Felons on Payroll of Well-known, Local Plumbing Company
by Jason Morris
This article is very scary. My wife is hiring a plumber next week to fix one of our sinks, luckily its a friend of the family! There is no excuse for this. Putting people into harms way is unacceptable, negligent and lucky for everyone no one got hurt. The story refers to some states that require a background check during the licensing process via the State Board. I disagree, the background check should be conducted by the company.
I had the pleasure of getting to know Lucia Bone from The Sue Weaver Cause. I met Lucia several years ago at a conference and we remain friends. Lucia’s sister Sue was Raped and killed in 2001 by a contractor sent into her home:
Cathy Sue Weaver was raped and beaten to death in her suburban Orlando, Florida, home on August 27, 2001. With the intent of destroying any evidence, her killer then set her home on fire.
Six months prior to her death, Sue had contracted with a major department store to have the air ducts in her home cleaned. Unbeknownst to her, both of the men sent on the service call had criminal records. One of the men was a twice-convicted sex offender on parole. Six months later he returned to rape and murder Sue.
I have not had the chance to discuss the particular case with Lucia but I am certain she knows about it. Companies have to be smarter, its their responsibility when putting people in positions where they have the opportunity to commit crimes. Companies are insured against theft, errors and some areas of negligence. A company can never insure themselves against their reputation. I imagine Beacon Plumbing will have a difficult time overcoming this press!
Investigators: Felons on payroll of well-known, local plumbing company
By CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 News
SEATTLE - The KING 5 Investigators have uncovered new and troubling information about one of Western Washington’s best known companies.
Last month we revealed how some Beacon customers may have overpaid for under qualified help. Beacon sent trainees to jobs instead of journeyman plumbers.
Now we’ve learned that Beacon Plumbing is sending felons into customer’s homes, including a man who served time for a notorious killing.
Kathy Hansen says she spent $1,900 on several Beacon plumbers who couldn’t find a fix for a leak in her basement ceiling. The one she remembers well is Jason Soler, who she says was yelling and angry at being called back to her house — so much so that family members kicked him off the property.
“I’m just glad I wasn’t by myself,’ Hansen said. “I’m glad there were people in my house that heard this guy. He was kind of threatening in the way he acted.”
Related Content
Kathy Hansen was surprised by all the problems she had with Beacon. But she didn’t know the full story about the man Beacon sent to her home until we played her a news story from 1999.
The story was about a death that shocked a community. A young man named Joey Levick had been beaten and left for dead by two men he had gone nightclubbing with, and one of them was Jason Soler.
Tags: Felons in the Home, Home Contractors, Sue Weaver Cause
May 14th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I checked this morning and the one individual with the rap sheet that included rape has been let go. While this was the right thing to do, this story has damaged all the good employees who work for Beacon with families. A lot of the employees have children who probably won’t recover from this, since King 5 wasn’t detailed enough and cast suspicion over everyone at the company, I beleive that this could possibly ruin this company but will also destroy the lives of many children who are proud of their dads and the good work they do.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Beacon Plumbing knowingly hires killers and child rapists and sends them out to unsuspecting homeowners. So the the killer and the child raping felon have been let go, but what about the other felons? The story pointed out that of the employees examined nearly one third of them were convicted felons. At the end of the day we are responsible for our own choices, Bill Cahill (the owner) for hiring felons, the felons for committing crimes, the other employees who work there and have chosen to continue to work for a company that would send killers and child rapists into their customers’ homes. Maybe the children who should be proud are the ones with fathers whose morals and ethics cause them to leave the employment of a company that would do this and go somewhere else.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Such strong statements from “Anonymous” posters
May 16th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
My concern is knowing that I and my family are safe in our home from contractors who knowingly (or unknowingly) hire violent criminals.
The business has a responsibility to ensure our safety.
I will support the Sue Weaver CAUSE and look forward to the day when every contractor will have some kind of identification to assure me that people I invite in to my home to perform work will not be a threat to my family’s safety.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:05 am
You people are so naive and it is destroying America from the inside out. You are worried about an ex-felon coming into your home to do work, when most crimes are committed by people that are close to us and we know. Just because someone is an ex-con, does not mean they are unsafe for your home. You would have an illegal alien come into your home and u worry about an American citizen who made a mistake against MANS laws. Sinners are allowed in your home and they violate GODS laws and that is not a problem to you. Think about this, if a convict came into your home, then at lest his/her finger prints or DNA is left somewhere in the home, but a undocumented worker can come into your home rob, cheat and steal and get out of the country undetected, or betta yet, just stay in the country and live happily on the spoils of their crimes. There are no fingerprints for these people, no DNA on file for these people, there is nothing that would stop them from doing whatever it is they want to do to u.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Who said Beacon knowingly hired felons? Who said that all of these employees were sent into homes? Did they actually work in the field or admin or shop? What exactly were they convicted of? Is there really 1/3 of 80 employees working for Beacon that have a history? Did King 5 do background checks on all employees? Could there only be 7 with a history? Do we know all the facts? Are all felons created equal? Is there really a child rapist working there? Should we beleive it just because King 5 suggested it? Why wasn’t the name of the child rapist put on TV? Is it true that the owner of Southwest Plumbing has a close relative that works for King 5 (his daughter-in-law)? Is Beacon really sueing King 5?
Are we as a society so mindless that we will accept anything the media says as fact? Use your brain people, there is a lot about this story that just doesn’t add up. If you beleive everything you are told by the media than I have a bridge that I can sell you over and over again!!