1,800 FELONS ON N.J. PUBLIC PAYROLLS, RECORDS SHOW

In New Jersey, It's Not a Crime to Be a Public Employee With A Criminal Record.

More than 1,800 felony offenders are on the public payrolls, from
public works employees to teachers to corrections officers, a
Gannett New Jersey review of payroll and criminal records has found.

While there is a law against the hiring of public school teachers
with certain offenses, such as drug dealing, there is no overall
prohibition in the state that bars local, county and state
governments from hiring offenders, be it murderers or shoplifters.

And even for teachers, the state Department of Education doesn't
routinely run criminal background checks after they are hired.
Gannett found six educators who were apparently convicted of serious
offenses after entering the school system, including a drug offender
and an assistant principal caught carrying a gun.

Five other teachers committed offenses before becoming teachers, but
were hired by schools anyway.

Still, not all convicted felons are pariahs in the government's
eyes, experts and some local officials say. Prohibitions vary from
agency to agency and even government job to government job. Workers
in the most sensitive jobs -- those who care for the elderly
and children, and handle money -- usually face higher standards.
But there is no clear-cut line that shows who should and shouldn't
be hired by government.

Jersey City's public works department, for example, runs a program
that allows former prison inmates to be hired as long as they stay
out of trouble and drug free.

"What do you do with everyone who has paid their debt to society?"
said Oren K. Dabney Sr., chief executive officer, Jersey City
Incinerator Authority. "We can't ostracize their rights forever.
That's how you rebuild communities -- by giving an opportunity to
those who have made mistakes in their lives." In Gannett's
review of 450,000 government employee records and
586,000 conviction records, 1,800 employees had offender records
back to 1982. When narrowed to recent times -- the last 10 years
Gannett found:

There are about 980 state, county and local government workers with
apparent criminal convictions employed as of the end of 2006.

Of those employees, 400 held their jobs at the time of their conviction.

More than a third of the 980 public employees were sentenced to jail
time, and 158 were sentenced to more than a year in jail.

Nearly 400 charges involved illegal drugs, the most common offense.
About 100 charges involved theft.

In addition, there were 58 police and firefighters with apparent
criminal records, including 45 who were convicted after they were
hired. There were also 16 teachers with apparent criminal records,
including five who were fired two weeks ago.

Most individuals are not named in this report because their status
could not be confirmed by employers. Most employers refused to
discuss what they called personnel matters.

Gannett New Jersey examined the data of public employees and
offenders by matching the names and birth date. In a number of
cases, serious charges were down graded to almost traffic level
offenses. In one case a firefighter, indicted on a charge of
aggravated sexual assault, eventually pleaded guilty to "alarming conduct."

The disorderly persons offense led to a fine of $550.

Nine employees of the state's child protection agency were found to
have apparent criminal records that included theft and drug
possession. Andy Williams, a spokesman for the Department of
Children and Families, said he could not confirm or comment on the
nine employees. The employees could not be reached for comment.

State law prohibits the Department of Children and Families from
hiring people convicted of certain crimes against children or
committing violent acts.

For other offenders, the law allows a convict to be hired if he or
she can demonstrate their rehabilitation to the commissioner.

Williams said if prospective or current employees are convicted of
other offenses, officials make a judgment about what to do next.

"Primarily what they look at is the severity of the offense and when
it occurred," Williams said. "Did it happen 20 years ago?
Pre-employment and post-employment, we evaluate it and decide what's
in the best interest of the agency."

State law says courts may order public workers to give up their jobs
if they committed the crime during the course of their employment,
such as stealing from the agency or taking a bribe.

School employees

An assistant junior high school principal convicted of unlawfully
possessing a handgun and an elementary school teacher who pleaded
guilty to child negligence are among 11 school employees statewide
with criminal records that may prohibit them from working in
schools, a review of state records shows.

"Some offenses appear to be disqualifying, some are not," Jon Zlock,
a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said of the
convictions of the 11 employees.

