas where police found 40 pounds of marijuana in his trunk.

DeFilippo renewed his license in 2002, again without disclosing the conviction.

In 2004, he violated a domestic abuse restraining order. That's when the state finally learned of his criminal record and refused to renew his license.

Mach said he learned about the convictions in a vitriolic e-mail from Steve Malchow, an Outagamie County district attorney's investigator.

"At his last trial he informed the court on the record he had no prior criminal convictions," Malchow wrote. "We produced his Texas judgment of conviction to the court. (The judge) was not amused at being lied to by Mr. DeFilippo. My experience with Mr. DeFilippo leads me to believe he is incapable of telling the truth."

Finally, in 2007, DeFilippo disclosed his convictions on his application - and the state approved his license.

"I felt we did not have a basis to turn it down," said Mach, explaining that applicants who lie about their past are generally banned from getting a license for two years.

"I have nothing but good things to say about the department," DeFilippo said. "I thank them for giving me a chance."

Mach admits to a bit of queasiness at the prospect of DeFilippo's taking loan applications that include personal financial histories. He acknowledged having the same uneasiness about others his division has approved.

Would the state's top banking regulator feel comfortable giving his Social Security number to DeFilippo?

Mach stared silently at DeFilippo's file, several inches thick, for a good 10 seconds before responding:

"I'll be honest," he said. "I would say no."

Staff writers Ben Poston and John Diedrich contributed to this story.

City of Wilmington performs selective background checks for employees

2009-03-16T20:28:00.003-04:00

Posted: March 13, 2009 10:35 AM EDT
Updated: March 13, 2009 05:54 PM EDT

Reported by Claire Simms - bio email

Posted by Debra Worley - email

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - The man behind the wheel in a police chase last month was a city employee who had a lengthy criminal record, according to prosecutors.

He has since been charged and fired from his position, but officials say they do not do criminal checks for all city jobs.

City officials run criminal checks on potential employees based on the job title. They often hire people with prior records to help them earn legitimate money and stay away from crime.

40-year-old Anthony Pierce was a Wilmington employee before being indicted for second degree murder of a police officer.

Pierce had an extensive criminal record before becoming a sanitation worker, a job city officials say does not require a criminal background check.

The city tries to help former inmates get steady work, but not all residents think that's a good idea.

"We do try to look carefully at those we know have been, perhaps, in the legal system before to see if they would be a good fit and that we can try to see if they would work out," said Malissa Talbert.

"I guess it's something you don't think about, kind of taking things for granted," said resident Casey Sherman. "You don't think about your trash man, if he's a criminal or not but those are guys that are at your front door every day almost."

Pierce collected garbage for the city from Oct. 2006 until he was fired Feb. 27, 2009, which was nine days after Wilmington Police Officer Richard Matthews died responding to a police chase where Pierce was behind the wheel.

The city said they do criminal background checks on employees who will be working with children or in sensitive positions where money is involved.

School more cautious after case

2009-03-10T16:45:00.003-04:00

School more cautious after case

Julie Wootton, News Editor

Published: Monday, March 9, 2009
Updated: Monday, March 9, 2009

The university fully cooperated with requests by attorneys for documents and information regarding former trustee Thomas Delanty, said Greg Orwig, director of university communications.

Delanty was arrested on charges of theft from Nancy Huegli, a 92-year-old woman, in 2006.In December, a King County Superior Court jury found Delanty guilty of 26 first- and second-degree counts of thefts from Huegli. He was sentenced to five years in prison and reported to the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, Wash., at the end of January.

“We are deeply sorry for the victim and the victim’s family,” Orwig said.

Delanty served on the Board of Trustees for eight years before opting out of reelection in 2005. During his time on the board, he served as chair of the endowment committee.

Orwig said he first became aware of the charges that Huegli filed against Delanty after he was contacted by a reporter from The Seattle Times.

“We were caught by surprise about Delanty’s activities with regards to his victims,” Orwig said.

When Orwig knew that the article was coming out in The Seattle Times, he communicated with alumni, donors and parents in western Washington to alert them about the article and to notify them that he was prepared to answer any questions they may have.

At the time Delanty was elected to the board, the school did not run criminal background checks on new trustees.

The school did not know about Delanty’s 1983 conviction for federal mail fraud in Oregon. He spent 60 days in prison out of a year-long sentence, The Seattle Times reported in January 2007.

Delanty also told Whitworth administrators and fellow trustees that he had earned degrees from Harvard University and Dartmouth College, managed 37 different companies in the United States and abroad and held the titles of CEO of a business in France, a small CPA practice and a CFP or managing partner in several of his businesses, according to court records.

However, according to court records, Delanty never earned a degree from Harvard. He also did not manage several of the companies he said he did.

In 2006, the university created a new policy of running criminal background checks on all potential employees, including members of the Board of Trustees.

“We are increasingly more careful about the process of voting in new board members,” Burns said in a November interview with The Whitworthian. “We take more time to get to know them and their character.”

Orwig said the Delanty case underscored the importance of doing background checks on trustees.

“We certainly take responsibility for not having those things in place,” he said. “At the time, it was unusual for schools our size to do background checks on trustees.”

He said the school had begun to conduct background checks on some employees before the Delanty case and was figuring out how to implement them for other employees and trustees.

“Others say they’ve been victimized by Delanty,” Orwig said. “We have been victimized by his deception as well.”

Contact Julie Wootton at julie.wootton@whitworthian.com.

