The Background Investigator is your #1 resource for everything you want to know about background checks, pre-employment screening, and due diligence.

1. Volume 13 Number 10
October 2013
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 164
MORTONGROVE, IL
Really—
It’s not that
Complicated!
by Steve Brownstein
Compliancy issues need to be better
defined to fully understand the issues
that beset a pre-employment screening
company.
Actually, the issues are quite clear and
simple - easy to understand.
Privacy laws cover personal data. That
is information about an individual regardless of where it is stored. Many
countries enacted privacy data regulations to protect the individual. Remember that, it is to protect the individual
and not the government.
Personal data is about the person. To
access another's personal data what is
needed is consent. That is it. There is no
regulation to prevent any individual
from giving you their information.
There is no regulation preventing an
individual to give you the right to any
their information. Anywhere.
Full Article on Page 2
Ontario Courts Read The Riot Act
Blasted for withholding information
Pasay City Court, Metro Manila, Philippines
Photograph by Steven Brownstein
Story on page 3
Steven
Brownstein
Report: FBI Using Drones for 7 Years
Spying on Americans? Who Cares?
Section 2
“On the road”

2. Straightline
Simplifies
Compliancy
Issues Between
Personal Data
And Information
Regulation
by Steve Brownstein
Compliancy issues need to
be better defined to fully
understand the issues that
beset a pre-employment
screening company.
Actually, the issues are
quite clear and simple easy to understand.
Privacy laws cover personal data. That is information about an individual
regardless of where it is
stored. Many countries enacted privacy data regulations to protect the individual. Remember that, it is to
protect the individual and
not the government.
Personal data is about the
person. To access another's
personal data what is needed is consent. That is it.
There is no regulation to
prevent any individual from
giving you their information. There is no regulation preventing an individual to give you the right to
any their information. Anywhere.
Perhaps the one issue that
confuses pre-employment
screeners the most is infor-
mation regulation. InforEditorial: Navy
mation regulation is simply
that - the regulation of dis- Case Shows
semination of information Why Criminal
by a government to whomRecords Vital
ever the regulation is directed, business or person- by Albuquerque Journal Editorial
al. That is, such as, not al- Board
lowing a third party access
It’s a worst-case scenario
to another's information.
of expunging criminal recThe reasons for the regu- ords, and the state Legislalations are varied. The reg- ture should take note.
ulations can be to protect
the government, as in a dic- Aaron Alexis, better
known as the Washington
tatorship, or the governNavy Yard shooter, lied
ment can regulate information under the pretext of about a previous arrest in
his application for a Navy
protecting the individual.
security clearance. Investigators found it, then deleted
Regardless, there is no
the fact he used a gun.
regulation anywhere that
prohibits an individual
So Alexis got his clearfrom allowing another the
ance. And he went on to
access to their information.
mow down 12 people who
In other words, a person
can hand you any document had simply gone to work
of theirs they please. Their Sept. 16.
is no regulation anywhere
In 2007, 2009 and 2012,
barring that.
New Mexico lawmakers
have approved erasing
Data privacy and information regulation are two some criminal records under the rationales the greatseparate things. It is only
when one lumps data priva- er good would be served by
protecting the names of viccy incorrectly with information regulation or vice- tims of identity theft who
had been wrongly arrested,
versa that confusion.2+++++++++++++++++++ of individuals who had
+++++++++++++++++++ made lone misdemeanor
errors of youthful indiscre+++ sets in.
tion, of honest folks who
had been wrongly accused.
more to character than a
government-sanctioned
eraser.
Texas. The information will
be reformatted and republished online following
open practice standards.
Voters need to be able to
fully examine a candidate’s
past. Victims need to have
an official record of what
was done to them. And, as
the Navy yard shooting
shows, employers need to
be able to do thorough
criminal background
checks.
Once the project is complete, content will be more
accessible to non-legal audiences, including journalists and the general public.
The remainder of state supreme and federal appellate
courts in the U.S. will receive a similar treatment
over the next five years
When Alexis appeared in provided additional funding
court, charged with shoot- is raised. The audio recording out a set of tires, charg- ings and digital content will
be available through indies against him were dismissed, and he believed the vidual websites for each
court and a mobile app.
incident was erased from
his record. Because of a
Navy omission, it essentially was. And that left his coworkers at mortal risk.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has recommended beefing up background checks
with all police reports – not
just arrests or convictions.
New Mexico lawmakers
should not go in the other
direction.
Enhancing
Public Access To
Legal Data
In a few years, simplified
case summaries, judicial
opinions and audio recordings from all federal appellate and state supreme
courts could be accessible
at the touch of a button.
Contact:
Steven
Brownstein
Box 10001
Saipan, MP 96950
1-670-256-7000
findcrime@thebackgroundinvestigator.com
Or
findcrime@aol.com
Yet every proposal went
much further, wiping out
records if charges were
dropped, a defendant entered a pre-prosecution proThe Oyez Project at IIT
gram, was acquitted or
Chicago-Kent College of
even convicted of DWI and
Law will spearhead the efsome violent felonies.
fort, aggregating docuEach proposal was wisely ments and media from
Meet Steven Brownstein
vetoed by the governor; the courts in California, FloriOn LinkedIn
da, Illinois, New York and
first two by Bill Richardson, the last by Susana
PUBLISHER
Steven Brownstein
Martinez. Because they,
like even the most forgivCONTRIBUTORS:
ing and compassionate
Mike Sankey, Les Rosen, Dennis Brownstein, Derek Hinton, Jamie Brownstein,
Michael Brownstein
members of society, recognized innocence is not the
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Pasay City Court, Metro Manila Philippines
only reason a case is disCOVER PHOTOGRAPHER:
missed or a prosecution
Steven Brownstein
lost, that many misdemeanPURPOSE: “Dedicated to pre-employment screenings everywhere”
or convictions start out as
felony charges, that offendThe Background Investigator is published by Steven Brownstein, LLC,
ers can petition for pardon
PMB 1007, Box 10001, Saipan, MP 96950. Phone: 670-256-7000. Copyright
or clemency, and that learn- 2013 by Steven Brownstein. Some material in this publication must not be reproduced by any method without the written permission of the copyright holder.
ing from mistakes speaks

