Casino investors refuse background checks, may delay opening

A board of directors' refusal to submit background investigations could push back the opening of the Glass City's new casino. According to The Blade, the Ohio Casino Control Commission sent a letter demanding every member of holding and management companies involved with Hollywood Casino participate in the license application process for casino operators. So far, the casino's investment group, Fortress, has submitted its required application as a company, but ten directors will not submit individual background check applications.

All personnel of Penn National Gaming Inc., the casino's owner, already submitted individual applications.
"The commission has had a number of meetings where it has expressed its desire and set deadlines for filings to the legal representatives of Penn National and Fortress," said Matt Schuler, Ohio Casino Control Commision executive director, to the newspaper. "They have indicated that members of the board of Fortress are holding back their applications to see if legislative changes in the definition of 'holding company' go through the [Ohio] General Assembly."

Penn faced similar problems with obtaining their casino operator's license and the Casino Control Commission in October.

Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns

Gun-buyer background checks missing data

By Steve Bennish 
and Tiffany Y. Lattas

Dayton Daily News

Ohio screens out mentally ill people who try to buy firearms, but the state isn’t reporting all known drug abusers to a national system that could prevent them from buying guns, a first-of-its-kind survey of 50 states found.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns said in its report “Fatal Gaps” that federal agencies and states in some cases ignore federal law and fail to report records about potentially dangerous people to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.

Analysis of FBI data showed that millions of records of seriously mentally ill people and drug abusers are missing from the NICS database because of lax and inconsistent reporting among the states.

Mayors, including leaders from Dayton, Riverside and Brookville, are advocates for tougher federal, state and local legislation against illegal firearm sales and ownership.

Ohio has identified 26,876 mental health cases and forwarded those since the state passed a law in 2004. But 23 states and the District of Columbia have submitted fewer than 100 mental health records to the federal database.

Seventeen states submitted fewer than 10 mental health records, and four states haven’t submitted any records.

Substance abuse records also are underreported nationwide, and while many Ohio drug abusers show up in NICS when arrested and convicted, others fall through the cracks.

Ohio Attorney General’s Office spokesman Dan Tierney said the state updates arrests and convictions daily through the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. State law, however, lacks a provision for reporting all known drug abusers to the federal database, he added. Ohio’s mentally ill show up in the system when they are ordered by a court to receive mental health treatment.

Instances of drug abuse that fall short of a conviction — such as failing a drug test when applying for a state job, telling a state agency you have a drug problem, or court diversion into a drug rehab program — aren’t reported because Ohio doesn’t have the infrastructure “to submit evidence of substance abuse outside of arrest and conviction records,” the mayors group said.

The report said that although federal regulations and policy require that failed drug tests, single drug-related arrests or admission of drug use within the past year temporarily disqualify a person from possessing a gun, “the vast majority of states are unaware that these records should be shared with NICS.”

Between 1999 and 2009, NICS processed 100 million background checks and blocked an estimated 1.6 million permit applications and gun sales to people prohibited from possessing guns.

A working system to screen out dangerous mentally ill people doesn’t always prevent potential killers from getting firearms even though it is illegal to provide a firearm to someone who has been judged to have been mentally ill to such a degree that hospitalization is necessary.

Following the shooting death of Clark County Deputy Suzanne Hopper New Year’s Day in a Clark County trailer camp by Michael Ferryman, a 57-year-old with a history of mental illness and gun violence, a father and daughter were indicted for giving Ferryman the shotgun he used. Ferryman was shot dead in the incident and a German Twp. officer was wounded.

Jean Blessing, 81, of Englewood, was charged with complicity to having weapons under disability. Blessing’s daughter and Ferryman’s girlfriend, Maria Blessing, was indicted on the same charge and on a charge of obstructing justice for lying to investigators about the gun. She was later sentenced to five years in prison. Monday, prosecutors dropped charges against Jean Blessing, saying he was incompetent to stand trial.

Ferryman had been ruled not guilty by reason of insanity in another shooting at police officers in Morgan County in 2001. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital and then conditionally released. He was supposed to be monitored by mental health services.

Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly and Prosecutor Andy Wilson called for creating a database of those with severe mental illness coupled with a history of violence, especially violence against police, similar to the sex offender database.

“Most of the guns used in crimes are obtained illegally or through casual sales such as garage sales or classified ads,” Kelly said. His department created a database to include about five individuals who have been adjudicated criminally insane, but a national database doesn’t exist.

Kelly said a state and national database could alert officers on traffic stops or other action when a person is mentally ill and the officer should consider different tactics that could lead to a different outcome.

Wilson said Ferryman was in the NICS system and would not have been able to purchase a gun legally. Wilson said when Hopper responded to a shots fired call at Enon Beach Recreation Park on New Year’s Day, she didn’t realize she was walking into a situation with a man who had fired shots at police in the past.

“The key is giving street officers more information about the people who have been adjudicated mentally ill. They register sex offenders. Anyone can access a sex offender database; but there’s no mechanism nationally for officers to know they’re coming upon a mentally ill, violent person,” Wilson said.

Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns

Ohio Police Chief upset over allegations concerning background investigation

By Dave Greber
Dayton Daily News

Westchester Township Police Chief John Bruce is demanding trustees here apologize for comments they made in response to an internal investigation that suggested he instructed his nephew to lie on an application.

A letter was sent Tuesday from Bruce's attorney, Mark Mezibov, to township attorney Donald Crain, that said "...Trustees have publicly impugned Col. Bruce and stigmatized his professional reputation by imputing to him acts of dishonesty and unprofessional conduct."

In the letter, Mezibov states: "Col. Bruce demands that the trustees issue a prompt public apology and correction at the next meeting of the Board of Trustees."

But at least one trustee has said a public apology isn't warranted.

"I don't believe the board has taken any action for which they should apologize to anybody," said Trustee Catherine Stoker.

As of this afternoon, trustees George Lang and Lee Wong, declined to comment.

Mezibov said his client's professional career could be negatively impacted by comments trustees made in response to the internal investigation that appeared in the Oct. 25 edition of the Journal-News.

Said Wong Oct. 25: "I have lost total confidence and trust in him as a police chief. He's not allowed to make any major command decisions. This is short of him being relieved of his command."

The attorney said Bruce should at least have an opportunity to clear his name in a public hearing if an apology is denied.

The investigation, launched late last month, concluded Donald Gatliff, 27, of West Chester Twp., was not forthcoming to investigators about his background, and that Bruce advised him to do so.

Gatliff applied with the township in March after hearing about an open position in the police department. But a subsequent background check showed he provided false or misleading information on his application, during initial interviews and again during the internal investigation.

The internal investigation showed Bruce advised Gatliff to omit his history of drug use and not to disclose on the application that he was related to Bruce and Bruce's wife, Denise, who is the director of the township's communications and information technology department.

The township's nepotism policy prohibits department heads from hiring immediate family members or people who live under the same roof, neither of which applied to Gatliff's hiring.

Gatliff has never been convicted on a drug charge, although he admitted to investigators he has used various illegal drugs as recently as 2002, according to the background investigation, but he was convicted for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and operating a vehicle without a license as a juvenile.

Gatliff was nearing the end of completing his ninth week of the 18-week training program at the Ohio State Highway Academy.

Bruce also said he was trying to protect Gatliff's information from becoming public.

Bruce, chief since 2000, is not likely to face disciplinary action. Township records show Bruce has been responsible for hiring 58 people during his tenure. He said that none of his previous hires — or attempts to hire — led to an internal investigation.

Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns

Ohio school district says all school employees pass criminal background investigations

