SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

Thousands of people with criminal pasts that include violent felonies and hurting children have been hired to work in Florida's child care centers over the past two decades, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found.

In October, a baby suffered severe burns at a Lauderhill day care while under the watch of a woman on felony probation who was working without a background check.

	Tia Porter's son, Robert, was severely burned at a Lauderhill day care last October. (Mike Stocker, Sun Sentinel)

And in West Palm Beach, an employee worked at a YMCA for two months before a background screening revealed he was facing child sex charges in California.

Florida law requires criminal background checks for child care employees — but allows them to begin work before screening is complete. Once the results are in, a process that can take months, people barred from working with children because of a criminal record can still qualify by obtaining an exemption finding that they have been rehabilitated.

The law, along with screening failures, has opened the door for rapists, pedophiles and even killers to work in child care, the Sun Sentinel found. And parents have no way of knowing if felons are caring for their children.

"It's ridiculous to even think about it, and it's scary," said Karen Gievers, a Tallahassee lawyer and child advocate. "If you've got people involved in criminal acts with children, it's absolutely clear that information should be known before you put that person with children."

The Sun Sentinel obtained a statewide database of background screenings since 1985 that shows at least 2,400 people were already employed in child care before checks turned up their criminal records. A Tampa man had this disturbing note in his screening record: "EVIL DUDE —RAPE+KIDNAP+SEX ASLT."

Another 2,900 people with criminal pasts were cleared for day care work through exemptions, though some had been found guilty of crimes including child abuse, kidnapping and murder.

"It's totally unacceptable. Obviously, this has become a huge loophole that needs to be closed," said Nan Rich of Weston, vice chairwoman of the Florida Senate's Children, Families and Elder Affairs committee. "From what you've found, we've allowed people who have committed child abuse or molested kids to be among our children."

	When he was 3, Nicholas Bradshaw nearly died after being left in a sweltering van by an Ocala day care worker who never should have working there. More photos (Gary W. Green, Orlando Sentinel)

"We've got to do a much better job than what we're currently doing," he said. "We have a serious responsibility to protect kids."

Hire first, check later

Florida's flawed background screening system grew out of a child care scandal in the 1980s.

Frank Fuster, of Miami, was convicted of sexually abusing more than a dozen children at a day care in his Country Walk home and is serving life in prison. Fuster's record for manslaughter and child molestation came to light only after the scandal broke.

Before that Florida had no consistent background checks. A law passed in 1985 bars people with certain criminal records from "positions of trust" like jobs in day care unless they obtain an exemption.

Under the law, employees undergo a statewide and national FBI criminal record check that must begin within 10 days after they start working.

It can take as little as 24 hours to get results if fingerprints are submitted electronically. But as of last year, more than half the people screened for day care jobs in Florida had their fingerprints inked onto cards and sent by mail, a process that takes six weeks or longer.

"All this time these people are working," said Sandy Pillar, who tracks screenings at DCF. "We've had people working in child care who were pedophiles."

A bill filed this year in the Legislature would have required electronic fingerprint submission for all child care employees, but it failed.

Children in voluntary pre-kindergarten programs are better protected because employees are covered under a newer law and must pass a background check before working.

Florida has more than 50,000 day care workers. About 4 percent fail the background check and must be removed or apply for an exemption. Day care operators are free to wait for the screening results on new hires, but many do not.

It took six weeks to unearth pending child molestation charges in California against Keith Rodrigues, an employee at a skate park operated by the YMCA of the Palm Beaches.

At a child's birthday party near San Francisco, Rodrigues fondled a 12-year-old girl and was caught watching a 4-year-old boy shower, according to a police report.

While awaiting trial in 2003, Rodrigues was hired at the West Palm Beach skate park.

"Background check not pretty," someone scribbled in his screening file after he was already on the job.

The YMCA fired Rodrigues, and he is now a registered sex offender.

"These are things we know can happen all the time," said Mike Green, executive director of the YMCA. "If it takes [weeks] to get a report back from the FBI, that is a concern."

