‘Caregivers’ Category

Son Learns that Mother’s Caregiver Has Elderly Mistreatment Conviction

When his 92-year-old mother needed an in-home caregiver, Richard Laughlin relied on a recommendation from a trusted friend and hired Teresita Lee.  What he did not know was that Lee had a long criminal history including multiple thefts and a recent conviction for mistreating another elderly person to whom she was supposed to be providing care.

According to an article in The Oregonian, Laughlin said that in 2010, Lee claimed that she had to make a trip to California. What he didn’t know at the time was that she didn’t go to California - she was serving 90 days in the county jail related to her criminal mistreatment conviction. She also received three years probation with the condition that she not work for any elderly or dependent person. A condition that she was violating by caring for Laughlin’s mother.

We are waiting on copies of the 2010 case to arrive from the court in hopes of learning more about the kind of mistreatment the victim in that case suffered.

According to the article, another individual complained to police three years ago that Lee had stolen the identity of his mother, for whom Lee was a caregiver.

As the Baby Boom Generation continues to age, there will be increased demand for non-medical home caregivers. There will also be more people who are unfit for those sorts of those positions or, worse yet, who are seeking to prey on their elderly patients. Unfortunately, many people who hire individuals to come into their homes and interact with their families do not exercise due diligence in making sure that they are competent and safe. A part of that due diligence would certainly be a criminal background check. However, references from prior families with whom the individual has worked and verification of their credentials is equally important.

Sex offender assigned to Alzheimer’s care facility

Michael Gilbert is a registered sex offender convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child (12 year old female) and was released from parole in August 2005. (He was also on federal parole for issuing “false distress signals” – he was apparently trying to fake his own death at sea in an attempt to escape his sex offender status.)

Two months later, Gilbert was hired by Comfort Keepers as a non-medical caregiver, a “sitter”, in an Alzheimer’s care unit on October 23, 2005. Comfort Keepers ran a “national” criminal background check from CBCInnovis that failed to disclose his criminal history or his sex offender registration.

On November 7, 2005, two weeks after Gilbert was hired, a 77-year-old resident identified him as the man who raped her.  He faced no criminal charges in this case, apparently due to the Alzheimer patient’s unreliability as a witness.

The family did sue Comfort Keepers and the Alzheimer’s care facility, and CBCInnovis. The civil case resulting from these allegations was settled April 8, 2009 – terms not disclosed.

The following is an excerpt from the plaintiff’s petition in this case:

It is hard to explain how so many people and businesses, who are charged with the responsibility of protecting and safeguarding our elderly, could all fail to do their jobs in such a negligent and grossly negligent manner that a known sexual predator such as Michael Henderson a/k/a Michael Anthony Gilbert could be allowed to molest and abuse a poor, defenseless 77 year old grandmother like Colleen Stagner, but that is what happened in this case. Not only were Defendants being paid to care for and protect innocent, foreseeable victims like Colleen from being sexually assaulted, they actually interviewed, hired, and placed a registered sex offender in a position to enable him to carry out these outrageous acts of physical and sexual abuse.

According to court documents, which include a copy of Gilbert’s employment application, Gilbert responded to the criminal history question on the application with “will discuss in interview.”

I always advise employers to respond “No, we won’t” and move on to the next applicant when an applicant fails to fully respond to questions on the employment application. In this case, however, Comfort Keepers interviewed Gilbert and made the following notation on the application: “Michael discussed that this was something minor that happened over 12 years ago – not on criminal record.”

Obviously Gilbert lied and the “national” criminal background check failed to catch the lie.

The fact is that there is no such thing as a “national” or “nationwide” criminal records database that has any level of reliability. The only way to obtain a criminal history on an individual that approaches reliable is to search the county, state, and federal records in each jurisdiction where the person has lived, worked, or attended school. The “national” database (Imperative Information Group prefers to call it a multi-jurisdictional criminal records database) should be used only as a source of possible records – not relied upon as the primary source of records.

UPDATE:

In April 2011, authorities say Gilbert attempted to avoid arrest in another sexual assault by again faking his own death. He is accused of fatally shooting a homeless man, putting the body in his car’s trunk and setting the car ablaze, hoping police would think that the body was his. He is currently being prosecuted. Hopefully, he won’t see daylight for a long, long time.

Family Hires Identity Thief as Nanny

Carollena Vaccaro has a long criminal history that includes a felony conviction for possession of a forged instrument. So how did she get a job as a nanny working for an entrepreneurial family?

Simple, according to the Rochester, New York Democrat and Chronicle:

Vaccaro, who claimed to be a registered nurse, gave them the name and Social Security number of her cousin, DeRosa, without DeRosa’s knowledge. The name came back clean in a background check.

Vaccaro was sentenced to serve between three and six years in prison for two counts of felony identity theft after pleading guilty this week. The family who employed her apparent only lost a $25 Walmart gift card and, very probably, the sense of security in their own home.

So, the question is how could this family have avoided becoming entangled with this woman?

With her history of forgery, it is possible that if the family completed the I-9 process (which many residential employers fail to do), she may have presented valid-looking identification with her picture and her family member’s identity info.

With the false identity information, the criminal background check conducted by the family was useless. Assuming that was the case, the next level of defense would be to verify both her credentials, in this case a nursing license, and her previous employment history.  Employment histories are fairly easy to fabricate but a good background screening firm will have a process to try and substantiate the identity of the individual’s providing references.  This is often something that private employers, particularly families hiring domestic help, are ill-equiped to accomplish.

According to press reports, it also evident that this family was not Vaccaro’s first victim. Numerous people apparently had been taken advantage of by her under several different names. It seems that the local small claims court was very familiar with her, as well.

It is interesting how many individuals fail to conduct thorough background checks on employees who will be working in their homes, especially when hiring a nanny to working with children, housekeepers, home healthcare workers, or others with access to their residence.

In Vaccaro’s case, the damage was limited to minor theft. However, if a thief can gain acesss to a family this easily, how much more difficult would it be for someone with a history of violence or sex offenses to get into the household?