Whistleblower 9: In-Home Caregiver Accused Of Stealing From Patient

2009-03-10T16:37:00.003-04:00

Whistleblower 9: In-Home Caregiver Accused Of Stealing From Patient
Posted: 3:49 pm EST March 5, 2009
Updated: 6:37 pm EST March 5, 2009

LINCOLNTON, N.C. -- A Lincolnton woman said an in-home caregiver provided by the county stole thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from her.

Eyewitness News learned that same worker already had a criminal record for stealing. Now she wonders how something like that that could happen, so she called Whistleblower 9. Eyewitness News reporter Mark Becker spent the last two weeks investigating.

Myra Kemp has learned to live with pain. Over the last 20 years, she's had more than a dozen surgeries for tumors on her brain, kidneys and spine.

But she said it's nothing like the pain she felt when she found out that a woman sent to her home to care for her, a woman with a history of stealing, is now suspected of stealing $6,000 worth of her jewelry.

“I've cried more about this than I have cried over all of my surgeries combined,” Kemp said.
And when the crying stopped, Kemp began to ask how it could happen.

Her questions started with the Lincoln County Department of Social Services, where she'd signed up for the program providing free home health care.

Dean Bethea of Adult Services said DSS contracts with several private companies that provide the home health care workers.

“Do you check the employees they hire and send into these homes?” Becker asked.
“We're really not in a position to check their employees,” Bethea said.

One of those companies is Premier Home Care, based in Granite Falls. That’s the company that sent 35-year-old Misty Rohr to Kemp's home, despite the fact that she has a criminal record that includes larceny, the legal term for stealing.

“If Premier of Granite Falls had done a background check, they would have come up with at least what I came up with, which was arrests and convictions that go back to 2007,” Kemp said.
So Eyewitness News went to Premier Home Care to ask how they screen employees.

“Is there anyone who can tell me how you do background checks?” Becker asked.

“No, we really can't give any comment,” a worker said.

When Becker tried calling the owner on her cell phone, he only got her voicemail.

But Eyewitness News reviewed state regulations and found that home health care agencies are required to check the criminal history records before hiring workers who will go into a patient's home. If they find a conviction for what the guidelines call a relevant offense, the agency has to consider several factors before hiring that person.

“I would not, in my wildest dreams, have imagined that a county agency would let someone send a convicted criminal into my house,” Kemp said.

Rorh is now in jail on another charge of larceny. Detectives said she confessed to stealing Kemp's jewelry.

As for Premier Home Care, according to records with the state, they haven't had any complaints filed in the last two years.

Right now, Lincoln County still has the company on the list of home care providers.

Unfortunately, state records for home care companies are not on line. However, plenty of Web sites offer basic background checks and some are as cheap as $10.

If you want to file complaints about a caregiver or a company, visit the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

If you have questions about home care agencies in North Carolina, contact the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation, Home Care Staff, at 919-855-4620.

For complaints regarding home care agencies in North Carolina, contact the complaint hotline at 1-800-624-3004 (North Carolina only) or 919-855-4500 (Out of state calls).

Crime no barrier for loan sellers

2009-03-10T16:26:00.004-04:00

Crime no barrier for loan sellers
Law requiring background checks too late for many homeowners

By ERIC NALDER - P-I INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

Numerous convicts -- including embezzlers, robbers, meth dealers and rapists -- sold mortgage loans to unsuspecting homeowners in Washington in recent years while state lawmakers and members of Congress debated and tabled requirements for licensing and background checks, records show.

Ronald Bernard Cox Sr. was among them. The convicted felon sold mortgages for as many as eight years, freely admitting in an interview that he sold loans even while on work release for felony theft in 2003. The Federal Way man, who says many of his customers were higher-risk, lower-income subprime borrowers, is among a handful of sellers named in an ongoing state investigation of one of the mortgage companies he worked for.

Roswitha Martha McKinney sold mortgages for only two years. But during that time she bilked two mortgage company owners, a co-worker and a close friend out of a total of $78,000 using bogus checks, according to police and court and state records. Although McKinney stole from friends and associates rather than customers, she and other convicted check forgers, as well as identity thieves and extortionists, had ready access to bank statements, accounts and other such information.

Criminals who were barred from the mortgage business in other states continued to sell loans to Washington borrowers. Garrett Sytsma of Kennewick violated numerous licensing rules in Oregon, losing his license there in a 2003 suspension made permanent in 2004, then gave a mortgage broker a bad check for his own home purchase. He pled guilty to a gross misdemeanor in Oregon in 2005.

That crime ultimately led to the loss of Sytsma's license in Washington state, but only because the Washington Legislature finally agreed to require licensing and background checks for mortgage originators in 2007, although employees of federally chartered banks and consumer lending companies weren't included.

The Seattle P-I examined the histories of loan sellers, taking advantage of records made available for the first time because of the new requirement.

A total of 299 loan originators with criminal records applied for licenses in 2007 when licensing and criminal background checks were first required. They applied even though they knew their fingerprints would be checked by law enforcement and that all felonies and gross misdemeanors involving dishonesty within the previous seven years would disqualify them.

Half of them -- 149 -- were denied licenses because of their convictions, and the other half kept their licenses because their convictions were more than seven years old. But that's only temporary, because if the Legislature enacts a proposed law to conform with a new federal law, they, too, will be prohibited from renewing their licenses at the end of 2009. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other loan originators with criminal records probably didn't apply. Although the mortgage industry was booming before licensing, and thousands of loan originators were being hired, the industry had collapsed by the time licensing was imposed.

"The whole mortgage industry was out of control," said Ted Naff, who until recently was the designated broker at Abacus Mortgage, one of the largest mortgage brokers in the Seattle area.
The fight against requirements for state background checks and licensing was led by lobbyists for the powerful mortgage banking industry. One reason: The nation's federally chartered banks have long fought against any type of state regulation of their industry, preferring federal oversight. At the same time, state-chartered mortgage lenders didn't want an added layer of regulation that was not imposed on their federally regulated competitors.

