A Jet Blue flight attendant quit his job in a very interesting way on Monday.  I’ll refrain from paraphrasing because I believe this article does it enough justice.  Should any future employer  conduct an employment verification with Jet Blue, he can pretty much bank on not receiving a good reference.  Not to mention he may also have to explain a stint in prison.  Best of luck buddy!

Cursing, beer and a popped chute as flight attendant quits

New York (CNN) — Call them the not-so-friendly skies.

A flight attendant cursed out passengers, grabbed a beer then triggered an emergency chute Monday at a JFK Airport terminal, authorities say.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it “appears” Steven Slater was quitting.

“It’s a strange way to quit, let’s put it that way,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll be able to come back.”

Police arrested Slater for allegedly triggering the emergency escape chute, a spokeswoman for the district attorney said.

Slater was arrested at his home and charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass, said Helen Peterson at the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

The incident took place just after the Jet Blue flight landed when a passenger stood to remove a bag from the overhead bin while the plane was still taxiing, a law enforcement source with direct knowledge said. A flight attendant exchanged words with the passenger, and the conversation escalated.

Slater picked up the intercom and used expletives directed at the passengers, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. It is not clear exactly what was said on the intercom. The source said that when the plane at stopped at the gate, Slater then grabbed some beer from the beverage cart before deploying the emergency slide and using it to leave the plane.

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The Stolen Valor Act of 2005, signed into law on December 20, 2006 by President George W. Bush, makes it illegal to falsely claim to be a recipient of military awards and medals handed out by Congress to military personnel.  A little over three years later, the constitutionality of this Act was challenged. 

Rick Strandlof, a Colorado man accused of posing as a Marine Captain and claimed to have received a Silver Star and Purple Heart during the Iraq War, argued that prosecution under the Stolen Valor Act violated his First Amendment right to free speech.  A district court judge agreed.

This isn’t the last we’ve heard on this issue as I’m sure the government is gearing up for an appeal.  However, it is important to point out that any claims of military honors can be verified by employers by requesting a copy of an applicant’s military records, commonly known as the DD Form 214.

Judge Says Constitution Protects Right to Lie About Purple Heart

By David Kravets,  Wired.com – July 19, 2010

A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a little-known law making it a crime to falsely claim to have been awarded a military medal.

A Colorado man who was never in the military was arrested for falsely claiming to have won the Purple Heart and other medals as a Marine in Iraq. He challenged the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which provides penalties up to a year in prison, on grounds it breached the First Amendment.

In the first ruling declaring the measure unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn agreed with defendant Rick Strandlof’s contention. The judge said the government’s defense of the act was “troubling” as well as “contrary, on multiple fronts, to well-established First Amendment doctrine” (.pdf). The Purple Heart is awarded to military personnel wounded or killed in “any action against an enemy of the United States.”

Dozens of defendants have been charged under the statute. The San Francisco–based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing the statute’s constitutionality in a case brought by a man sentenced to 400 hours of community service and fined $5,000.

The government, which is mulling an appeal, argued that the law should be upheld.

“By allowing anyone to claim to possess such decorations, could impact the motivation of soldiers to engage in valorous, and extremely dangerous, behavior on the battlefield,” the government wrote.

Judge Blackburn was not buying it.

“This wholly unsubstantiated assertion is, frankly, shocking, and indeed, unintentionally insulting to the profound sacrifices of military personnel the Stolen Valor Act purports to honor,” the judge ruled. “To suggest that the battlefield heroism of our servicemen and women is motivated in any way, let alone in a compelling way, by considerations of whether a medal may be awarded simply defies my comprehension.”

Strandlof told CNN last year that he lied about his record because, among other things, of a “severely underdiagnosed mental illness.”

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Two judges in Centre county Pennsylvania have rescinded orders requiring local newspapers to destroy their archives of news reports about criminal cases the judges’ recently approved for expungement.  It is unclear how this stipulation worked its way into the courts’ orders but the defense attorney for the cases argued ““What’s the sense in having your record expunged if anyone can Google you and it comes up?”  While I understand the point he is trying to make, I don’t support trampling all over the First Amendment. 

The broken record continues to play –  this is yet another reason why employers should not rely on social media sites and Internet search engines as tools to conduct background checks on potential hires.  The information found could include facts about an applicant that cannot be taken into consideration when making the hiring decision.  And once you know something, it may prove difficult to unknow it, so to speak.

Win or Lose in Court, You Cannot Erase the News

By Gene Policinski, eNews Park Forest – July 13, 2010

Sometimes the meaning of the 45 words of the First Amendment seems to escape even those trained in the law.