3. Straightline
International
Offers Help With
Understanding
International
Compliance
by Steve Brownstein
Straightline International
is introducing a new service
allowing pre-employment
screening companies access
to labor and employment
lawyers from various countries worldwide.
This service is being added because of the confusion
surrounding privacy data
and information regulation.
Most likely background
checking checking companies have issues with information regulation - that is,
what is allowed for third
parties to directly access
and to what extent that information can be processed
and used,
This is not to be confused
with privacy data, though
that service will be avaailble, too. Privacy data is
merely the consent of the
individual to the use of
their personal data. Note:
Remember, consent is the
overriding derivative.
Straightline International
believes this service will be
most useful and beneficial
for pre-employment screening firms to navigate the
international waters allowing a more fluid and pro-
ductive use of global infor- very different case loads,
mation.
sizes and resources of different court locations.”
Look to their Web Site
Ministry staff have rebeginning November 1st,
2013 for continous updates ceived numerous comto their legal resource data- plaints in recent months
from the Toronto Star and
base.
other media outlets whose
Ontario Courts attempts to access information about criminal
Read The Riot
charges and convictions
have been rebuffed. While
Act
the current policy makes it
clear that information from
The Ministry of the Attorcourt hearings should be
ney General is reviewing its
made public, some staff
policies on media access to
have denied that inforcriminal court records in a
mation because of a guidebid to make the province’s
line that forbids them from
justice system more open
releasing a “general crimiand transparent.
nal record.”
An ongoing Star investigation has found court staff
in Ontario are increasingly
denying public access to
records that legal experts
say should be readily available.
Media lawyers and privacy experts say these actions
appear to run afoul of the
country’s “open court”
principle.
“The openness of the
court is essential to the
The ministry, in consultacredibility to the court as a
tion with the province’s
democratic institution,”
chief justices, is checking
said Dan Burnett, president
to see if policies must be
of the Canadian Media
clarified to ensure court
Lawyers Association.
staff are properly applying
the law.
Procedural barriers to accessing public court records
“In some instances exist“dilute an absolutely fundaing policies are not clearly
mental attribute of our jusenough expressed and as a
tice system,” he said.
result differing practices
can develop,” a ministry
Access to these historical
spokeswoman said in a
criminal information is one
statement. “The ministry
of several issues the miniscontinues to work to protry is reviewing, according
vide as much consistency in
to a senior official providpolicies and procedures as
ing a briefing on backpossible in courts across the
ground.
province, recognizing the
said. “When information is
In May, journalists began withheld from a journalist,
information is being withmaking requests at courtheld from the public by exhouses across the city for
records on previous crimi- tension.”
nal convictions of associWhen told of the difficulates of Mayor Rob Ford as
part of the paper’s ongoing ties obtaining court records
investigation. Their crimes without specific details in
included assaulting women, an interview last week, Ondrug possession and threat- tario’s top privacy watchdog was concerned by court
ening death.
staff’s practice of not reThe records, known with- leasing the information.
in courthouse walls as “the
“That offends me because
information,” feature a
brief synopsis of the charg- people hide behind privacy.
es and, if guilty, the punish- That has nothing to do with
ment. It is the Coles Notes privacy. You have to know
to what happened in a trial. the date (and other specifics
about the offence) and if
However, the attempts to you know that you can get
the information?” said Ann
access some of these records were denied because Cavoukian, Ontario’s Inforits applications were miss- mation and Privacy Commissioner.
ing required information,
such as the exact date of
“Ultimately, the inforconviction. Court staff,
who could verify the date mation is accessible if you
have the right key.”
with a few taps of a keyboard, refused to help, citThe ministry said it has
ing ministry policy.
reviewed its policy on an
ongoing basis since first
Journalists in Ontario
have often been ensnared in posting it online in 2007.
Since then, it’s made it easthis kind of courthouse
Catch-22, said Lisa Taylor, ier to access records covered by certain publication
a lawyer and professor at
bans and future court dates
Ryerson University’s
for youth.
School of Journalism.
The ministry’s review is
“You can’t get the file
without the information and ongoing and any policy
changes are expected to be
you can’t get the information without the damned rolled out in waves.
file,” Taylor said. “It’s
tougher in Ontario than in
most other jurisdictions in
Canada.”
Historical criminal records
contain information that
could have been readily
reported had a journalist
been in the courtroom, she
said. However, in many
instances, the public’s interest in a matter arises after the case is done, she
said.
Taylor used the hypothetical example of a driver
who recorded his 12th
drunk driving offence,
making his first unremarkable conviction newsworthy.
“The journalist is the surrogate for the public,” she

4. Includes London city-wide magistrate court checks
When you REALLY need
something done, call
STEVEN
BROWNSTEIN
POINT TO POINT SERVICE
XR2
Better Than The
Police
-/-/-/-/-/Straightline
International’s
Puerto Rico search
will get you the hits
the police and courts
miss.
Criminal Search
PUERTO RICO
The ‘XR2’ Puerto Rico search is insurance that you are
getting the best possible results.
We’ve all been doing this long enough...
Shouldn’t you be offering your clients the best?
Call 1-866-909-6678
Straightline International
info@search4crime.com
Alberta
Nova Scotia
British Columbia
Ontario
Manitoba
Prince Edward Islands
New Brunswick
Quebec
New Foundland
Saskatchewan
Northwest Territories
Yukon Territories