But state-licensed mortgage brokers -- the street-level vendors of loans -- came out in favor of state licensing of their loan originators as a way of improving the reputation of their increasingly tainted industry.

Even today, many other states don't require licensing or background checks, though a federal law passed last year by Congress will soon require all of them to impose licensing and backgrounding of loan originators.

Naff, whose brokerage company employed at least a dozen criminals among hundreds of others, said though he was unaware of some of the criminal records, he knowingly kept a few ex-convicts on his work force because they did a good job and followed the rules better than others.
Among them was Ryan David Bishop, 35, who pleaded guilty in 2001 in federal court in Spokane to a scheme in which he and others sold drugs and distributed counterfeit $100 bills. Naff said Bishop "turned the corner" and the state showed unusual leniency, allowing him to re-enter the mortgage business the next year. However, the new federal law will likely ban him. Bishop said he did well in the mortgage industry, "my last chance as an adult to succeed in anything," and now he is in a Spokane partnership that is advising others how to get out of debt.

The chaos that reigned throughout the mortgage industry between 2002 and 2007 fomented lawlessness even among those without criminal records, Naff said. He fired hundreds of loan originators each year, criminals and noncriminals, because many of them violated rules and laws. But they simply went to work elsewhere unscathed, he said, because it was too easy to get commission-only jobs during the hot lending market, and there was nothing preventing it.
Deborah Bortner, director of consumer services for the state Department of Financial Institutions, said she has heard that criminals and others banned more recently from state-licensed institutions sometimes went to work for consumer loan companies where there is no state licensing of loan originators.

Records at the DFI show the largest companies such as Naff's had as many as 700 loan originators at a time, all on commission, originating more than a half-billion dollars in loans annually just at his company.

The root causes of the mortgage meltdown were relatively low interest rates, escalating property values and a gusher of credit that flowed from Wall Street. Exempted from liability by Congress, Wall Street investment firms sold record volumes of toxic mortgages to investors in packages known as mortgage-backed securities. That increased eightfold the money available for high-risk lending in just a half-decade. Lending institutions invented dozens of new products to accommodate the gusher that hit a trillion dollars. One product offered extravagant loans to borrowers with practically no proof of income. Mortgage brokers hired loan originators to distribute the low-hanging fruit to home seekers.

"I think we are all at fault," said Naff, who now works for Axia Financial. "From the borrowers to Wall Street, all of us, we were all guilty of greed."

Naff said he became so alarmed at the blatant law violations he witnessed three years ago, he asked a priest who was a friend whether he should quit the business. The priest suggested he stay and try to reform it from within. But Naff found it an impossible task.

"The lack of regulation made it hard for an individual, conscientious mortgage broker to enforce as many standards as we would like," said Naff, whose former company, Abacus, came through a state examination cleanly. "Loan originators would simply go to someone who had no standards, or lower standards."

Naff said he made less than a third of the income of some of his more successful loan originators.
The churn in the mortgage industry became an opportunity for Cox.
Cox, 44, had been caught stealing thousands of dollars from a Seattle fencing company, court records show, when he said he was hired by Home Capital Funding of Tukwila to sell mortgages. State records show that was about eight years ago.

The mortgage business was a refuge for him, he said, an easy place to get a job.

"I knew some girl that used to process loans that got me into it," Cox recalled. " 'I can get you a job where I work,' she said. 'Want to be inside? Come talk to my boss.' "

When Home Capital Funding hired him, his previous employer had caught him stealing but he had not yet been convicted, King County Sheriff's Office records show.

Cox pled guilty to first-degree theft in June 2003 in an Alford plea, refusing to admit responsibility but admitting the evidence against him was overwhelming. He had stolen $23,700 from the fencing company, according to a Sheriff's Office affidavit. He confessed to police that he regularly changed records at the Statewide Rent-a-Fence Office in South Seattle so he would get more money for installing and uninstalling chain-link fences at construction sites, according to the affidavit. Cox said in an interview that his mortgage company boss reacted to his guilty plea by asking him how much time he needed to take off, but he said he was able to sell loans anyway during the brief work release he was required to serve under the plea agreement in July 2003.

His plea deal wasn't his first break. A sharp-eyed record keeper first caught him falsifying payment claims in 1999, but Statewide Rent-a-Fence allowed him to continue work so he could reimburse the company. He kept stealing "to pay back what he owed," according to a court affidavit. When finally arrested in March 2002, he had a stranger's missing credit card in his pocket, though he explained he found it at a gas pump, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Previous criminal convictions included misdemeanor car prowling, in Renton District Court in 1996, and misdemeanor possession of stolen property, in Kent Municipal Court in 1995, according to court records. Cox declined to discuss his misdeeds.

Cox continued to originate loans for Home Capital Funding for two years after his guilty plea, then left for a better mortgage-selling job in 2005, according to his license application.
Last June, after a state investigation, Home Capital Funding repaid borrowers $134,000, and paid a state fine of $30,000 and an investigations fee of $1,380, according to a Department of Financial Institutions consent order. A DFI audit stated the company had been selling mortgages containing unauthorized fees, failing to provide mandatory disclosures and making "false representations" to borrowers, according to DFI records. The investigation was limited to loans originated during a period starting in October 2005, after Cox left the company. Bortner said they are no longer operating in Washington, but are licensed in California.

Cox said he joined his new company, A+ Mortgage, in May 2005 because a recruiter was "hounding me and hounding me." He said A+ also charged him $100 less for loan processing fees. Cox said he informed A+ of his conviction, but it didn't seem to matter given the fact he was paid by commission.