In Pennsylvania last week, two judges in Centre County — home to Penn State University — signed off on what generally are standard instructions to police and other agencies to expunge certain official records of five people involved in criminal investigations.

But the orders, thanks to the defense attorney for the five, also required that two area newspapers erase archived news reports about the defendants, who faced charges ranging from assault to drug possession.

“Imagine getting such an order, right before the July 4th holiday,” said Bob Heisse, executive editor of the Centre Daily Times, one of the newspapers involved.

Both judges have now voided the orders, but news reports now say as many as 41 orders presented to the court by defense attorney Joe Amendola included similar demands of news organizations.

“What’s the sense in having your record expunged if anyone can Google you and it comes up?” Amendola told the Centre Daily Times. The lawyer, in later news reports, said the newspapers were added to the orders without his knowledge, by a staffer in his office.

Regardless of how the newspapers came to be included in the various court orders, what makes “sense” is to report — and retain those reports — on arrests and court recordings, whether it’s the era of Google or in earlier times when the nation’s Founders took care to provide for an independent news media.

Yes, none of us likely would look forward to having our name or face in a newspaper, on a website or on TV if we were to be arrested and face trial. And there surely is a certain amount of pain and shame in having those facts come up in an online search later in life.

But, as Heisse said, “Facts are facts, and we don’t go back and alter the historical record to suit someone.” Elizabeth Murphy, editor in chief of the second newspaper involved, the Daily Collegian, said it “is a record of history as it happens from day-to-day. … We’re here to report the facts as they are and that’s what we did.”

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Tennessee Circuit Court Judge Jim Hamilton is accused of expunging the criminal records of two convicted felons when he did not possess the authority to do so.  This was only discovered after employees of the Sheriff’s office recognized one of the felons names on a request for a gun permit and could not locate his records.  The District Attorney in Maury County is  looking to reinstate those convictions immediately.

A criminal record that has been expunged would not show up on a background check.  Expunging a record from a person’s criminal history means that it’s gone, it never happened.  Typically, serious criminal convictions do not qualify for the expungement process.  This story does not indicate what crimes these two individuals committed, but does say that the individual applying for the firearm was convicted three times and served time in prison.  That sounds pretty serious to me.

This judge has some explaining to do.

Judge Accused of Illegally Expunging Criminal Records

By Nick Beres, NewsChannel5.com – July 7, 2010

COLUMBIA, Tenn. –Senior Maury County Circuit Court Judge Jim Hamilton is accused of illegally wiping the records clean for felons. Now, District Attorney Mike Bottoms wants to know why.

“We’ve got a judge who is granting pardons and he doesn’t have that power,” said District Attorney Mike Bottoms.

Bottoms has filed lawsuits to reinstate the criminal records of two men with multiple felonies. His petition reads: “The state seeks to have illegal orders of expungement set aside …. The judge who signed the expungement orders was without the legal authority to do so.”

Bottoms said Hamilton illegally expunged the felony records of Phillip Williams and Rodney Gillespie. Typically expungement orders have the approval of the district attorney, defense attorneys and the judge. But in both cases, the orders only had Hamilton’s signature.

Hamilton was on vacation and unavailable for comment. Newschannel5 questioned the Circuit Court Clerk Kathy Kelley.

“Mike Bottoms is alleging the judge gives pardons to felons,” said NewsChannel 5′s Nick Beres.

“I don’t know anything about this,” said Kelley.

“Does Judge Hamilton expunge records illegally?” asked Beres.

“Not to my knowledge,” answered Kelley.

Bottoms called this a public safety issue. He says one of the men involved, Gillespie, was already taking steps to get a gun.

“I was shocked that someone convicted three times and served time in a penitentiary could have his record expunged. And now he has a gun permit,” said Bottoms.

At this moment, Gillespie and Williams are no longer felons. Their records have been cleared. Bottoms said they can buy guns, vote, even apply for jobs in law enforcement.

Gillespie and Williams could not be reached for comment.

Bottoms said there’s no indication Hamilton was bribed for the expungements. So his reasons for granting the expungements remain unclear. It’s all part of a growing investigation that may now include the TBI.

Bottoms said he only learned of the expungements after Gillespie applied for the gun permit and employees at the Maury county sheriff’s department recognized his name, but couldn’t find his record.

Bottoms said he worries there may be others who have received similar pardons.