5. The Public Record Update
A Service from BRB Publications, Inc.
National Average - Court Fees for Name Searches
BRB Publications recently completed a statistical analysis to determine the national average of fees charged by court personnel for performing a
name search of either the criminal or civil docket. The study included 4,731 criminal courts and 4,815 civil courts at the county level. Per the
stats below, quite a few courts (over 20%) refuse to perform a name search for the public. They will refer a requester to an online system or a
state repository. Of course, if a case number is given the court will pull the file.
Guidelines Used on the Analysis:
If the court charged by the year, seven years was used as the baseline.
If the court's fee is based on an hourly rate, an average of 12 minutes per search was used as the baseline.
Since the search fee in some courts is sometimes based on the number of case files to pull (hits), the study included 3 different fee levels: if the
name search resulted in no hits, with one hit, and with 3 hits.
Criminal Court Results
Total number of courts surveyed:
Courts willing to do a name search:
National average fee if no hits:
4,731
3,566 (75.4%)
$8.17
Average fee if one hit:
$8.35
Average fee if three hits:
$8.66
Courts that perform name search for free:
Cost to do national search:
1,091 (23%)
$29,105.10
Civil Court Results
Total number of courts surveyed:
Courts willing to do a name search:
National average fee if no hits:
4,815
3,716 (77%)
$6.85
Average fee if one hit:
$6.98
Average fee if three hits:
$7.23
Courts that perform name search for free:
Cost to do national search:
1,098 (22.8%)
$25,451.25
Counties and Courts with Highest Fees in U.S.
The county with the highest fee for a name search for either a civil or criminal record is Cook County IL. The fee is $9.00 per year searched or
$63 for a 7 year search. The Superior Court in Cochise County AZ charges $27 per 5 years searched, so a 7-year search costs $54. Also, 44
counties in IL charge $6.00 per name per year making the fee for a 7-year search at $42.00.
When the court tacks on additional fees to pull case files - such as the 3 hit fee reviewed above - the courts with the highest fees are 13 (or more)
Justice Courts located in these Arizona counties: Cochise, Coconino, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo, Pinal, and Yavapai. The search fee is $25.00 per
name plus $25.00 for each case file that needs to be viewed. (The case file fee is charged even if the case number is already known.) Thus a single request for a name search that necessitates the need to pull 3 case files will cost $100 - or nearly 12 times the national average. The practice
of charging this fee seems to fluctuate at times though, depending on which clerk doing the search or if the judge is asked "what is the fee?" The
statute is somewhat unclear thus the fee is often left for local interpretation.
The information for this study was taken from the Public Record Research System (PRRS).
We welcome your comments and observations about The Public Record Update
Please address your comments to Michael Sankey at mike@brbpublications.com
Making copies of any part of the Public Record Update© for any purpose other than your own personal use
is prohibited unless written authorization is obtained from BRB Publications. Phone - 480-829-7475
Public Record Retriever Network - www.prrn.us
The CRA Help Desk - www.CRAHelpDesk.com
BRB's Free Public Record Resource Center - www.brbpublications.com/pubrecsites.asp
Motor Vehicle Record Decoder - www.mvrdecoder.com
BRB's Public Record Blog - www.publicrecordsblog.net
BRB's Bookstore - www.brbpublications.com/books
BRB's Public Record Blog - www.publicrecordsblog.net

6. Les Rosen’s
Corner
A monthly column
By Lester Rosen,
Attorney at Law
employer that drug tested
opposed to 45.9 percent of
white workers.
•Younger African American males living in nonurban areas and likely
working “blue collar” jobs
were associated with reporting of workplace level
drug testing.
•African Americans were
associated with reporting of
workplace level drug testing among executive/
administrative/managerial/
financial workers and technicians/related support occupations.
•Hispanics were associated
with reporting of workplace
level drug testing among
technicians/related support
occupations.
Workplace Drug
Testing More
Common Among
The study – authored by
African American
William C. Becker MD,
Workers Study Finds Salimah Meghani PhD,
Risk: Strategies For Background Checks After Hiring’ at an ASIS Golden
Gate Chapter meeting held
at Skywalker Ranch on Lucas Valley Road in Marin
County, California.
“Due diligence does not
stop once an applicant is
hired,” explains Rosen, author of ‘The Safe Hiring
Manual’ and a frequent presenter nationwide on issues
involving due diligence as
part of the ‘ESR Speaks’
training program. “An organization may have procedures for pre-employment
background checks, but
what duties and tools do
employers have after someone is hired and on the
job?”
September 2013
Employment
Jeanette M. Tetrault MD,
African American workers and David A. Fiellin MD – Situation Report from
DOL Postponed
are 17 percent more likely found that “racial/ethnic
Due to Government
than white workers to redifferences in report of
port working for employers workplace drug testing ex- Shutdown
that perform workplace
drug testing, according to a
study from the Yale School
of Medicine published in
the Early View of the
American Journal on Addictions available at http://
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/10.1111/j.15210391.2013.12109.x/
abstract.
The study – ‘Racial/ethnic
differences in report of
drug testing practices at the
workplace level in the U.S.’
– analyzed nearly 70,000
responses from the 2008–
2010 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health for
the relationship between
race and ethnicity in workplace drug testing among
white, Hispanic, and African American workers 18
years or older. The results
of the study include the following:
•Among 69,163 respondents, 48.2 percent reported
employment in a workplace
that performs drug testing.
•Of the 48.2 percent reporting workplace drug
testing, 63.6 percent of African American workers
reported working for an
ist within and across various occupations” and also
“highlights the potential
bias that can be introduced
when drug testing policies
are not implemented in a
universal fashion,” according to its authors.
The U.S. Department of
Labor (DOL) has postponed the release the September 2013 Employment
Situation report compiled
by the DOL’s Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) originally planned for Friday,
October 4, 2013 “due to the
Background Check
Expert Lester Rosen lapse in funding” and an
alternative release date has
Speaks to ASIS
not yet been scheduled, acGolden Gate Chapter cording to news release
available at http://
Attorney Lester Rosen,
www.dol.gov/opa/media/
Founder and CEO of San
press/opa/
Francisco Bay area backOPA20132030.htm.
ground check firm Employment Screening ReThe full statement on the
sources® (ESR), will dis- release of September 2013
cuss ‘Reducing The Insider employment numbers from
the DOL reads as follows:
“Due to the lapse in funding, the Employment Situation release which provides
data on employment during
the month of September,
compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau
of Labor Statistics, will not
be issued as scheduled on
Friday, October 4, 2013.
An alternative release date
has not been scheduled.
The Employment Situation
release includes the unemployment rate (from the
household survey) and payroll employment (from the
business establishment survey).”
NAPBS
International
Committee
Readies RFP For
USA Companies
Seeking
Background
Screener
ing companies to claim non
-existent offices, in other
words, as one Lynwood,
Washington international
criminal record provider
put it, "With companies we
have affiliations with." The
other record searching
company voting in favor of
listing fictitious offices was
a Florida based company.
Straightline International's
representative in attendance, Steven Brownstein,
and the majority of those
present were shocked and
soundly voted down the
proposal claiming that faking international presence
would only taint our industry.
A look at one of the criminal record company's Web
Site, the Lynwood, Washington based company in
favor of non-existent offices as their own, lists just
that on their Web Site - offices of other companies
not theirs and temporary
business offices as if they
were their own.
Other proposals were
Recently, at the NAPBS changes to the Safe Harbor,
annual conference, the in- privacy data, and inforternational committee met, mation regulation quesabout 20 attendees in all, to tions.
discuss the upcoming reAdditionally, Bob
lease of an RFP proposal
template for USA compa- Capwell and Barry Nixon,
nies to request international are to be commended as
beacons of reason against
work.
outlandish proposals
Many foreign nationals
were present, but most of
the comments were from
What is a good
USA criminal record procriminal
viders.
record search?
Two of them, and one preemployment screening
firm, even voted for allow-
You can count on
Steven Brownstein and Straightline International