He said Carl Carabelli, manager of the DOE's criminal history review
unit, is currently reviewing the employees' criminal records to
determine if any employee should be dismissed.

"Obviously, we don't want educators with criminal histories in the
classroom," Zlock said.

State law requires that all potential school employees submit to a
criminal background check conducted by the state police and FBI.

That same law orders the education commissioner to declare
ineligible any potential school employee found to have committed
second or first degree offenses, or one of a selected range of other
lesser offenses such as drug distribution or possession.

However, no criminal checks are performed after a school employee is
hired, Zlock said. And it is unclear whether an employee who commits
a crime after being hired is subject to dismissal under the law, Zlock said.

"That's one of the things we're looking into," Zlock said.

The 11 identified by Gannett as having potentially disqualifying
records include eight teachers, an assistant principal and one
employee whose duties are unclear. All were employed in the school
system in 2006.

Of the 11 found by Gannett, 5 of them committed crimes prior to
being hired and apparently after mandatory background checks, records show.

In North Jersey two weeks ago, five school employees were fired
after it was discovered they had criminal records, according to the
Department of Education.

They are:

Douglas Hanania, 28, a teacher in a Jersey City elementary school.
He was convicted in 2002 of distributing marijuana and sentenced to
two years' probation.

James Hargrove, 37, a teacher's aide in a Paterson elementary
school, who was convicted of drug possession in 1998. He was
sentenced to 180 days in jail and placed on five years' probation.

Raymond Nasta, 59, a history teacher at Bergen County Tech in
Teterboro. He was convicted of theft by deception in 1998. He was
placed on five years' probation.

Clint Agnew, 33, a janitor in a Fort Lee school. Agnew pleaded
guilty to child abuse in Ridgefield Park in 1998. He was placed on
one year probation.

Nathan Sproviero, 46, a school messenger in Teaneck who pleaded
guilty to possession of cocaine in 2004. He was placed on one year probation.

Zlock said that during the 2005-2006 school year, the DOE conducted
72,000 pre-employment background checks and that about 1,200
potential school employees were deemed ineligible as a result.

"However, it's clear that there is more that [the DOE] can and
should do to make sure that people who should not be working in
schools are not working in schools," Zlock wrote in an e-mail. "We
are currently developing a proposal on how to best address the many
key issues involved in this matter." Public safety

Corrections officers

Records show 11 senior state corrections officers apparently have
criminal convictions, ranging from simple assault to offensive
touching and ethnic intimidation.

Nine of the officers were convicted after they were hired, records
show. Most had salaries of $68,407 last year.

Corrections department spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer declined to
comment on any apparent charges against the officers, citing
employee confidentiality. But she said corrections officers are
civil service employees who can be suspended or fired depending on
the circumstances of their convictions.

One of the 11 corrections officers was fired after his conviction,
only to have his firing reduced to a 120-day suspension by a state
administrative law judge, according to the 2000 minutes of a state
panel, the Merit System Board, that hears appeals of state employment matters.

State court records show that a senior corrections officer was
charged in 1997 with unlawful possession of a weapon and making
terroristic threats of violence. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to
assault with the intent to intimidate the victim because of his
ethnicity, a fourth-degree crime. He was given one year of probation.

In rare instances, police officers and others can be incorrectly
linked to a criminal by name and circumstances. Gannett found that
one police officer was listed as a convicted cocaine dealer when it
was actually his cousin. The officer, who is not being identified,
said his cousin gave authorities the officer's name and birth date
during one arrest a decade ago. But that false alias provided by his
cousin persists in state police and court records.

Other records show that four members of the Jersey City Police
Department have apparent criminal backgrounds that include threats
to kill and using a false driver's license.

Jersey City Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly said he would
contact the city's lawyers to review the cases.

Bob Cullinane and James W. Prado Roberts of the Gannett New Jersey
bureau contributed to this report.