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In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a convicted sex offender in Alabama did not by law have to register in the state of Indiana because his conviction pre-dates the 2006 passage of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).   Thomas Carr, convicted in Alabama in 2004 of first degree sexual abuse of a minor, was arrested in Indiana and faced a 30 month prison sentence for failing to register as a sex offender in that state.  Carr took his case to the Supreme Court arguing that since his conviction pre-dated the SORNA law, imprisoning him for not registering would be unconstitutional.  The Supreme Court agreed.

One of the reasons the Justice’s agreed with Carr was the use of the word “travel” in the language of the Act.  Congress used the present tense of the word (travels), not the past tense (traveled) when referring to sex offenders who move from state to state.  In the Justice’s opinion, if Congress had wanted to make registration requirements retroactive, they would have used the word “traveled.” 

A very big mistake on Congress’ part or too narrow of a reading of the law?  Perhaps both.  Either way, a hard hit to law enforcement and the general public.

So, yet another very valid reason that running a background check in an applicant’s state of residence alone is not a good policy.  If Carr had applied for a position with a company in Indiana that only conducted state of residence background checks, they would not have known about his sex offender status in Alabama.  If running state of residence only checks, employers may miss some very key components of their applicants’ past that could alter their hiring decision by 180 degrees.

Registry law doesn’t apply to all sex offenders, Supreme Court rules

A sex offender who moved from Alabama to Indiana in 2004 does not have to register with authorities because his move predates the registry law Congress enacted in 2006, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

By Warren Richey – June 1, 2010

A national sex offender registry law does not apply to interstate travel by a sex offender that took place before Congress passed the registry statute in 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

In a 6-to-3 decision, the high court rejected the Obama administration’s expansive reading of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Instead, the majority justices embraced a narrower view of the law, while overturning a convicted sex offender’s 30-month prison sentence for traveling to another state and failing to register.

The decision triggered a heated dissent by three justices who warned that the ruling will impair the ability of law enforcement officials to locate and register some 100,000 convicted sex offenders who have eluded authorities.

“Under the court’s interpretation, the many sex offenders who had managed to avoid pre-existing registration regimes, mainly by moving from one state to another before SORNA’s enactment, are placed beyond the reach of the federal criminal laws,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote.

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Usually when we talk about fake degrees, we are referring to diploma or degree mills.  There have been many stories in the news as of late about people using academic credentials purchased by these “schools” to either land a job or obtain a higher position or pay.  In addition to the issuing the diploma or degree, many of these institutions offer to verify their “authenticity” in order to make their product seem like the real deal. 

In this story, however, the degree this individual claimed was not from a diploma mill – it was from the University of Miami.  Apparently this guy thought it would be a good idea forge a degree document from the school, photocopy it and submit it to a potential employer in order to land a $127,932/year paying position.  All it took was one phone call to the University of Miami to find out he had never attended the college.  He now faces one charge of criminal possession of a forged instrument and three charges of offering a false instrument for filing.  If convicted, he could end up serving an 11-year prison sentence.

BUSTED: Sanitation construction project manager arrested for submitting a fake degree

Myles Miller, NY City Hall Examiner – May 26, 2010

MAYBE HE SHOULD HAVE GONE TO COLLEGE.

The Department of Investigation arrested city Sanitation Department construction project manager Bernard Feraca, 57 of Bronxville, NY for using a “fake academic degree to land a high paying City job”, according to DOI Commissioner Rose Gil Hearn.

Feraca, who submitted a fake Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Miami, was charged today with criminal possession of a forged instrument and three counts of offering a false instrument for filing. If convicted, Feraca could face 11 years in prison. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has assigned ADA Peter Rienzi to prosecute this case.

Fereca, joined the Department of Sanitation in February 2010, and was assigned to the Engineering Support Services unit.

His city salary was $127,932; he has been suspended without pay.

Under a city policy the DOI conducts a thorough background check of roughly 2,000 employees annually who are promoted to management positions, earn more than $80,000 annually and deal with city contracts or  super sensitive city computer programs.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Manhattan Criminal Court a DOI “investigation found that on January 22nd, 2010, the defendant submitted to DSNY a photocopy of his purported Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering.”

The investigation proved there was no record of Feraca ever being a student at the University of Miami.
On Feraca’s Facebook page he has two friends who went to the University of Miami, and lists among his likes “Big Prize Giveaways.”

This is the latest in a series of bogus diplomas and degrees from city employees. In 2007, a DOI report showed the submission of “bogus degrees” in the Fire Department. That investigation resulted in “14 disciplinary actions and improved verification procedures at the FDNY” according to the Department of Investigation.