7. required candidates to submit a statement on legal
proceedings against them,
even though the lottery is
not among the bodies allowed by law to receive
such information. The tender committee decided Dayan did not meet the minimal criteria for the tender,
A special panel of seven as he was investigated on
Supreme Court justices will bribery charges relating to a
previous lottery tender in
soon decide whether it is
2004. After Mifal Hapayis
legal for an employer to
demand the disclosure of a banned Dayan, the case
against him was closed in
job applicant’s criminal
2009 for a lack of evidence.
record, and whether such
disclosure can be required Dayan went to court against
the national lottery, asking
in other circumstances,
such as a condition for bid- for NIS 13 million in damages. The District Court
ding on a tender.
ruled against him, as did
The Supreme Court ruled the Supreme Court on his
appeal.
in February that such demands were legal, but now
The Public Defender's Ofthe new, expanded panel,
headed by Supreme Court fice also submitted an opinion in the case, saying the
President Asher Grunis,
court's ruling contradicts
will rehear the case. Last
week Attorney General Ye- the law on the criminal dahuda Weinstein submitted tabase records, and causes
serous damage to the prehis opinion, in which he
states that such a demand - sumption of innocence.
including for disclosure of
an applicant’s criminal record or any open criminal
Cedar Rapids
investigations, including
Offering Tenant
ones that never even
reached the indictment
Background
stage - should be legally
Checks For
barred. However, Weinstein did write that an em- Landlords
ployer should be allowed to
ask a candidate about any
The Cedar Rapids Police
criminal past in a job interDepartment is now offering
view.
$8 background checks for
Cedar Rapids landlords.
In the February ruling, the
Supreme Court allowed
The program is called Sesuch requests for a declaracure and Friendly Environtion on a criminal record,
ment for Cedar Rapids, or
even though by law the emSAFE-CR, and will be
ployer is not allowed access
managed by the police deto such records. The court
partment.
ruled that the right to privacy and the state's interest in
The program officially
rehabilitating prisoners was
kicked off on Oct. 1, but
offset by the rights of emthe police department is
ployers and others to prooffering the service early.
tect themselves and the
public "from unreasonable
City code requires that
risks."
Landlord Business Permit
Holders perform backThe case being reheard
ground checks on all adults
involves an appeal by Rawho newly occupy a rental
fael Dayan, who participatunit.
ed in a tender published by
the Mifal Hapayis national
At a minimum, the backlottery to choose regional
ground checks require redistributors. Mifal Hapayis
Israeli Supreme
Court To Rule
On Demand For
Disclosure Of
Criminal Record
(Again)
ments/police/Pages/
SafeCR.aspx. - See more
at: http://
thegazette.com/2013/09/09/
cedar-rapids-offeringtenant-background-checksThe SAFE-CR check will for-landlords/
also include Cedar Rapids #sthash.fs6R45vD.dpuf
arrest information not included in the Iowa Courts
Online report and will indicate if the tenant has any
Download
active warrants in Iowa.
ports of activity from Iowa
Courts Online, the Iowa
Sex Offender Registry and
the National Sex Offender
Registry.
Registered landlords with
a valid Landlord Business
Permit can access the program at http://www.cedarrapids.org/government/
depart-
The Background Investigator
Current Edition
(and archive, too!)
www.thebackgroundinvestigator.com
Saipan Searches
From $15*
*CNMI Traffic Clearance
Certificate
Straightline Int’l
+18669096678
“You can do it
yourself, wait in line or
we can”
—Straightline

8. Dennis
Brownstein’s
Extreme Court
News
http://extremecourtnews.blogspot.com/
Marijuana
Grower Killed
by Own Booby
Trap
nia, just a hop away from a
nationally recognized ice
cream maker - for those
that do not know, I am an
ice cream queen.
I consider this particular
manufacturer to be one of
the best in their industry
because of the care that
they take in their products.
A 50-year-old town man I regularly see the cows
died after he apparently be- that provide the cream.
came the victim of booby
They eat the freshest grass
traps he had set to protect
available.
marijuana plants on his
This attention to detail
comes out in the quality of
their products.
Download
The Background Investigator
Current Edition
(and archive, too!)
www.thebackgroundinvestigator.com
NYPD Memo:
Indians Are
Asian
property, Albany County
Sheriff Craig D. Apple
said.
Daniel R. Ricketts was
driving an ATV in the
New York City police officers received a lesson in backyard of his property
demography Monday in the around 2:30 p.m. Saturday
form of a memo clarifying when was nearly decapitatthe difference between Na- ed after running into a fine,
tive Americans and Asian nearly invisible wire that
was among the fortificaIndians.
tions set up around four
Commissioner Ray Kelly large marijuana plants, Apple said.
told NYPD officers that
"incorrect racial identification impacts the department's data collection" in
Robin's
the memo.
Rumination
Apparently in a modest
number of reports, crime
victims were alternatively
described as Asian and
American Indian. The mistake was discovered by the
Quality Assurance Division, reports the New York
Daily News.
I
scream, you scream, we all
scream for ...
I'm lucky to live and work
in south central Pennsylva-
ID Check or Makeover?

