Ohio is for Misdemeanors

Duey and Justin have finally found their ideal candidate in Nancy.  They offered her the position and she enthusiastically accepted.  She informed Duey and Justin she would be able to start in a couple of weeks once she moved the last of her belongings out of her house in Ohio.  Duey and Justin set a start date and felt confident that they made the right choice in hiring Nancy. 
    
However, a few days later they received a monthly notification from Commercial Investigations Vigilant US service.  Nancy had been charged with a misdemeanor in Ohio!  Duey and Justin were shocked.  Luckily, they opted to use Vigilant US monitoring which monitors employee arrests even after they have been hired.  Duey and Justin asked Sue to reach out to Commercial Investigations to get clarification on what this meant for their new hire.

“We received a Vigilant US notification about our new hire Nancy, what does this mean?”

One of CI’s investigators informed Sue that Vigilant US alerts clients of arrests for employees after being hired, and throughout their employment.  It monitors the Multijurisdictional Criminal Database, National Sex Offender, and Anti-Terrorist Lists.  This high-speed Multijurisdictional search is compiled from multiple sources consisting of court records, incarceration records, prison and inmate records, probation, parole, release information, arrest data, and warrants.  The investigator went on to inform Sue that Nancy was charged with leaving her trashcans out on the curb, which is actually a misdemeanor in Ohio!  In fact all offenses in Ohio are classified as either misdemeanors or felonies. 

Sue reported the charge against Nancy back to Duey and Justin.  Duey couldn’t believe it.  “All she did was left her trash cans out?”  Sue explained how many minor offenses that are not misdemeanors in other states, such as New York, are classified as misdemeanors in Ohio.  “I guess that’s not too bad then; we should still be able to keep her on,” Duey remarked.

But Justin suddenly remembered something.  “Duey, our main client COPS will not accept employees with any criminal background whatsoever.  If we choose to keep Nancy, it would be very difficult for us to find assignments for her since the majority of our assignments are for that particular client.” 

Justin decided to give Nancy a call and get a better explanation from her about what happened in Ohio.  Nancy explained, “We were removing a lot of trash from my house during the move and my ex-husband promised to bring the trash cans back in from the curb.  He did not end up doing that.  Because the house is in my name, I was charged with the misdemeanor of leaving the trash cans out at the curb.”  Justin felt bad for Nancy because this did not seem like a serious offense, but because it occurred in Ohio it was still a misdemeanor. 

Duey then decided to call Rob Berry, their liaison at COPS, to find out if Nancy’s misdemeanor would be a problem assigning her work for COPS.  Duey explained everything that Nancy had explained to Justin on the phone about the incident. 
    
“My policy is not to hire criminals.  I will not be able to give any assignments to Nancy because of her misdemeanor.  If you continue to hire criminals, I will have to reconsider my contract with you.”

Justin and Duey are torn because they do not want to risk their contract with COPS.  Doing so would eliminate a lot of their business.  However, they do not want to fire Nancy for what they consider a very minimal offense that has no effect on her ability to do the job for which she was hired. 

What will Justin and Duey do?

Will COPS keep their contract with Justin and Duey?

Find out in the next issue!