By Sue Hoffman
The Solon Times

All employees in the Solon School District have had criminal history background checks with the FBI and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, officials said at Monday's school board meeting.
"We're compliant," School Superintendent Joseph V. Regano said. The practice is in accordance with a new state law and subsequent school policy. All substitute teachers also must have the background checks before they can be considered for employment, he said.
No district employees were found to have any record that would prevent their employment, school officials said.
Board member Julie Glavin raised the question of whether school volunteers will be required to have background investigations.
While districts will be "looking for clarification" from the state on that issue, Mr. Regano said he believes the requirement only affects volunteers working "in single relationships" and "in direct control of students." It would not affect room parents or parents helping on field trips, he said. With volunteers, "it's difficult for the state to control since there's no licensing," he said.
There also is the issue of cost. School staff members each had to pay the $46 cost for the background checks. Prior to the law, the BCI check was $15.
Volunteer coaches who work with students are fingerprinted, and background checks are completed, Assistant Superintendent Thomas W. Stupica said.
He said the procedure for getting background checks by the FBI and BCI is simple. Fingerprinting is completed and sent by a machine in the district, he said. "If all goes well, we'll have a response within 24 hours."
The school board discussed a recent report that an employee in the Orange School District was found to have a felony conviction 36 years ago.
Mr. Stupica said that, prior to the new law, teaching applicants residing in Ohio for the last five years needed a background check only from BCI. Those who lived outside the state within the last five years were required to have the background check by the FBI.
With the new law, Mr. Stupica said, all employees have had to have both background checks. Teachers must have them completed for any renewal of their licenses or certificates, which are valid a maximum of five years.
While teachers always needed the background check for initial employment, non-teaching staff members did not, Mr. Stupica said. Now, they must have it completed as well, he said. Future background checks are scheduled with licensing renewal, he said, which is every six years for bus drivers.
"There are certain offenses for which a person cannot be hired by the schools, even if they occurred 20 to 30 or more years ago," Mr. Stupica said. They include assault, robbery and other violent crimes.
Board member Roger Goudy said BCI checks do not show past convictions which have been expunged, while the FBI report shows all past convictions, "expunged or not."
Mr. Stupica said that, for people who are 18 and older, records are sealed rather than expunged. Those who have had their records sealed may believe they do not have to report the past conviction on their applications, but those records become "unsealed" for certain jobs, he said. "In education, nothing is sealed."


Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns

Ohio background investigations arriving after school has started

By LeeAnn Moore

Results of Ohio criminal background investigations on teachers, administrators, other school employees and even some volunteers will continue to come in over the next few months.

Sept. 5 was the deadline for most to have fingerprints turned into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI).

"We believe that all of our employees have done that," said David Branch, Franklin Local School District superintendent. "However, we do not have all of the results because there is a rather large backlog at BCI in processing. Therefore, we do not have all the results of all the required testing, but we have a lot of it back."

Jim Heagen, superintendent of East Muskingum Local School District, said 100 percent of those in his district who needed to have prints submitted by Sept. 5 did so.

"The BCI/FBI system is inundated with all these requests. Now even veteran employees have to have it done," Heagen said. "They're inundated with all these people who had to have it submitted by Sept. 5. We're in the same boat as everyone else. 100 percent of our people have submitted but we're waiting on returns. As far as I know, we are following the law."

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) began requiring applicants seeking any license or permit to have an Ohio criminal background investigation and an FBI criminal background check completed. The rule became effective Nov. 14, 2007 to comply with House Bill 190.

House Bill 79, which went into effect March 2007, requires those teaching with a professional teaching certificate to have a background investigation every five years on a date set by the state board of education. The first date established to have the checks completed by was Sept. 5.

"However, it's not a deadline for all prints as this deadline is only for teachers who teach under a permanent teaching certificate or an eight-year teaching certificate. Many teachers teach under a five-year teaching license. This Sept. 5 deadline doesn't apply to them. They receive background checks when the renew their license every five years," said Karla Warren, ODE press secretary.

Kevin Appleman, coordinator of operations and student services for Zanesville City Schools, said the process went smoothly the first time around.

Those needing to submit prints within Zanesville City started submitting them April 28 and they were all in by May 28. Appleman said most of the results are in and OK.

"Personally, I like it, because I think as a father myself who has a child in school, I appreciate it as a parent and as a person who facilitates it. I like it and I'm sure Mr. (Superintendent Terry) Martin does too because it protects everybody, our teachers, students, parents, administration, everybody," he said. "I don't think it's a bad thing at all. It's a positive."

In most cases, prints are submitted at the districts' administrative offices using WebCheck, an Internet-based program used for conducting fingerprint-based civilian background checks developed by BCI.