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As important as it is to conduct a background check on potential new hires, it is just as important to ensure your employees are staying out of trouble once they are  hired. 

A Texas Charter School teacher has been fired and now faces criminal charges stemming from an incident caught on video of her assaulting one of her 13-year-old students.  A warrant had been issued for this teacher’s arrest over a year before the assault occurred for criminal mischief - she is accused of slashing another woman’s tires in January of 2009.  If the Charter School had a policy in place to re-check their employees’ background annually, they would have learned of the warrant and taken the appropriate action.  Perhaps then this unfortunate incident would not have occurred.

Charter Teacher Who Beat Student Was Wanted

(May 13) — The Houston charter school teacher caught on a cell-phone video beating a 13-year-old student was wanted on a criminal mischief charge, accused of slashing a woman’s tires last year.

Sheri Lynn Davis, 40, was fired Monday by Jamie’s House Charter School. However, she won’t lose her teaching certificate because she never had one, the Houston Chronicle reported. Texas law states that only bilingual and special education teachers must be certified in order to work at charter schools. Davis is a science teacher.

Davis taught at the charter school for more than a year while a warrant was out for her arrest, stemming from the alleged tire slashing in January 2009. Davis is scheduled to appear in court on that criminal mischief charge, a misdemeanor, on Tuesday, according to Houston’s KRIV-TV. 

She lost her job after school administrators saw a cell phone video recorded by one of her students in late April that showed her slapping and kicking 13-year-old Isaiah Johnson, then dragging him across the floor and slamming his head into a wall. The boy’s mother, Alesha Johnson, said Isaiah suffered a black eye and other bruises in the attack.

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The state of Tennessee seems to be taking a cue from the federal government by introducing a bill which would make it illegal to sell synthetic urine in their state for the purpose of defeating drug tests.  The bill is currently awaiting the governor’s approval.  Seems like a no-brainer to me!

Bill to Make it Illegal to Sell Fake Urine

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE (AP) – A proposal that would make it illegal in Tennessee to sell fake urine for the purpose of falsifying a drug test is headed to the governor for his consideration.

The measure sponsored by Democratic Sen. Doug Jackson of Dickson was unanimously approved by the Senate Monday evening. The companion bill also passed the House unanimously last month.

Jackson says the measure is needed to help companies that do drug testing. He says individuals who use fake urine to try to beat the system create a “public safety issue” because many companies are trying to maintain a drug-free environment.

The legislation would provide an exception for “bona fide educational, medical, and scientific purposes.”

Gov. Phil Bredesen has not said whether he will approve the measure.

Read the bill:  SB3008/HB2762

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After numerous delays, the Federal Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania handed down sentencing for Gerald Wills and Robert Catalano, President and Vice President of the now defunct Puck Technology, Inc. for conspiring to defraud the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) by marketing and selling via their websites devices aimed to help defeat federal, and federally regulated, employment urine drug tests.  Wills and Catalano operated websites that sold products such as “Go Number 1″ and “The Whizzinator” , prosthetic devices that would allow both men and women to pass urine drug tests under direct observation (you may remember that ex-NFLer Onterrio Smith was a fan of this product).

The pair pleaded guilty to this charge in December of 2008 and it took almost a full year and a half for a verdict.  Having followed this story diligently during this time, I expected a little heavier sentence, being a federal case and all.  But, as it turns out, Wills received a sentence of six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.  Catalano received only three years probation.  Puck Technology, Inc. received a sentence of forfeiture of all its assets and dissolution.  These two got off easy, if you ask me!

This case might just be the tip of the iceberg.  There are still many websites out there claiming to sell products that mask drugs in urine.  I expect to see a lot more cases like this in the future.

Click to read “Two Business Owners Sentenced for Conspiring to Defeat Federal Drug Tests”

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Found a great article talking about diploma mills and a current scandal affecting the City of Blythe, CA.  Apparently some members and former members of the Blythe Police Department stand accused of using fraudulent degrees in order to achieve promotions in addition to receiving tuition reimbursement for said degrees.  It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out!

Click here to read Degree Mills and The Blythe Police Department

I must commend the author of this article for his ability to relate diploma mills to the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. 

The Wizard of Oz to the Scarecrow:

“Why, anybody can have a brain. That’s a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven’t got:

A Diploma!”

And with that, the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz conferred upon the Scarecrow a totally unearned sheepskin – lacking in academic rigor and unrecognized as accredited in all 50 States and the entire industrialized world.

Ha!  A perfect analogy!  Kudos!

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