"They got half of what I made, why wouldn't they hire you?" Cox said. "What have they got to lose?"

Greg Nick, president of A+, didn't dispute the possibility that one of his supervisors might have known about Cox's record when he was hired. He said his company did background checks. But Nick said he personally "wasn't aware of the full impact of his troubles" or he wouldn't have hired Cox. Home Capital Funding officials didn't respond to messages.

Nick said he shut down A+ Mortgage in March and now is working as a branch manager for another firm, Sound Mortgage, out of the same Tukwila building. Nick said he owns the building. A+ was a large mortgage brokerage house, employing hundreds of originators on commission, and generating upward of $600 million in loans a year, according to DFI documents. Size, Nick said, was one reason his company had a dozen criminals apply for licenses under the company name.

A+ is under state investigation for unfair and deceptive loan practices, and the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has recommended the company repay more than $185,000 for bogus fees and charges, according to HUD records.

The state Department of Financial Institutions said in July that it plans to revoke the company's license, prevent Nick from operating as a state-licensed mortgage broker for five years, impose a $250,000 fine and require $150,000 in restitution to borrowers because of an audit of its lending spanning August 2005 through September 2007.

Charges by the state regulator include that borrowers' income was inflated, signatures were falsified, fees were inflated over initial disclosures, fees paid to lendingsourcesweren't disclosed, and variable rates and interest rate increases weren't properly disclosed. A+ is appealing the proposed sanction. Nick said the complaints involved a tiny percentage of loans. He and his attorney, John Bley, declined to discuss the details.

"I'd really love to tell you my side of the story," he said, but expressed fear his statements could be used against him.

Cox is one of only a handful of individual loan originators cited by name in the complaint against A+. He continued to process a mortgage transaction after his license was denied by the state, which was a law violation, records show. State regulators also accused him of asking the couple that was borrowing the money to backdate documents, apparently to conceal the fact he was placing the loan after his ban, records show. He also was accused of failing to properly disclose loan terms to the couple, according to the records.

Cox said he believed it was unfair for the state to invoke a licensing requirement after he was allowed to work in the industry for so long without one -- a sort of bait and switch.

"Really, I feel that law should have been there from day one. How about that?" he remarked with irony, during a telephone interview from a Hawaiian vacation.

Cox acknowledged that he tried to mislead the state when he filed his online application for a loan originator license in November 2006. The state ruled, in fact, that he was deceptive in his answers. His answer when asked whether he'd ever been convicted of a crime was: "Possession of stolen property back in 2000. I was given something I had no idea was stolen. But honestly I don't remember if it was a felony or misdemeanor."

Asked why he wrote that, he said: "Why not?"

"You can actually apply with an excuse," he said, meaning that the form allows an applicant to explain any convictions.

The state ran his fingerprints and got his record. They denied him a license until 2013, though a new federal law may ban him forever. He appealed the state ban, but an administrative law judge rejected his appeal on summary judgment.

Cox, who lives in a luxurious 3,500-square-foot home in Federal Way, assessed at $570,000, said during his career he placed more than a hundred home loans. He estimated he made $65,000 a year before the state refused him a license in 2007, a figure that could not be verified. At least half of the loans he sold were to high-risk, lower-income borrowers, Cox said, adding that "wealthy people don't come to folks like us."

"Incredible," said Bill Bardon, his former employer and president of Statewide Rent-A-Fence. "And then you wonder why everyone is having so much trouble right now with mortgages."

OVERSIGHT

More than 13,000 loan originators worked in the state during the height of the boom, a number cut to 4,400 under licensing and the mortgage bust.

The state polices them as well as brokers and lending institutions with only 11 investigators, many of them lawyers, and two supervisors.

Two investigators handled the task in 2002.

P-I reporter Eric Nalder can be reached at 206-448-8011 or ericnalder@seattlepi.com. News researcher Marsha Milroy contributed to this report.

Three Village teacher charged in Mount Sinai rape

2009-03-04T19:57:00.001-05:00

Three Village teacher charged in Mount Sinai rape
BY BILL MASON AND JOHN HILDEBRAND
February 26, 2009

A Three Village schoolteacher with a criminal record was arrested yesterday and charged with the brutal beating and rape of a Mount Sinai bartender earlier this month, police said.

Michael J. Wachholder, 30, a physical education teacher at an East Setauket elementary school who has worked for the district for the past five years, was charged with first-degree rape, second-degree aggravated sexual abuse and second-degree assault.

Wachholder was arrested yesterday morning by Sixth Squad detectives while on his way to work at Arrowhead School from his home in Rocky Point, police said. He was to be arraigned today in First District Court, Central Islip.

Det. Lt. Glen McVeigh, the commanding officer of the Sixth Squad detectives, said Wachholder raped and beat Feb. 3 a female employee of a Mount Sinai bar.

"She seems to be on the way to recovery," McVeigh said. "She was beaten up badly. Her jaw is wired shut."

In the earliest report of the attack, police said two men entered the bar about 3:30 p.m., and after ordering drinks and engaging the employee in conversation, struck her from behind on the head and face, knocked her to the floor and sexually assaulted her.

"It was a vicious, violent attack," McVeigh said. "He kept banging her head into the floor."
Police have located the second man in the bar at that time - an acquaintance of Wachholder - but he did not participate in the attack, McVeigh said. Although he did not initially come forward, he has been cooperating with police and won't be charged, he said.