Screening problems common

In Florida, parents can check inspection records to see how a day care center rates in everything from safety hazards to food preparation — but they have no way of knowing the backgrounds of the employees who care for their children. Personnel records are not public.

State inspection data show that omissions and errors in the employee screening process are rife. Day care operators must check the backgrounds of new hires and re-screen employees every five years or if they stop working for longer than 90 days.

Lack of proof that employee background checks have been made are among the most common violations at day care centers throughout Florida, a Sun Sentinel analysis of inspection data over the past five years found.

Yet even when children are put in the care of serious offenders, day cares typically receive only a small fine.

Broward County in 2004 adopted stricter standards than the state, requiring a background check be completed before a child care employee starts work. But screening violations have continued by the hundreds.

The Showers of Blessings Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale had two employees working with criminal records, a March 2006 inspection found. One was sent home and the other was "called and told not to come in." The day care was fined $250.

With a starting pay of only about $8 an hour, the child care industry sometimes attracts people with criminal pasts, day care operators said. Turnover can be high, and filling vacancies quickly is critical to maintaining legally required staff-to-children ratios.

Last year, the Uncle Charles Learning Center in Lauderhill hired Shakeyda Kent without checking her background. She was on probation for two felony convictions of driving with a suspended license, had pleaded no contest to marijuana possession and was arrested but not prosecuted for grand theft, records show.

Kent was one of two employees supervising seven infants last October, when 8-month-old Robert Porter crawled away, pulled the cord of a bottle warmer and spilled scalding water on his head.

The day care didn't screen Kent until five days later. It was the center's fourth background screening violation in six months.

The day care got a $500 fine. Little Robert Porter spent eight days at Plantation General Hospital with burns to his face and head.

"It was painful, very painful," said his mother, Tia Porter, an employee at a Checkers restaurant. "He wouldn't eat for the eight days he was in the hospital, barely drank a milk bottle."

Porter has a pending lawsuit against Uncle Charles. The day care surrendered its license and closed April 30 following more violations.

The center's former owner, Tracye Wilkerson, of Plantation, said she was "not interested in talking." Kent did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Exemptions for murder

People with disqualifying criminal records can never be a public school teacher or even a bail bondsman in Florida. But they can still get jobs in child care.

Exemptions are possible for any misdemeanor, regardless of how recent, and felonies committed more than three years earlier. Crimes committed by people granted exemptions include aggravated assault, arson, sexual battery, aggravated child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and domestic violence.

Kenneth Scurry is one of 15 murderers granted a child care exemption, the Sun Sentinel found. In 1984, Scurry drove to a Fort Myers convenience store with an accomplice, who shot and killed a clerk and made off with $40, court records say. Scurry was sent to prison for 30 years but was released in 1997 after his sentence was reduced.

Scurry's wife Lula applied to run a day care from their home in 2005 but could not get a license because of her husband's record.

In his exemption request, Kenneth Scurry said he was "a monster during that time of his life" but downplayed his role in the holdup. DCF twice turned him down. Scurry won on appeal in court after a judge found "clear and overwhelming evidence" he was rehabilitated.

"My husband has changed his life," Lula Scurry, who now runs the Ark of Safety day care in Fort Myers, said in an interview.

Precious Kidz, Inc. in Pompano Beach hired convicted felon Michelle Rush last year after she got an exemption. Rush had gone to prison three times for grand theft, burglary and possession of a counterfeit bill. "I don't think this is a great history," acknowledged day care director Cynthia Sheppard, who said Rush nonetheless had proven to be an excellent employee. "She's a very gentle person, very loving to the children."

Some child advocates say loopholes in the law are too dangerous and must be eliminated.

"Common sense says there is no substitute for putting children in anything but a safe environment," said Linda Alexionok, executive director of the Children's Campaign, a child advocacy group in Tallahassee. "No parent should ever, ever have to be worried about that."

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

Florida seniors and disabled adults too frail to live on their own have been beaten, neglected and robbed by caregivers with criminal records.

A cancer patient at a Pompano Beach assisted living facility watched helplessly from bed as a nurse's aide with a record for theft rifled through her handbag and stole $165.