"ODE has been communicating aggressively with districts and with educators who hold eight-year, permanent or permanent non-tax certificates. They have been notified that those certificates would be inactivated if they did not submit fingerprints for mandated BCI and FBI background checks by Sept. 5, 2008," Warren said.

Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns

Ohio strengthens background investigation rules for school employees

Even though Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation criminal records checks have long been required for teachers and certain other school employees, the Ohio Legislature enacted still more stringent rules through HB 109, which went into effect in November. HB 109 mandates both BCII and FBI criminal records checks for all school employees at the time they are under final consideration for a position. It also calls for periodic checks thereafter. Private contractors such as construction workers, groundskeepers and others who enter school property to perform services are also subject to HB 109 background checks.

Along with teachers, substitute teachers, tutors and educational assistants, administrators such as superintendents, treasurers and principals are required to have a criminal background investigation, as are counselors, school nurses and coaches, including those with pupil activity permits. The criminal background investigation must be repeated approximately every five years from the date of application for employment or when the relevant license is renewed. Criminal background investigations must be repeated every six years for school bus drivers; bus drivers also must have a semi-annual driving record check.

While the law does not require criminal background investigations for most volunteers, school boards may require them. Most boards in the area do, especially if the individual is a regular volunteer, will be supervising overnight trips or will be working regularly with students on a one-to-one (unsupervised) basis.

Centerburg, Johnstown-Monroe, North Fork and the Knox County Career Center do background investigations on adult volunteers, but not on students who volunteer to help younger pupils. Clear Fork does not require background investigations for student volunteers, but must, according to HB 109, conduct a criminal background investigation on paid student workers. Danville does not require the checks for volunteers at this time, while at East Knox and Highland it depends on what the volunteer’s duties will be. Coaching volunteers at Fredericktown are required to pass a criminal background investigation, but chaperones at this time are not.

Northridge board policy mandates criminal background investigations for all volunteers and chaperones. Superintendent John Shepard said all those checks are expensive, but the board willingly pays for them. "Obviously expense is always a factor when operating a large department like a school board but there is no price for the safety and well being of children," says Tyra Hearns the President of background investigation firm PebiServices.com

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Shepard said. “It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.”

The price to pay, especially for larger school districts, can add up to a lot of money. Cheryl Colopy of the Knox County Educational Service Center, which does the fingerprinting for area schools, said the cost of one BCII check is $27; an FBI report costs $29, a total of $56.

And the number of “clients” has increased. From Dec. 1, 2005, to Jan. 15, 2006, the ESC processed 45 fingerprint requests; from Dec. 1, 2007 to Jan. 15, 2008, 111 individuals were fingerprinted at the ESC.

The board of education must pay the fee charged by BCII for criminal background checks, but may recoup that fee from the applicant. Licensed individuals pay the cost of the continuing periodic background check as part of their license renewal. For nonlicensed individuals such as custodians and food services workers, the board of education must pay the fee, and may charge the employee a fee that is equal to or less than the fee charged by BCII. Background checks for private contractors working for school districts may be paid for by the company employing the contractor.

BCII and FBI criminal records checks, by law, cannot be required for school board members. According to information from the Ohio School Boards Association, “boards of education may not limit the ability of an individual from becoming, or serving as, a public official, including requiring background checks. This would be an unconstitutional limitation on the individual’s rights to political expression. However, nothing would prohibit an individual board member from voluntarily submitting to a background check.”

At Northridge Local Schools, however, a school board member who wants to volunteer in the schools, outside of his or her capacity as a board member, does have to have a criminal records check like other volunteers in the district.

The OSBA further noted that criminal background checks are not subject to the Ohio Public Records Law. They are not considered to be public records and may not be disclosed by the public entity.

Tyra Hearns defends the escalation of background investigations

Although large numbers of background investigations are being conducted, President Tyra Hearns of Miami based Pebi Services (www.pebiservices.com) emphatically states that the escalated use of background investigations in the private sector is working and working well. Already this year, 25 million Americans have had background investigations by the federal government, a number that's risen every year since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Amid the rise, a notable shift has occurred: More civilians are now checked each year than criminals. And background investigations on the vast majority come back clean, even as states allot more money for their growing screening operations.