In a prepared statement, Ralph P. Ferrie, Three Village school district superintendent, said: "The teacher has been placed on indefinite leave from his position pending the outcome of the legal process. In compliance with New York State law, a background check was conducted prior to hiring this individual, and the state reported no prior criminal record."

A Newsday check of Wachholder's criminal background yesterday indicated a number of arrests since the 1990s, including a felony criminal mischief arrest in 2000. But that charge, and other arrests for misdemeanors, ultimately resulted in either dismissals or guilty pleas to lesser offenses, including a misdemeanor conviction for operating a vehicle while impaired and several violations.

Michael Conte, a spokesman for the school district, said yesterday, "The state had reported no prior criminal conviction when the district checked his record pursuant to state law. We plan to look into this tomorrow to ascertain why these prior convictions were not reported to the district."

McVeigh said after police asked the public for information about the attack and put out a sketch of the suspect, several tips came in from people who said they recognized Wachholder.

Firm cleared school presenter, despite arrest record

2009-03-04T19:48:00.002-05:00

Firm cleared school presenter, despite arrest record
By Alfred Lee, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/26/2009 04:08:01 PM PST

SAN GABRIEL - Despite a felony record and a lewd conduct conviction, an outside contractor cleared background checks ordered by a company that booked him to put on an astronomy program at a San Gabriel elementary school last year.Daniel Roy Smith, 43, of Fullerton was arrested a day after the assembly at Washington Middle School and was later tried on charges of inappropriately touching four girls during the presentation.

At the conclusion of his trial last month, Smith was acquitted of three of the four counts against him. Prosecutors have said they will retry Smith on the one remaining felony count of committing lewd acts on a child under 14.

Although he has a criminal record, Smith passed a background check ordered by Michigan-based Mobile Ed Productions, which books subcontractors to put on educational presentations at schools around the country.

Background checks are done on all contractors booked by Mobile Ed Productions by a service called Intelligent Investigations, said Joanne Love, CEO of Mobile Ed.

Smith's check came out clear, said Larry Thompson, president of Mobile Ed Productions.
"The background check that I received had no listing of any felony arrest," Thompson said.
He defended the reputation of Intelligent Investigations and said he had not contacted or second-guessed the service after its apparent failure to screen out Smith.

"How would I know what service to use? Tell me," Thompson said. "I'm supposed to do a double-check on somebody because it didn't come up? I don't know how they do this stuff."
If he had known about a history of lewd conduct, he would have reconsidered hiring Smith, Thompson said, but added that a felony arrest would not automatically prevent him from hiring someone.

"I didn't know that if somebody had an arrest that took place 13 years ago, that he should be held responsible for that for the rest of his life," he said.

Intelligent Investigations has been reported by consumers for delivering incomplete background checks, according to the Web site Ripoff Report.

The company's Web site does not list a phone number, and representatives did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Mobile Ed continues to provide subcontractors for programs at another San Gabriel Unified District campus - Coolidge Elementary.

Smith was hired through Mobile Ed by Washington Elementary's Parent Teacher Association.
At his trial, prosecutors said Smith's criminal history includes a 1996 arrest for masturbating while parked in front of a playground in Anaheim.

In 1996, Smith also pleaded guilty to a felony count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, and was sentenced to two years in prison, according to court records.

In 1994, Smith pleaded guilty to three felony counts of receiving stolen property and one felony count of unlawfully taking of a vehicle and was sentenced to 16 months in state prison.

Although the background checks used by Mobile Ed Productions were not able to detect Smith's criminal record, the PTA at Coolidge Elementary continues to use the company to book shows.
A Benjamin Franklin presentation was booked through Mobile Ed at Coolidge in February 2008, followed by a "Magic of Science" presentation in September 2008 and a "Living Abe Lincoln" presentation scheduled for May 2009.

Coolidge's PTA and school administrators took a hard look at Mobile Ed after the Smith incident and determined they could still trust the company, said Coolidge's Principal Martin Hranek.
"We felt very comfortable after our research that our students were safe," Hranek said, adding that PTA members spoke with Mobile Ed at length about their background checks. "We didn't feel it was fair at that point to eliminate the entire company if it was simply because of one individual's allegations."

Washington Elementary's PTA stopped working with Mobile Ed after Smith's arrest, said Mandy Ng, who was PTA president at the time. "They're not really up to the standards that will be safe to our students," Ng said.

San Gabriel Unified board member Scott Svonkin said he recommended that the district's schools and PTAs stop working with Mobile Ed.

"The firm that hired this predator should not be allowed to do business with us," Svonkin said. "This company failed us once, and I think the risk is too great for them to fail us again."
The school district does not regulate the hiring of contractors by the PTA, said district board President Lee Freeman.

Freeman was unsure what steps the district had taken in the last year to prevent future incidents.

"I don't know specifically what we have done," Freeman said. He cautioned against getting rid of educational presentations altogether and called for the need to be "more vigilant next time."
Thompson wrote a letter to Coolidge Elementary's PTA in January 2008, after the Smith incident, and asked them not to cancel presentations booked by Mobile Ed.

"We have performed thousands and thousands of times," he wrote.

"We have always taken strong measures to screen our performers and to require background checks. We are very proud of our record, and of the 30-40 performers who work with us every year."

Thompson said his company had worked without a problem for decades.

"I've been in business for 30 years," Thompson said. "In 30 years I've never had an incident take place other than the one you're talking about."

No criminal check on Minneapolis choir director accused of sexual assault

2009-03-04T19:19:00.005-05:00

No criminal check on Minneapolis choir director accused of sexual assault

Minneapolis public schools confirmed that Gregory B. Washington, who has a past conviction for sexual assault, taught music in three district schools. He's currently facing charges in a similar incident.