9. Graffiti Laws
Could Turn
Hopscotch
Drawing Into
Criminal Offense
A new proposed antigraffiti law in New South
Wales Parliament would
make any intentional mark
on any premise or property
without the permission of
the owner an offense, according to Australia’s ABC
Media.
Perhaps in an effort to
teach children good manners, Shoebridge said
“unless the kids get the
consent of the local council
they’re committing an offense.”
If children get caught by
authorities they can face a
$440 fine, which Shoebridge says is “just nonsense.”
Attorney-General Greg
Smith said drawing in
chalk will technically be an
offense, but that while poHow strict would this law
lice always will have the
be? It would include the
discretion about whether to
hopscotch squares drawn
press charges.
on the sidewalks we all remember from our childSmith thinks it will be unhoods.
likely that police will be
citing children for drawing
Greens Party member Dain chalk on sidewalks.
vid Shoebridge told ABC
Media there is no requirement in the legislation for a 'Revenge Porn'
mark to be permanent or
Posters Face Jail
difficult to remove, meanTime Under New
ing yes, the chalk hopscotch squares or handball California Law
courts drawn on footpaths
and sidewalks would be
Those who engage in
considered as punishable
"revenge porn" -- humiliatoffenses.
“destroying people's lives.”
ing ex-romantic partners
online -- now face jail time
The bill that Brown
and fines under a law
signed into law on Tuessigned by Gov. Jerry
day, SB 255, takes effect
Brown.
immediately.
Under the bill by Sen. An"Until now, there was no
thony Cannella (R-Ceres),
those convicted of illegally tool for law enforcement to
distributing private images protect victims," Cannella
with the intent to harass or said. "Too many have had
their lives upended because
annoy face up to six
months in jail and a fine of of an action of another that
they trusted."
up to $1,000.
viral.
Her ex-boyfriend contends that the picture got
out because his computer
was hacked, but however it
happened, the damage was
done.
Less than a year later, Jacobs' photo was on some
200 websites, along with
her name, email address
and place of business, despite changing her phone
The effort to criminalize number and name, quitting
Cannella contended that
her job and unsucessfully
without the law, authorities the practice gained steam
have had "no tools to com- after Holly Jacobs broke up trying to get the photos rebat revenge porn or cyber- with her boyfriend, only to moved. She started a webfind a naked picture of her- site with a petition drive for
revenge.” Electronically
legislative action.
distributing or posting nude self posted on her Facepictures of an ex-romantic book page. The post went
partner
on the
Internet
after a
breakup
to shame
the person in
public is,
he said,

10. Kadman believes that
things are not as bad as the
police brass say and that
teens are “being given a
bad name.” He concedes
the existence of juvenile
Last year nine minors
crime but says: “the police
from a city in the south
themselves show a decline
were taken to court. The
in juvenile crime over the
charge? Jumping around in
past decade and at the same
an elevator. We can undertime talk about it in terms
stand that they were botherof Iran.”
ing the neighbors, but it’s
hard to see that as a reason
Among the countries that
for opening a criminal file
are members of the Organiagainst 15-year-olds.
zation for Economic
Development, Israel is in a
In another city in the
reasonable place when it
south a 16-year-old boy
comes to juvenile crime
was indicted for throwing a
and violence. On one hand,
plant into a sink in a public
it’s hard to deny the existbuilding. In yet another city
ence of teen violence – in
in the north, criminal
public parks, on the beach
charges were brought
and in schools. Some recent
against teenage boys who
extreme cases have ended
found a cash register that
in murder, such as that of
burglars had taken from a
George Saado, who was out
local shop, despite the
taking his dog for a walk
boys’ version of events and
when he was shot by teens
the fact that the register
in Ramle.
was almost empty. Another
boy was charged with stealIn 2012, 25,182 criminal
ing hood ornaments from
files were opened against
cars. The charge was
minors. That figure is lower
dropped, but the criminal
than it was in 2011
record remains.
(25,674) and lower still
A criminal record can dethan in 2010 (29,629). In
stroy a teen’s life. The Israthe early 2000s, the number
el Defense Forces won’t
of criminal cases opened
draft these kids and quite a
against juveniles stood at
few work places will bar
36,000 a year. Juvenile
them. And yet, it is all too
crime constitutes 7 percent
easy to file charges against
to 8 percent of all crime in
teens. According to the
Israel, a figure that fluctuCouncil for the Welfare of
ates very little. What has
the Child, the record rechanged are the types of
mains even after charges
crime: In 2012, the most
are dropped. According to
common crimes were
the council’s director, Dr.
against property – 6,995
Yitzhak Kadman, “To excases, a few hundred more
punge a minor’s criminal
than the year before. More
record, he has to confess
juveniles were charged
and show remorse, and
with drug infractions in
even then, only in certain
2012 – 4,411 as opposed to
cases.”
4,025 in 2011. In that year,
most of the charges against
Last month, Police Comteens were for disturbing
missioner Yohanan Danino
the peace, for which 8,221
told the Knesset Interior
files opened. But by 2012,
Committee that every year
that figure had dropped to
criminal files are opened
6,915. Security related
against some 9,000 children
charges against teens also
between the ages of 12 to
dropped, with 1,495 files
17. At the Herzliya Conferopened, 153 fewer than in
ence last month, Danino
the previous year.
said that teen violence was
equivalent to “external
As in other countries, inthreats that Israel is dealing
carceration is considered a
with.”
last resort for teens; only
208 teens are now in the
Sinned As A
Kid? On Record
For Life In Israel
Ofek Prison. Of these, 48
were convicted of violent
crimes, 26 of crimes
against property and 31 of
disturbing the peace. The
rest were serving time for
various charges, from robbery to security infractions.
case is reconsidered and
their record can be expunged. Last year, 1,200
teens took part in the program, and Danino has decided to extend it nationwide.
one point the station thieves
attacked the station and the
employees. M.A. fought to
protect his fellow workers,
but the police arrested him
after they found out he had
a record. He was released
only after a security tape
confirmed his version of
events.
Nevertheless, the police
For teens convicted of less have been criticized by
serious offenses, rehabilita- youth court judges for the
tion is considered the best ease with which they file
A happy ending? Not
course. To that end, a num- charges against teens.
quite. The army refused to
draft him because of his
ber of programs have been
opened by the police, local M.A., from central Israel, record.
authorities, the Social Ser- knows first-hand what this
vices Ministry and various can mean. When he was 15
NO DELAYS
organizations. In one such years old, he was caught
Not a Police
initiative, which started in with friends who were
Data Base Search
the south, a program repre- stealing from a store. He
Canada
sentative is on staff at the
told the court he had no
local police station, tasked part in the crime; the court
Provincial Courts
Criminal Research
with locating teens facing believed him and he was
Call 1-866-909-6678
criminal charges and bring- put into a rehabilitation
Or Fax 1-866-909-6679
ing them into a four-month program. While he was in
Straightline International
Shortest distance between you and the courts
group therapy setting. If
the program he began
they stay the course, their working at a gas station. At
.

