Rapist worked at L.A. County hospitals despite reviews of record

By Garrett Therolf

Jan. 31, 2009 12 AM PT

A man who raped women as an on-duty Los Angeles police officer, threatening them with arrest and jail if they did not submit, was hired by Los Angeles County as an X-ray technologist after he got out of prison, even though the job would leave him working alone and unsupervised with female patients.

His hiring at County-USC Medical Center a decade ago was not an oversight.

The man -- whose actions cost the city of Los Angeles nearly $300,000 in settlements for his victims -- disclosed his criminal history in his county job application. Both the head of hospital human resources and a chief aide then signed papers that said there was no reason his convictions for rape should prevent him from doing the job, according to newly obtained records and interviews.

It would not be the last time managers in the county health department would evaluate his criminal record. Each time he was promoted, someone at a management level reviewed his history. It was reviewed again in 2004, when he transferred to Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, then known as Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

County officials quietly fired Gariner Beasley, 48, last August -- a month after The Times uncovered the widespread incidence of serious criminal histories among King’s staff -- saying managers had erred repeatedly in allowing him to be hired and remain on the job.

The employment of a convicted rapist at a hospital indicates a significant breakdown in the county’s vetting of health department staffers, county officials said. Perhaps most seriously, it raises questions about how many more county employees have criminal histories incompatible with their jobs, something county supervisors have yet to address.

“We had real pinheads working for us,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina, referring to managers who cleared the hires. The county , including Beasley, after the findings became public.

Details of his case were obtained by The Times after Beasley, who had no record of disciplinary problems as a county employee, appealed his termination from his $73,000-a-year job and his name became public. The disclosure of his identity allowed the first in-depth look at any of the 152 workers found to have criminal histories at King.

When The Times reported that 11% of employees undergoing new background checks had criminal histories, Los Angeles County supervisors portrayed the management breakdown as isolated to King. They offered only scant details of the offenses and blocked repeated efforts by The Times to obtain records identifying the crimes and job titles held by the former offenders, citing the employees’ privacy rights.

But Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who took office in December, said the fact that Beasley was initially hired by County-USC officials demonstrated “systemic” failings. He said county officials need to think hard about whether the criminal histories of employees at all health facilities need to be reexamined.

“The public is right to expect the highest level of care at the county health facilities,” Ridley-Thomas said, adding that he believes that county officials, to the fullest extent possible, should release information about the jobs and crimes of known offenders.

Beasley’s history

The large-scale review of the King employees happened only because the hospital was being closed and its workers reassigned. Criminal background checks on county employees occur only when someone is hired, promoted or transferred.

In Beasley’s termination letter, Christopher Arevalo, King’s interim chief executive, said Beasley’s criminal convictions were “incompatible” with a job that left him alone with patients in “very vulnerable and compromised positions.”

Beasley’s responsibilities, the letter noted, included interacting with obstetric and mammography patients. His employment, Arevalo said, “may very well potentially expose the county to liability and unnecessary scrutiny . . . and could jeopardize our health facilities’ licensing/accreditation.”

In an interview last summer, Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke acknowledged that one employee had been convicted of rape, but suggested the case might have been an instance of statutory rape between consenting teenagers.

But Beasley’s case -- the only rape conviction identified by The Times -- was far different, according to court records and one of his victims.

The woman, now 46, spoke on the condition that The Times identify her by her nickname Chee Chee. At the time of the 1991 attack, she worked as a prostitute south of downtown Los Angeles.

Just after 6 a.m. one day, Beasley, in uniform, honked at her from his squad car as she walked on South Figueroa Street.

“He yelled, ‘Come here, I need to talk to you,’ ” she said. “He said I had a $200,000 warrant on me, which was a total lie. He said, ‘You better give me something to make this go away.’ ”

He ordered her into the passenger seat, removed his badge and drove her to a back alley where he popped the trunk so they would not be seen through the rear window, she said.