By PATRICE RELERFORD, Star Tribune
Last update: February 26, 2009 - 7:14 AM

A local gospel singer and choir director who has been charged with sexually assaulting an underage Brooklyn Park girl was a contract music teacher in three schools on Minneapolis' North Side, though he was on probation in connection with an earlier sexual assault.

Nobody with the district ran a criminal check on Gregory B. Washington before he was hired. District policy requires contractors to complete background checks on their employees and the district reserves the right to review individual employees records. But in this case, Washington owns Miraculous Music, a music production and education group that contracted to teach at the Jenny Lind Elementary/Olson Middle upper campus and Cityview Elementary School in September.

"I would have to be honest and say our implementation of [the background check policy] hasn't been perfect," said Margaret Westin, Minneapolis schools' general counsel. "We know this is something we need to work on."

And Washington's company was never asked to run a criminal check on its employees. Instead, the business mistakenly went through a vetting process for groups that don't have direct contact with students. It requires proof of insurance and other documentation but doesn't always include criminal checks.

This isn't the first recent case of an instructor being accused of sexually assaulting a student in a metro school. Last school year, a hockey coach in the Robbinsdale district and a self-defense instructor in Forest Lake schools were charged with criminal sexual conduct, accused of having sex with underage girls.

Those cases and discrepancies around criminal background check policies from school to school led Education Minnesota, the state's teacher's union, and legislators to call for tougher state screening rules for adults who have contact with students.

It's just nauseating when these things happen. It seems like no matter what we do, sexual abusers sneak through the cracks," Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville and chairwoman of the state House Education Finance Committee, said at the time.

Susan Eilertsen, Minneapolis schools communications chief, said the school board approved the contract with Miraculous Music in September.

Olson Principal Karon Cunningham reportedly heard rumors about Washington's past sexual misconduct in November and told him he could no longer work in the schools. Eilertsen said Cunningham reported the rumors to the school district's legal department.

"The contract is still in place [through June], but we're writing a letter to terminate it immediately," Eilertsen said.

Miraculous Music's website features professional portraits of Washington, who also goes by the name MiracG. Thomas Kelly, Washington's lawyer, would not comment on the current charges or the extent of his client's work in schools.

In the current case, the Brooklyn Park girl was 15 at the time the assaults allegedly took place in her home and his Plymouth home. The girl's mother discovered the alleged sexual nature of their relationship after she learned he had given the girl a ring and after the mother read explicit text messages the two exchanged, the charges say.

Washington was convicted in a similar incident in St. Paul more than 10 years ago that involved another 15-year-old girl.

Washington is also the director of Voices of Praise, a Minneapolis gospel group, and the choir director at the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in south Minneapolis. At the time of the St. Paul assault, he was the music director at Zion Baptist Church in north Minneapolis.
Eilertsen said Minneapolis schools haven't received any complaints or allegations of abuse against Washington from parents, teachers or students.

"We have a policy that no outside providers are alone with any students at any time," she said. That applies "whether it's a special teacher or program that comes into the schools."

Patrice Relerford • 612-673-4395

Fugitive caught at her job in Oregon courtroom

2009-02-15T19:34:00.003-05:00

Fugitive caught at her job in Oregon courtroom

ID-theft case - Phuong Anh Ly translated for non-native speakers in courtSaturday, February 14, 2009 AIMEE GREEN and STEVE MAYESThe Oregonian Staff

Kelly Aimone was a familiar face in county courthouses throughout the state, where she worked for the Oregon Judicial Department as a freelance interpreter.

Aimone, who translated for Vietnamese speakers accused of crimes, had an unforgettable smile and long black hair sweeping down her back. She was easy to talk to and brought treats for courthouse employees.

So many were jolted when she was arrested Monday morning as she walked through the front doors of the Multnomah County courthouse amid the usual stream of judges, attorneys and defendants arriving for hearings.

Aimone, who turned out to be Phuong Anh Ly, has been on the lam for nearly four years, authorities say, fleeing from prosecutors who say she stole the identity of one of her Vietnamese-speaking clients when she worked as a translator for a medical clinic.

Court records show Ly has a criminal history stretching back to age 18 that includes five convictions for second-degree theft, criminal trespass, criminal mistreatment or negotiating a bad check. She most recently was indicted in 2005 on accusations of identity theft, forgery and giving false information to police, but she disappeared before her first court hearing.

She was hired in August 2007 as a freelance interpreter for the Oregon Judicial Department. The job, which pays $25 an hour, sent Ly into courtrooms in nine county courthouses, where she mingled with law enforcement daily and sat as an interpreter in front of some of the judges who had sentenced her.

The judicial department didn't run a criminal background check on Ly, and as a result, didn't look to see whether the woman they knew as Aimone had a criminal history, said Nori Cross, special counsel for the state court administrator. But even if the department had checked her criminal history, it's unclear whether anything would have come up because the department doesn't do fingerprint checks on any of its employees.

Authorities say Ly finally encountered someone who recognized her last week, when she went to Clackamas County traffic court to translate for a man who got a speeding ticket. Clackamas County sheriff's deputy Ed Stelle happened to be working that night.

Stelle thought the interpreter bore a strong resemblance to a woman he had arrested in 2004 for trying to open a bank account under a false name.

"She was well-dressed," Stelle said. "She brought a bottle of perfume to give to the tellers. It was well thought out.

"Even to the point I put the handcuffs on her, I remember how smooth she was. She said 'This is all a big mistake.' "

Ly was released pending charges. Investigators with the sheriff's office and Portland police delved into Ly's activities, and found that she held at least three driver's licenses in other names. Authorities say she had asked patients for extensive personal information, such as Social Security numbers, in addition to interpreting for the medical staff.

