by Natalie Beck

As a condition for the Republic of Korea to join the United States’ visa waiver program, both countries have signed an accord that would allow for the exchange of criminal records of those traveling to the other country.  According to Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Paul A. Schneider, “This agreement will enable law enforcement officers on both countries to share information to combat crime and enhance our ability to prevent criminal and terrorist travel.”  The types of criminal records shared between the two countries include convictions for serious crimes where the traveler spent a year or more in jail.

GREAT idea.  But I’d be very interested to know how the Department of Homeland Security intends to identify the criminal records of these travelers.  As many of you know, there is no one reliable national database for criminal records. In fact, if you combined all national criminal records databases together into one database, it still wouldn’t house all of the information from every court in the U.S. and even if it did, the accuracy is questionable.  I doubt the DHS will be doing a county criminal search on each traveler to Korea as that could be costly and time consuming.  So, how will the DHS effectively pull this off?  How will Korea?

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed…

South Korea, US Sign Accord on Criminal Data Exchange

Yahoo! Asia News - November 10, 2008

SEOUL, Nov. 10 Asia Pulse - South Korea and the U.S. signed an accord on exchanging criminal records of visitors to each other’s country on Friday, ahead of South Korea’s inclusion into the U.S. visa waiver program slated to take effect on Nov. 17, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

The accord on criminal data exchange was signed by South Korean ambassador to the U.S. Lee Tae-sik and Paul Schneider, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a ceremony in Washington, said the ministry.

The agreement calls for the two sides to share personal information on those who have received a more than one-year jail term for such grave crimes as murder, rape, robbery, deception, arson and human trafficking.

The ministry has said it will ask the National Assembly to ratify the accord later this week.

by Natalie Beck

Can trying to land a job actually land you in jail?  Apparently so!  Well, in Silvester Colonna’s case anyway.  Mr. Colonna attempted to dupe his employer by forging letters from law enforcement officials which stated he had no criminal record after a background check conducted by his employer revealed that he did.  Unfortunately, Mr. Colonna’s grammar and spelling weren’t up to par and his deception was revealed.  He is now being charged with five counts of criminal impersonation and forgery.  I wonder how he’ll explain these blemishes on his record to his next potential employer…

Stafford man charged with forging letters from cops to hide criminal convictions

By Joshua Burd, www.app.com - October 8, 2008

An Ocean County man was charged with forging letters from law-enforcement officials, including the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, to convince a new employer he had a clean record, Union County authorities said.

Silvester Colonna, 53, of the Manahawkin section of Stafford, is accused of trying to hide his past from a Hillside-based company that hired him earlier this year but discovered through background checks that he had several previous criminal convictions.

Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said Colonna denied having a criminal background and forged several letters to prove otherwise. One of the letters purportedly came from Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan and indicated that the Silvester Colonna the company had hired was different from the one with the criminal history, Romankow said.

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by Jason Morris

Job Applicants With Jail Time Served Not Barred from County Employment

By ROY MAYNARD
Staff Writer

Although two Smith County Road and Bridge workers now accused of stealing road materials and fixing private driveways on the county clock both had criminal records, officials say county policy is that jail time is no bar to employment.

On Monday, Roderick Kentrell Edwards, 32, and Ronald Gene Williams, 38, both of Tyler, were arrested on charges of theft of property and abuse of official capacity.

Monday was not the first time the two workers were in trouble with law enforcement. Records show Edwards has been arrested four times since 2000 on charges including aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Williams has also served time in jail, according to Smith County records, for filing false reports to police officers and driving while intoxicated.

Smith County Commissioner JoAnn Fleming said she went to Personnel Director Denise Rebolini and asked how the two were hired.

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by Jason Morris

A Verifier article written by our own Andrew Cashman.

By Andrew Cashman

When working with criminal records every day it’s easy to forget that what we know, understand, and analyze isn’t always as easy for employers to understand. With so many different terms used in the judicial process we know why. Here at employeescreenIQ we like to make our criminal reports simple to read by following a strict formatting process. We also use side-notes to try and explain abnormal terms or phrases. We hope that this article further assists you in understanding some of the scenarios surrounding a non-conviction.

I do have to explain and disclaim that the use of “usually,” “almost always,” and “most of the time” will be frequently used in this writing since most of the time there is almost always an exception to a rule, usually! We’ll now dive a little deeper into the confusion.

There are multiple terms that tell us a criminal charge is a non-conviction. The terms used in any given court jurisdiction around the country can vary while essentially meaning the same thing. The following terms are examples of commonly used court rulings that mean a case is a straight non-conviction, or a non-conviction without stipulations:

• Not Guilty
• Dismissed
• Nolle Prosequi (Nolle Prosse)
• No Bill
• No True Bill
• No Action
• Acquitted

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