"What are you doing with my bag?" a police report quoted her as saying. "You have no right. Put it down."

A video camera caught an aide at a North Miami Beach group home for the disabled shoving a cerebral palsy patient face-first to the floor, busting her lip. The aide had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and never should have been working there.

More than 3,500 people with criminal records — including rape, robbery and murder — have been allowed to work with the elderly, disabled and infirm through exemptions granted by the state the past two decades, a Sun Sentinel investigation found. Hundreds more slipped through because employers failed to check their backgrounds or kept them on the job despite their criminal past.

In Palm Beach County, a woman with pending forgery charges got a job at a nursing home, where she assaulted a patient.

Glades Health Care Center in Pahokee did a background check on Phillina Anderson in 2004, but it did not turn up the charges, said Francine Hennessy, chief operating officer of the Council on Aging of Florida, Inc., which owns the facility. If it had, the nursing home would not have hired her, Hennessy said.

Anderson was still on probation in that case when she was arrested for abusing patient Cora Edwards.

Near the end of her shift on July 13, 2007, Anderson became upset with Edwards, a stroke victim with Alzheimer's disease, according to an arrest report.

Anderson told Edwards to "shut up" and slapped her "extremely hard" across the face.

"Why did you hit me?" the elderly victim cried out, according to the report. "I never did anything to you."

Anderson was convicted of abuse on an elderly person and served three months in jail. Hennessy said the nursing home learned after her arrest that she had been accused of abusing a resident at another facility that did not report it.

"We were very surprised," she said. "Her background check was clear."

Screening gaps

Florida has a patchwork of controls for checking caregivers of the elderly that seems to put more emphasis on protecting against embezzlement than safeguarding patients.

Inconsistencies in state law are glaring — facility owners, administrators and people who handle money require a nationwide FBI check, but not employees caring for patients. With some exceptions, they are checked only for crimes in Florida.

For nursing homes, a background check must be complete before anyone can work. But for assisted living facilities and home health aides and companions, employees can begin work before screening results come back.

"It ought to be consistent," said Bob Blancato of the Elder Justice Coalition, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., that supports nationwide background checks for all employees.

Holly Benson, head of the Florida agency that regulates health care facilities, said the discrepancies are a result of different laws passed over more than a decade. "A lot of the way that this policy evolved is just kind of hit or miss,'' said Benson, secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration.

Of more than 100,000 people screened through AHCA over the past 3 1/2 years, more than 3,420, or 3 percent, were rejected because of a criminal history for offenses that included murder, exploiting the elderly and elder neglect, a Sun Sentinel analysis shows. The jobs include positions at clinics and treatment centers as well as nursing homes and agencies caring for the elderly.

Under Florida law, certain crimes disqualify someone from working with seniors or the disabled unless they obtain an exemption by showing evidence of rehabilitation.

Until this year, the disqualifying offenses did not include financial crimes that can lead to abuse and exploitation. An expanded list takes effect Thursday — eight years after a committee of prosecutors and state regulators recommended adding crimes such as burglary, fraud and forgery.

The patchwork screening system puts Florida's most vulnerable adults at risk, the Sun Sentinel found.

Latoera O'Neal was able to care for seniors for two years in the Panhandle because she was screened only for offenses she might have committed in Florida.

In Ohio, O'Neal was an admitted cocaine dealer and served time in prison for a drug offense. Her out-of-state record only came to light when she switched jobs to work with the disabled.

Florida's Department of Children & Families conducts nationwide criminal background checks of employees who work with the mentally and physically disabled. DCF first found O'Neal was disqualified as a caregiver, but gave her an exemption to work in 2004 after she said she had found God and being a caregiver brought joy to her heart.

While working at a group home in Fort Walton Beach in 2007, O'Neal dragged a mentally disabled man out of a van by his feet, slamming his head on the floorboard and the pavement, an arrest report said. She now faces a charge of abusing a disabled person.

Tierra Henry got a job in 2004 at a North Miami Beach group home operated by United Cerebral Palsy of South Florida.