Stelle remembered that the woman, who presented a stolen check at the Sterling Savings Bank in Wilsonville, was not a stereotypical criminal.

A grand jury issued an indictment on the stolen check charges, but by then, authorities couldn't find Ly.

Although Stelle was fairly sure he was looking at the same woman, he couldn't leave his post. The next day, he pulled up an old mug shot of Ly and confirmed his suspicion.

He found out she was scheduled to work next at the Multnomah County Courthouse, so Monday morning, he was waiting for her. He said he didn't want to leave the job to another officer who might not recognize her.

"She is so skillful, my concern is she'd pull out a new piece of ID and say 'You've got the wrong person,' " Stelle said.

Ly is in Clackamas County jail pending a review of her immigration status. Her attorney, Mark Bailey, said Ly and her husband have four children, ages 3 to their early teens, and the arrest is devastating to the family.

"There's a very different version of the story that's going to come out," Bailey said, adding that the accusations aren't true.

Ly was arraigned on the 2004 charges Wednesday. She was tearful as she responded to questions during the brief hearing.

Portland police say they're concerned that Ly may have victimized non-native English speakers who may not have come forward because of the language barrier.

"She is so good at conning people with that smile of hers," Stelle said. "I figure she thought she was home free. And she probably would have been right, if I hadn't signed up for night court."

Aimee Green: 503-294-5119; aimeegreen@news.oregonian.com

February 2009 Newsletter - Background Check and Security Products with Identity Theft Protection Information

2009-02-10T19:56:00.002-05:00

February 2009 Newsletter
eFindOutTheTruth.com, Inc. - The Background Check Superstore!®
Background Check and Security Products with Identity Theft Protection Information

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-> $10.00 Nationwide Basic Background Check Special
-> $30.00 Nationwide Extensive Background Check Special
-> $12.95 Talking Dummy Dome Camera
-> Diversion Safe Bulk Packages
-> Free Background Check Contest
-> Identity Theft Protection - $1,000,000.00 Guarantee

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Subject nameDate of birth (if available)
Aliases and/or AKA's used by subject
Current and previous addresses with dates of occupancy
Current and previous phone summary
Nationwide criminal record search - Click Here for states included
Nationwide sex offender search
We also search all variations of subjects last names
For complete details regarding this specific background check, please click here.

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We are also offering three Diversion Safe packages at affordable prices for individuals who need to hide their personal belongings in their home instead of costly deposit boxes and/or large steel safes. We have made a diversion safe package for the guy, girl, or universal person. This package contains diversion safes that will provide at home security in the kitchen, bathroom, living room, and/or bedroom at a very deeply discounted cost along with free shipping. These safes are better than a traditional bulky locked safe and a thousand times cheaper (according to the Chicago Police Department).For complete details regarding these diversion safe packages, please click here.

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Please feel free to use LIVE CHAT located on the right side of our homepage with any questions and/or concerns you may have.

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Diversion Safe Bulk Discount Packages

2009-01-23T17:10:00.004-05:00

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$30.00 - Extensive Background Check Special with Nationwide Criminal Record Search

2009-01-19T22:37:00.004-05:00

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regularly priced at $99.95, offer valid for new customers only

This extensive background check special contains:
Subject name
Date of birth (if available)
Aliases and/or AKA's used by subject
Current and previous addresses with dates of occupancy
Current and previous phone summary
All variations of subject last names are searched for the criminal and sex offender records
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National Database Coverage
Database	Coverage	Details
Aircraft & Pilots	National	50 States
The Aircraft and Pilots database provides information from the Airman Directory as well as the Aircraft Registration master file, which contains the records of all US Civil aircraft registered with the FAA, including air carrier and general aviation aircraft.
Bankruptcies	National	50 States + DC
The Bankruptcies, Liens, and Judgments database includes records obtained from the final bankruptcies, liens, and judgments found in court records.
Boats Database The Boats database provides data from various state agencies. Not every state requires or provides the same registration information. State registration records may (if applicable) include: Owner/Co-Owner Name, Address, Hull ID Number, Serial Number, Registration Number, Title Number, Expiration Date, Make, Model, Use Type, Propulsion, and more.	National	AL, AZ, AR, CO, CT, FL, GA, IS, IA, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NC, ND, OH, OR, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WV, WI, WY Historical Watercraft Registration Records *Tennessee does not provide title numbers
Corporate Records The Corporate Records database provides access to state business entity filing information as recorded by Secretaries of State.	National 47 + DC	(Excluding AL, DE and NJ)
Court Records The Court Records data (from the Administrative Office of the Courts) is specifically related to superior criminal, superior civil, municipal criminal, municipal civil, municipal probate, municipal small claims, family law, unlawful detainer, and superior domestic court data, and related information. This data contains criminal-court records in addition to traffic citations for each state that provides the information. The records contain information pertaining to the offense that was committed and most records are labeled as felonies, misdemeanors, traffic citations, or infractions.	9 states	AK, AR, CA, NC, NY, PA, TN, TX, VA
Criminal and Sex Offender Records Information supplied from each state varies as do the through dates of the information.	National	50 States - Click Here For Exact Coverage
DEA Controlled Substances The DEA Controlled Substances database includes names of businesses and individuals who have a controlled substance license inclusive of the schedules of drugs in which the licensee may dispense.	National	50 States + DC, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands
Death Filings The Death Filings database is compiled from the Social Security Administration and Florida and Texas death records. The absence of a particular person is not proof this person is alive. Information may include dates of birth and/or death, Social Security Number, and last known address.	National	50 States + DC, Guam, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands
Deed Transfers The Deed Transfers / Real Property database provides records resulting from a sale of property, quit claim deed, grant deed, etc. Records may include names of buyers and sellers as well as mortgage holder information	National 45 + DC	(Excluding AK, ME, MS, ND, SD)
FCC Marine Radio Licenses The FCC Marine Radio Licenses database includes information on licenses for anyone who operates a Marine Radio. Applicants for licenses can be Individuals, Partnerships, Associations, Corporations or Government Entities. Ships are classified as Merchant, Pleasure, Rescue, Fishing, and Official Vessel.	National
Federal Firearms The Firearms and Explosives Licenses database provides data from the Federal Firearm Licenses and Federal Explosives Licenses. Firearms and Explosives License records may include: Licensee Name, Trade or Business Name, Premise Address, Mailing Address, Business Phone Number, License Number, License Type, Expiration Date, Region, County, and IRS District. Firearms Licenses expire every 3 years and explosives licenses expire annually, with the exception of a Binary Explosive License, which is a one time license.	National	50 States
Neighbors (0-20)	National
Others/Possible Associates	National	50 States
Professional Licenses The Professional Licenses database provides licensing information recorded from various state licensing agencies.	National 47 +DC	(Excluding HI, IN, WA)
Real Property	National 47 +DC	(Excluding ME, RI, VT)
The Real Property database includes information on County Tax Assessor records. The database includes information on the taxable value of a property and may include market and/or appraised property values.
Relatives (20 w/ or w/out phones)	National
UCC Records The UCC Filings database provides information on Uniform Commercial Code Filings. Records may include information related to a business loan or lease, debtor, and secured party.	National 46 + DC	(Excluding KY, VT, HI, WV)