11. Derek Hinton
“In My Opinion”
and others. Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the
information is correct, listing dates and constitutions
in particular are subject to
change.
Up Call: Are
Your Background Checks
Giving You a
False Sense of
Security?" offers
employers five
http://
essential steps to
casetracker.justice.gov.uk/ understanding
listing_calendar/index.jsp how to conduct a
comprehensive
criminal records
background
"Time for a
check.
Wake-Up Call:
Are Your
UK Case
Background
Tracker for Civil Checks Giving
Appeals Online You a False
The Case Tracker allows Sense of
users to search for inforSecurity?"
mation on applications or
The five-step
guide provides
employers with
advice regarding name and their background checks
address history traces, ways and whether or not they
to expand their search pe- need to institute change."
rimeter and how to thoroughly vet their providers.
In addition, EmployeeScreenIQ's guide inBy Nick Fishman
cludes best practices to proappeals in the Court of Aptect organizations from inpeal, Civil Division. Users Employers who rely on
ferior background checks
are also able to search for criminal when screening
information on applications job candidates may be liv- and questions to ask current
or prospective background
or appeals heard in the last ing with a false sense of
31 days. You can search for security - and setting them- screening providers. The
article is available for
a case in the following
selves up for a potential
download here.
three ways:
fall.
By Case Number – The
case number for the case
needs to be 8 digits long
and must be entered in the
following format, without
any spaces or oblique
strokes: 20051234;
To help companies better
understand what a comprehensive criminal records
background check should
entail, EmployeeScreenIQ
is offering an instructive
guide aimed at HR professionals responsible for their
By Title – The title can be organizations' background
entered using the names of screening programs.
either party. For example,
in the case of Smith & Co v The complimentary white
Jones, either "Smith" or
paper, "Time for a Wake"Jones" can be entered to
search; and
By Date – A date of
hearing can be entered in
the following format DDMMM-YY eg: 15–Jan–09,
or you can click the calendar icon and choose a date
from the pop–up calendar.
For confirmation of the
judges hearing your case,
the time and location of
the hearing, please check
the Daily List from 14:30
the working day before
your case is due to be
heard, or call the Listing
Office.
Information is provided
in good faith for the convenience of court users
"Criminal background
check is an extremely
vague term and it's not always synonymous with
comprehensive criminal
background check," says
Nick Fishman, chief marketing officer for EmployeeScreenIQ. "By following
the steps outlined in the
guide, employers should
have a much better sense of
the quality and accuracy of
WebSite:
www.employeescreen.com
[background checks] :

12. Florida
Lawmakers Seek
Tighter Controls
On Drug
Database
State health officials say
they're handling it, but lawmakers believe more needs
to be done to make sure
that Floridians' private prescription information stays
out of the wrong hands.
House and Senate committees heard updates Tuesday about the release earlier
this year of more than
3,200 names and prescription information to defense
lawyers in a Volusia County-area drug trafficking
sting.
The Department of Health
is pursuing new rules to
protect the privacy of individuals whose prescriptions
are captured in the prescription-drug monitoring program, created by lawmakers to combat prescription
drug abuse and cut down
on "doctor shopping."
But the release of the records has heightened concerns about the database for
some lawmakers who have
been leery of possible privacy breeches since the
program's inception.
"My gut tells me changes
need to be made," Senate
Health Policy Chairman
Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina
Beach, said after hearing
from Becky Poston, manager of the state's Prescription
Drug Monitoring Program.
Poston told lawmakers
that the Department of
Health, which oversees the
database, "shares your concerns" and conducted an
internal investigation after
the release of the records
was reported. The department held two rule-making
workshops to "strengthen
accountability" of the program, she said.
The database, which went
online two years ago, now
contains more than 85 milBean agreed and said the
lion prescription records
and has been tapped into by problem was that so many
law enforcement investiga- names wound up on the list
tors 32,000 times, or nearly in the first place.
50 requests for records dai"We have to figure out
ly, according to Poston.
why it happened and then
Pharmacists are required we're going to figure out
to enter all prescriptions for what to do to make sure it
controlled substances, in- doesn't happen again," he
said. "Security's a big deal.
cluding medications like
Nobody wants their names
oxycodone and Valium,
into the database. Doctors out there. Government
are not required to consult doesn't need to know this
it before writing prescrip- information unless there's a
tions. Law enforcement of- specific cause."
ficials are permitted to access the database for active Lawyers for the American
Civil Liberties Union of
investigations.
Florida, which opposed the
database from the beginThis spring, a Federal
Drug Administration inves- ning, believe lawtigator generated thousands enforcement officials are
of records as part of an in- able to cast too wide a net
when searching for records.
ter-agency prescription
fraud case that resulted in The ACLU wants investithe arrests of seven individ- gators to obtain warrants to
access the database and aluals, six of whom were
so wants the names of anycharged with crimes.
one not under active investigation redacted from recDaytona Beach lawyer
ords used in criminal cases.
Michael Lambert, whose
name and prescription drug
history were included in the ACLU of Florida lobbyist
list of 3,300 others released Pamela Burch Fort told the
by State Attorney R.J. Lar- committees the types of
searches law-enforcement
izza to defense attorneys
but who was not under in- officials are allowed should
vestigation, is challenging be narrowed to prevent
the constitutionality of the "fishing expeditions."
database in court. Attorney
General Pam Bondi, an ar- Rules proposed by the Dedent proponent of the data- partment of Health, which
base who helped convince a oversees the database,
skeptical Gov. Rick Scott would address that in part
to sign off on it and whose by eliminating queries for
office is representing Lar- names that sound like othizza, asked the judge to dis- ers. The proposed rule
miss the case. No ruling has changes would also create a
log of those people requestbeen made.
ing database records and
Lambert learned his name require anyone receiving
was on the list from one of the information to sign an
affidavit. The proposal
the defense lawyers, who
spotted his name and gave would also limit reports to
PDF format, meaning they
him a copy of the disks
would be more difficult to
containing the records.
sort, and label all records as
State law makes it a felo- "confidential." Poston said
ny to knowingly distribute the program will also conrecords from the database duct audits to circumvent
to unauthorized individuals. inappropriate use of the daBut Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a tabase.
Hollywood Democrat who
But Bean wasn't consupports the database,
vinced the rule changes go
called the lawyer in the
far enough to ensure "that
Volusia County case "a
whistleblower" and said he names that aren't related to
a case aren't released."
shouldn't be punished.
a series of enhancements to
"We have to assume that the online Kansas County
anytime we give it out to
District Court Records
anybody that they're going Search application. The
to go out to The News Ser- most notable enhancement
vice of Florida and give it incorporates a new, userout to everybody," Bean
friendly platform that altold Poston during the
lows Kansans to perform
meeting.
Kansas County District
Court Records searches
"I hope that's not the case from a mobile device.
because you've created penalties for the improper reDesigned to provide imlease of that information.
mediate online access to
It's a felony," Poston said. Kansas County District
Court Records full court
"But it hasn't worked. Be- case histories, the applicacause the names are out
tion allows Kansas citizens
there," he said.
to search court cases by
county and court type, or
The database has been
case number.
troubled since lawmakers
first created it in 2009 but
"We view this project as
refused to fund it and
one step in many we are
banned drug companies
taking to make the Kansas
from contributing to the
courts more accessible and
foundation tasked with
transparent in this digital
finding the money to oper- age. This award points out
ate it, an estimated
the fact that our citizens are
$500,000 per year.
now more than ever before
gaining convenient access
Despite several federal
to their courts, wherever
grants that helped get the
they may be," said Kelly
database up and running in O'Brien, Director of Infor2011, funding has been
mation Services for the Ofproblematic for the founda- fice of Judicial Administration. The Legislature this
tion.
year agreed for the first
time to spend $500,000 on
In addition to enhanced
the program and removed mobile experience, the rethe ban on contributions
vamped Kansas County
from drug manufacturers. District Court Records
Search application also offers the following:
Kansas Recieves
Best Digital
Online
Achievement
Award
-- Streamlined look and
feel for traditional desktop
users
-- Ability to search each
court by a given time period takes users straight
to details of a case
The Kansas District Court
Searches may be conducted
Search Records online serfor $1 per search. Results
vice has won a 2013 Digital
may be viewed for $1 per
Government Achievement
record. A $95 per year subAwards (DGAA) from
scription service is availae.Republic's Center for
ble for users who prefer to
Digital Government. The
be invoiced monthly.
DGAA recognize outstanding agency and department
websites and applications
based on innovation, functionality, and efficiency.
In 2012, the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration (OJA), in partnership
with Kansas.gov, launched