Henry had served a year of probation for a 2001 charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Henry, then 19, hit a 15-year-old girl in the head with nunchuks, a martial arts weapon, a Miami-Dade Police report said.

"I told them straight up before they even hired me," Henry said in an interview. "I told them I had a fight with a girl from high school ... They gave me the job, no problem."

DCF reviews the results of national FBI checks on caregivers of the disabled, while criminal history searches in Florida go directly to employers, who may miss disqualifying charges or fail to remove people as required.

United Cerebral Palsy thought Henry was clear after receiving a letter from DCF showing no record on her FBI check, said Leigh Kapps, an executive director. But Kapps' agency should have checked her background in Florida and disqualified her based on the aggravated assault offense, a DCF spokeswoman said.

A year later, a video camera at the group home recorded Henry approaching a 22-year-old resident with cerebral palsy, grabbing her arm from behind and pushing her to the floor. Henry pleaded guilty to aggravated abuse of a disabled adult and is serving four years' probation.

Rules ignored

Patients and their families have no way of checking employees' criminal histories. Personnel files are confidential, as they are for any private business.

The Agency for Health Care Administration relies on employers to check the backgrounds of employees working with the elderly. State inspectors are supposed to ensure screening requirements are met but inspect nursing homes on average only once a year and assisted living facilities every other year.

Inspection data shows the system fails to weed out employees with disqualifying records and is slow to remove them once hired.

Screening problems are among the four most common violations in assisted living facilities, adult day cares and nursing agencies. Home health agencies and nursing homes are also cited, but less frequently.

At nursing homes, where a completed background check is required before starting, some employees had worked as long as seven years without any check.

A nurse in West Palm Beach was on the job despite several "misdemeanors and felonies" in the personnel file, and another worked more than a year without undergoing screening "due to lack of facility funds to pay for the background check," a state inspector reported in April 2008. A background check costs about $25.

Supervisors at a Sunrise nursing home knew about a housekeeper's record for cocaine trafficking and possession but kept him on because they felt he "deserved a break," a June 2008 inspection found.

"The teeth aren't long enough or sharp enough," said Don Hering, head of Florida's Long-term Care Ombudsman Council, which investigates elder facilities. "People who know how to game the system, they fine them, they give them 30 days to clean up their act, then it's back to business as usual."

‘Last thing on your mind'

Joan Loughman never thought about the pasts of the staff at the Lyford Cove assisted living facility in Fort Pierce when she admitted her ailing father in 2002, said her husband, Tom.

Loughman selected the facility after meeting its marketing director, Andrew Gosciminski, at the hospital treating her father. Gosciminski helped her move her father's belongings and admired her 2-carat diamond ring and other jewelry worth $40,000, records show.

"That for me set off an alarm," said Tom Loughman, who remained in the couple's Danbury, Conn., home. "I called her and said that conversation really bothered me. I told her, ‘You have to be careful.'"

On Sept. 24, 2002, the day before she was scheduled to fly home, Loughman, a grandmother and Girl Scout volunteer, was found dead in her father's Hutchinson Island home, her throat cut and her jewelry missing. That night, Gosciminski gave his girlfriend a diamond ring, according to court testimony.

Gosciminski was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned the verdict last fall based on insufficient physical evidence. Jury selection in his retrial began last week.

Gosciminski, who had felony theft and worthless check convictions in Broward County, did not even need a background check to work at Lyford Cove. He fell into a category of employees not required to undergo screening — administrators who do not provide "personal services" to residents.

"They claimed they were given the OK by the state to hire him because he wasn't actually doing hands-on care of residents," said Bennie Lazzara Jr., a Tampa attorney who represented Loughman's family in a lawsuit against the facility.

Lyford Cove settled the lawsuit for undisclosed terms and is under different ownership.

Tom Loughman, an accountant, said family members assume employees caring for their loved ones have been thoroughly checked out.

"When you're under the gun of trying to find a place for your relative and they're in the hospital and they're dying, it's the last thing on your mind as to whether it's a safe facility," he said. "You assume with the state regulating them, that's a given."

Comments (0)

Write comment

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.