And, in rare cases, predators still slip through the cracks. Take Timothy Stephen Keil, an Ohio church camp counselor recently convicted of molesting two young boys. Or Ralph Fiscale, a New Hampshire soccer coach, and Stephen Unger Jr., a Texas schoolteacher, both of whom committed similar offenses in the past year. "A background investigation cannot predict future events or actions, unless the background investigations are done annually or within a set and established employment marker area." says Hearns

All were either not run through a background investigation by their superiors, or they passed one.

Civil libertarians say the tradeoffs of such a system, built largely through state mandates enacted since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, have become too high.

State background investigation laws, applied to groups as varied as professional nursing home workers, reading tutors, bankers and even volunteer dog walkers _ are becoming so numerous as to be almost meaningless, said Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio.

In Ohio, nearly 4 million background investigations have been conducted since 2001, for instance, a figure equivalent to nearly half the state's 8.7 million adult population.

"The sheer volume of them tells us that they're not working, because to be effective these background investigations have to be looked at very carefully," Link said. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's a terrorist or two in there, but you're not going to find them when you're doing so many." According to Pebi Services (www.pebiservices.com) President Tyra Hearns remarks made by Link are prima facia evidence of flawed thinking "The absurdity of saying that terrorists will evade detection due to a large volume of work is in a sense throwing your hands up in the air and giving up because the statistical minority is in play, as it always is when quoting numbers."

In a recent poll conducted by The Barna Group, a California-based marketing group helping churches, a quarter of pastors surveyed admitted they don't have adequate background investigation and reference checking in place.

Barna Group president David Kinnaman said most churches are very small, with perhaps 100 parishioners, and the background investigations aren't seen as an urgent need.

"In a lot of those places, they have a setting in which it's very, very hard to imagine any abuse taking place," Kinnaman said. "There can be an over-inflated sense of safety, a naivete of the changing issues churches are facing."

Similarly, a recent Associated Press search of state-by-state records found 2,570 incidents of sexual misconduct in public schools between 2001 and 2005, despite background investigations of teachers being required in many states.

Civilian background investigations now dominate the workload at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, costing taxpayers nearly $9 million a year. Since 1993, the number of annual background investigations performed by the bureau has grown from 38,000 to 650,000 on average.

Checking someone's criminal background is a common political response to each new social crisis. Ohio lawmakers, for instance, have introduced additional background investigation requirements recently for foster care parents, following a series of incidents against children, and for public school teachers, following revelations of sexual acts toward students going unreported.

Yet Ohio figures compiled for The Associated Press by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification found that the 90-percent-plus passage rate remains consistent, regardless of how many Ohioans are screened.

Steve Fischer, a spokesman for the FBI, said that pattern also holds true at the national level, where the number of background investigations being conducted has exploded since 9/11. It continues to grow at a pace of about 12 percent a year.

Fischer said 69 percent of criminals who are checked turn out to have their fingerprints already on file, compared to just 12 percent of civilians.

He said the federal program used to be heavily weighted toward checking criminals, but a shift toward civilians has occurred since 9/11.

"It used to be slightly higher on the criminal side," Fischer said. "But since 9/11, the majority of our checks are civilians _ people applying for jobs, licenses, things like that."

Most of the background investigations are required under laws emanating from state legislatures aiming to protect people from predators.

"It's mostly about protected populations: children and the elderly," Fischer said.

Yet crime statistics present mixed evidence as to whether the explosion in records checks is having an impact. On a national level, sex crimes and forcible rapes had already been declining steadily before the 2001 attacks. The Bureau of Justice Statistics attributes that reduction to a variety of societal factors, of which background investigations are only one.

Ohio figures show an unpredictable pattern, with arrests for forcible rapes and sex offenses sometimes rising and sometimes falling year by year. Overall, since 2001, arrests for the two types of crimes are down from 2,253 to 1,371, based on self-reported law enforcement data.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers have begun to contemplate what they have created.

According to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, 21 states enacted laws last year related to the regulation of offender information _ including proposals that limited public access to the data, lowered costs for the checks, reduced the number of years to be checked for certain positions, and expunged some offenses.

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