13. Parma, OH
Muni Court
Going Online
Parma Municipal Court
will soon begin the process
of converting its voluminous collection of paper
records into digital images,
an initiative that is predicted to eventually save space
and time.
said it will take considerable time.
grow to allow attorneys to
electronically submit paperwork and judges to provide
required signatures digitally.
The Cuyahoga County
Department of Regional
Collaboration recently offered to help communities
"It's basically heading todigitize their records. Cas- ward a paperless system,"
tro explored this option, but she said.
said the county's services
would be limited to scanSupply Of
ning the records at a cost of
3-10 cents per page, requir- Documents From
ing the court to still invest England Court
in the management softRecords – Genware.
Court IT Manager Chris
Castro said the project is
eral
primarily a result of a
Looking forward, Castro
change in Ohio law several
said the court's modernized
5.4 (1) A court or court
years ago that increased the
record-keeping system may
period courts must retain
records from seven years to
25 years for traffic cases
and 50 years for criminal
cases.
With the court already occupying two full rooms
with records, and storage
spilling over into other city
facilities, Castro said digitization is the only answer.
"If you don't come up
with a different way to
keep your records, you're
going to have to buy buildings to keep them," she
said.
City Council on Monday
approved the purchase of a
roughly $47,000 software
system that will manage the
digital records after they
are manually scanned. This
will interface with the
court's case management
system, Castro said, eliminating the need to physically retrieve related records,
and allowing access to the
information at any time.
Once the software has
been received, Castro said
the court will "go live" by
digitizing records for new
and active cases. Interns
will begin processing the
court's archives in December.
Castro was not able to
provide an estimate as to
when all the court's records
will be converted into digital format, but with the
court handling almost
30,000 cases per year, she
office may keep a publicly
accessible register of
claims which have been
issued out of that court or
court office.
(2) Any person who pays
the prescribed fee may,
during office hours, search
any available register of
claims.
Special sale in
England going on
now

