Upon reading the follow up article in the Los Angeles Times about the convicted rapist who was twice hired by the Los Angeles County, we at Corra Group found the circumstances around his background check to be most curious. In fact, Mediscan Staffing Service, the group who conducted the background check may not have erred, but merely encountered conditions beyond it’s control.
For one thing, Gariner Beasley, the employee in question, had been convicted of rape in 1992. He want to jail and was paroled in 1994. He was hired four years later at USC-County Hospital. Here, the criminal background check should have revealed his rape convictions. The conviction was within the seven year framework at the time of his application for work. That is the time frame allowable by law.
In 2000 he applied for another job at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center, and again his record came back clear. While this search, under strict adherence to the codes is slightly outside the seven year range, there is more than a reasonable chance the researchers would have seen a record. Why they didn’t is a subject for conjecture. The fact is, twice, background searches were conducted, and twice no one discovered any criminal records.
Now, it is said that Gariner Beasley’s name in some court records was misspelled and listed at Garnier. Still, any researcher worth his profession would have spotted the similar identifiers and at least inquired about it. It is not that the candidate’s name is all that common. A common name can be overlooked when it is misspelled and lost in a sea of other similar names in the court records. Not a name like Beasley’s.
So how come Mediscan missed the search. Probably through no fault of its own. If the County requested only database searches, they are not always comprehensive, nor are they always accurate. Simply put, some searches are missed. However, we found that rather odd, and even more strange since Beasley is not listed on the sexual offenders’ registry.
Rape is way at the top of sexual offenses, and it most likely will qualify Beaseley for a protracted membership on the sexual offenders’ registry. Why wasn’t he there? Interesting. And, as they say in Alice in Wonderland, it is getting curiouser and curiouser.
There is one unexplored possibility. Beaseley was a cop when he was convicted of raping the women. He was a bonafide Los Angeles Police Officer. Despite the harshness of the crime, a sympathetic crony, working in a municipal agency, may have pulled or somehow manipulated the court records so they fail to appear. Does this happen often? Probably not. But does it happen? Definitely so.
We have been made aware of several cases around the country where either a law enforcement spouse, buddy or whomever did a favor for someone and pulled or manipulated the records. No one can say this was the case. We are certainly not making accusations. But, if the County is going to investigate the how’s and why’s of this issue, it certainly should look into any possibility. And deliberately and illegally deleted records is certainly one of them.
There are other possible explanation. I’m sure there are things we haven’t considered. But no matter how you slice it, chances are the missing records were not due to an oversight on the part of Mediscan, the company who conducted the preemployment screening.
Very interesting.
Check them out before you hire.