“What he did to me was terrible,” she said. “I just remember how he thought he was a great comedian, patting me on the knee after he was finished with me. He said with a chuckle, ‘Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’ And there I was curled over in tears.”

Beasley was arrested in January 1992 in connection with an assault on another woman, according to court records of his case. In June 1992, he was charged with assaulting four women. In a deal with prosecutors, Beasley pleaded no contest to the rape under the color of authority of two women, including Chee Chee, according to court records.

He was sentenced to three years in prison and paroled in January 1994. That same year the city of Los Angeles paid Chee Chee and another victim $290,000, with Deputy City Atty. Cory Brente noting that “there is clear legal precedent for the city being held liable for the acts of Officer Beasley.”

Chee Chee said Beasley had been caught after he accidentally grazed a woman with a gunshot during another rape. She said investigators looking into that incident began interviewing other women and she came forward.

“Once he was no longer on the street, only then did I not fear him,” she said.

The Times was unable to confirm Chee Chee’s account of the shooting. The transcript of his criminal proceedings has been destroyed, which court officials said is routine in non-death penalty cases more than a decade old. The account Chee Chee gave of her assault was also detailed in the lawsuit the city settled 14 years ago.

Chee Chee said she was shocked to learn her rapist had been working for the county for years in a position that left him alone with female patients.

Marvin Mathis, who is representing Beasley in his termination appeal, said he will argue that Beasley should be reinstated because of his positive work evaluations.

“It’s just a tragedy. He was a go-to person for the department. They knew about his history. Every time he was promoted or transferred, he filled out an application and disclosed it. There was a discussion each time,” Mathis said.

Data not provided

Mathis said he believes that Beasley may have been unfairly targeted because he is black.

“We just think it’s odd that the county is focused on cleaning up Martin Luther King hospital and not the others as well,” he said.

County officials have declined to provide information that would shed light on managers’ rationale for Beasley’s hiring, promotion and transfer.

“I really couldn’t tell you,” said John Schunhoff, interim director of the county’s Department of Health Services. “I don’t know.”

A recent report by the county Auditor-Controller said some King employees with criminal histories were retained in part because managers took pity on their economic situation.

Schunhoff identified Human Resources Director David Zamorano and a lieutenant, Robert Navarro, as the County-USC officials who originally permitted Beasley’s hiring despite his criminal history. Both are now retired and could not be reached for comment.

No one has been disciplined for the handling of the case, and the county has not broadened its review of criminal histories beyond King since Beasley’s case came to light, Schunhoff said.

Five county bureaucrats, ranging from very high-ranking to mid-level, privately said Supervisor Burke helped set the tone for hiring and retaining people with criminal histories when she campaigned to remove a question on county forms asking applicants if they had ever been convicted of a crime.

The 2006 effort to “ban the box” failed after Human Resources Director Mike Henry told the board of supervisors that he worried that criminal histories might fall through the cracks if they were not vetted upfront.

Burke, who represented the district that includes King until she retired in December, declined to comment for this story.

Her proposal, supported by state Sen. Gloria Romero, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, the American Civil Liberties Union and prisoner reentry programs, argued that criminal records should be disclosed later in the application process, after applicants had the opportunity to explain their abilities.

ACLU officials said their support for Burke’s measure was never intended to clear the way for the county to employ someone with Beasley’s record.

“He clearly should not have been hired,” said Eric Greene, senior policy advisor for the ACLU of Southern California. “In no way did we advocate hiring people whose crimes conflict with the job.”

At the time of the 2006 debate, the possibility that a large number of people with criminal histories could make it past screeners seemed far-fetched.

“I assume that the odds of anybody with a criminal record getting a job with anybody was slim or none,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said at a board meeting. “I think most people probably feel the same way because otherwise, why are we asking?”

Researchers Vicki Gallay, Scott Wilson and Robin Mayper contributed to this report.

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