State Database Coverage
Database	Coverage	Details
Banking and Finance The Florida Banking and Finance Licenses database provides information as recorded by state agencies.	State	FL
Beverage Licenses The Florida Beverage Licenses database provides information as recorded by state agencies. The Oregon Liquor Licenses records reflect only the data that has been reported.	State	FL, TX, OR
Boating Arrests The Florida Boating Citations database provides information as recorded by state agencies.	State	FL
Concealed Weapons Permits The Florida Concealed Weapon Permits database provides information as recorded by state agencies.	State	FL
Daycare Licenses The Florida Day Care Licenses database provides information as recorded by state agencies.	State	FL
Handicapped Parking Permits This database contains records of people granted a Handicapped Parking Permit in the State of Florida. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles handle applications for Handicapped Parking Permits. Section 320.0848 of the Florida Statutes requires certification from a Physician, Osteopathic Physician, Podiatrist, Chiropractor licensed within the state of Florida; the Division of Blind Services; the Adjudication Office of the US Department of Veterans Affairs of the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs.	State	FL
Hotel Permits The Florida Hotels and Restaurants database provides information as recorded by state agencies.	State	FL
Marriage/Divorce The Florida Marriages/Divorces database provides information (from 1970 to present) as recorded by state and county agencies.	State	FL
Money Transmitters The Florida Money Transmitter's Licenses database provides information on all companies in the following categories: check cashing, pawn, auto title loans, transmit funds.	State	FL
Real Estate Agents	State	FL
Saltwater Licenses The Florida Salt Water Products database provides information on Commercial Salt Water Fishing Licenses.	State	FL
Security Dealers The Registered Dealers information is comprised of firms currently registered in the State of Florida. Registration is through the Florida Department of Banking and Finance, Division of Securities.	State	FL
Tangible Property Tangible personal property tax is paid on property and equipment used in a business. It includes all property other than Real Property (land, buildings, and anything permanently affixed to it) and other than Intangible Property (property without intrinsic value, such as stocks or certificates of deposit). Household goods (furniture, appliances, personal effects) and vehicles are specifically exempt. Licensed vehicles (cars, boats, planes etc.) are not taxed because revenue is collected via license fees. Notes: Data for 1996 does not include Nassau County and data for 1995 does not include Flagler, Liberty, and Oskaloosa Counties.	State	FL
Teachers The Florida Department of Education database provides information as recorded by state agencies.	State	FL
Tobacco Licenses The Florida Tobacco Licenses database provides information as recorded by state agencies.	State	FL
Unclaimed Property The Florida Unclaimed Property database contains unclaimed property records including inactive bank accounts, credit balances, utility deposits and refunds, non-cashed dividend, royalty, payroll or cashier's checks, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, safe deposit contents, and tangible property including watches, jewelry, coins, currency, stamps, etc. Records date back to 1961.	State	FL
WA Corps	State	WA
Workers Compensation Claims The Florida Workers' Compensation Claims database contains records dating back from the 1970s until April 29, 1998. This database is no longer updated.	State	FL

County Database Coverage
Database	Coverage	Details
Accidents	County	Broward
Broward County Felonies	County	Broward
Broward County Traffic	County	Broward

New Sales and Specials With A Lowest Price Guarantee

2009-01-15T23:01:00.005-05:00

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$10 New Years Background Check Special

2009-01-12T14:54:00.005-05:00

$10.00 - Basic Background Check with Nationwide Criminal Record Search Special
regularly priced at $14.95, offer valid for new customers only

This background check contains:
Subject name
Date of birth (if available)
Aliases and/or AKA's used by subject
Current and previous addresses with dates of occupancy
Current and previous phone summary
Nationwide criminal record search - Click Here for states included
Nationwide sex offender search
We also search all variations of subjects last names

Item#: SAS-BBCItem: Nationwide Basic Background Check SpecialPrice: $10.00

To redeem this offer - Click Here

Results eMailed within 24 business hours or less