14. Chinese Courts
Put More
Criminal Trials
Online
Chinese courts are increasingly using social media, such as the Twitter-like
Weibo, to broadcast live
updates from courtrooms in
a move that analysts say is
aimed at gaining public
trust.
The trend appears to be
accelerating following the
high-profile trial of Bo Xilai, a former rising politician who stood trial in August for corruption and
abuse of power.
on Monday, the Beijing
First Intermediate Court
published 11 updates, including photos of the defendants - the accused murderer Han Lei, and a friend
who allegedly helped him
flee the scene of the crime.
Still images taken from a
surveillance video at the
crime scene were posted
online, as well as summaries of the prosecution
charges and of the defendant’s apology and claims of
remorse.
Jacques Delisle, professor
of law and director of the
Center for East Asian Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania said that although the trend towards
Although media access to more transparency is unthe courtroom was restrict- mistakable, the reasons
ed, the court posted lengthy might vary from case to
transcripts during the five- case.
day trial, attracting more
“The Bo case was, it apthan half a million Weibo
followers.
pears, an attempt to confirm that we are not back in
Analysts say the openness the old Mao days or Stalin
during Bo Xilai’s trial is
style political trials, that he
having a broader impact.
had a chance to present a
defense,” Delisle said in an
“It has increased the pub- email to VOA.
lic’s expectations,” said
King-Wa Fu, assistant pro- “With other trials, there is
fessor at the Journalism and obviously less of that going
Media Studies center at the on... One can read them as
University of Hong Kong an attempt to show that the
“The public wants more
authorities are on the job
transparency and they want and the criminal justice sysmore open data to the pub- tem is working and dealing
lic.”
with behavior that ordinary
people fear and condemn.”
Meanwhile, courts in Beijing and Nanjing released
Chinese media reports say
live updates from at least
that last year more than 600
three high profile criminal courts used official Weibo
trials - although the proaccounts, and 17 of them
ceedings were speedier and regularly used their mithe defense more subdued croblog to broadcast live
than in Bo’s case.
information from trials.
In one instance, a man
was accused of having
killed an infant after a
brawl with the baby’s
mother over a parking
space in Daxing, one of
Beijing’s mega districts, in
late July. The incident has
been hotly debated in Chinese media because of the
brutal and random nature of
the crime.
During the four hour trial
opinion battlefields, other
But in practice, Duan said, people will occupy them.”
access to hearings or court the article read.
documents has often been
Analysts agree that in redenied.
cent years the party has
“It often happens that the been perfecting the way it
courts' leaders who decide sends its message to the
public, while at the same
the seatings during a trial
time tightly controlling
let government staff or
even police and investiga- public discourse online.
tors participate in the hearing, but the public and even “It is open but still within a
very controlled environjournalists are never allowed in. This has created a ment,” King-Wa Fu said.
“It picks up the information
huge problem of public
that it feels comfortable to
mistrust of courts.”
make open. But it does not
mean that in the public peoBy showcasing trials
online the courts are trying ple can have more space to
to win that trust back, ana- speak openly.”
lysts said.
But there is some consenDuring the last meeting of sus among analysts in China that the trend towards
China’s legislature in
more openness within the
March, Zhou Qiang was
judiciary cannot be reappointed as head of the
People’s Supreme Court.
His election created some
expectation of reform
among legal scholars, particularly after a speech in
late May where Zhou encouraged lower courts to
be more transparent.
“Openness should be the
principle,” Zhou was
quoted as saying during
the meeting.
Commentaries on state
media as well as policy
documents from China's
propaganda departments
have fleshed out the rationale behind this new
approach.
In an article on the People's Daily this week, the
director of China's State
Internet Information Office - the organ that oversees the Internet in China
- used war metaphors
when talking about the
Party's need for a tougher
hand on propaganda
work.
Duan Wanjin, a Shaanxibased criminal lawyer said
that such efforts towards
transparency are a first step
towards more substantial
“If we do not effectively
reform of the judiciary in
occupy emerging public
China.
The law in China mandates that with the exception of cases involving state
secrets or individual privacy, all criminal trials should
be open to the public.
versed, whether the party
likes it or not.
Barry Nixon:
Blast From The
Past
Congratulations to Steve
Brownstein and Phyllis
Nadel of The Background
Investigator for another superb conference. Attendance was 401, up substantially, with more than two
dozen vendors exhibiting
their services to the industry and a slate of interesting, professional presenters
keying in on topics extremely important to the
attendees.

15. Georgia Senators
Hear Hard
Stories Of
Criminal
Records Problem
Sarah Hamilton’s January
arrest based on a mistaken
identity has kept the whole
family in turmoil even after
police dropped the charges
against the 26-year-old former honors graduate, her
father told a hushed Senate
hearing Tuesday.
“The system carelessly
wronged a private citizen,
my daughter Sarah. Is it not
the government’s moral
obligation to correct it?”
asked John Hamilton,
chairman of the healthtextile company Compass
Group of McDonough
ords. Experts say Georgia
— which has one of the
nation’s highest incarceration rates — is among the
toughest on young people
trying to find jobs after getting a criminal record, even
when charges are dropped.
John Hamilton said he expects it will take many
more months to have her
record clean, running the
risk that her reputation and
career could be damaged in
the meantime by anyone
looking at government records on the Internet.
“Sarah doesn’t deserve
this treatment,” he said,
noting that a cab driver
mistook her for another
woman in her apartment
complex who was too
drunk to pay the fare.
sa Dodson, a staff attorney rent workers.
“I have to continue to tell with the State Bar of Georgia’s Georgia Justice Proemployers that I have a
That equals to a
ject.
firearms charge, and I’ve
0.000352941 hit ratio
only found one employer
three ten-thousandths of
“It’s very difficult to un- one percent
that will hire me,” he said.
ring that bell, and it’s devExisting law allows first astating for people who are That's the same as doing
wrongly accused,” she said. 85,000 searches in one
offenders and those
charged as juveniles to
county and getting 30 hits;
The committee has four
wipe their records clean
more meetings scheduled
two years after their senor 8500 searches and gettence, but they have to re- before the General Assem- ting 3 hits;
quest it. Many other states bly convenes Jan. 13. It is
likely to take the testimony or 2833 searches and getdo it automatically. Correcting errors in the record and consider drafting rec- ting 1 hit.
ommendations for revising
is more cumbersome, acthe law, according to Sen. Or 10 searches….OMG!
cording to witnesses.
Josh McKoon, a Columbus
Republican who chairs the
A change taking effect
this year is supposed to im- study committee and the
prove the process, but ex- Senate Judiciary Committee.
perts told the committee
many problems still need to
Contact:
be addressed.
What's Your Hit
One challenge is the fact
Thomas Weaver of Can- that arrest reports are public
records available to anyone,
ton also testified that his
The story he recounted
including credit-reporting
career had been harmed
provided a dramatic climax
because he was convicted agencies and companies
to a morning-long hearing
of carrying a gun in a pub- that publicize crime news.
of a special Senate commitlic park just months before Those companies often
tee studying the issue of
the legislature changed the keep outdated records
expungement reform, the
law to make it permissible. online, according to Marisremoval of criminal rec-
Ratio?
Spot-checks on people already working in Australian child-related employment came back with 30
records found by the state
Police system. They
checked over 85,000 cur-
Steven Brownstein
Box 10001
Saipan, MP 96950
+1-670-256-7000
findcrime@thebackgroundinvestigator.com

17. October 2013
scenes since
2006, longer than
previously
known, according
to the 35-page
inspector genOperating with almost no
eral’s audit of
public notice, the FBI has
drones used by the Justice
spent more than $3 million
Department.
to operate a fleet of small
drone aircraft in domestic
The FBI unmanned planes
investigations, according to
weigh less than 55 pounds
a report released Thursday
each and are unarmed, the
by a federal watchdog
report said. The FBI deagency.
clined requests to discuss
its drone operations ThursThe unmanned surveilday.
lance planes have helped
FBI agents storm barricadAuditors also found that
ed buildings, track criminal
the ATF had bought drones
suspects and examine crime
Report: FBI
Using Drones for
7 Years
and planned to use
them. The U.S.
Marshals Service
and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which
also fall under the
Justice Department, purchased
and tested drones
but decided not to
deploy them in
active operations.
Straightline gets it done in Vietnam

18. Europe's
Marijuana
Capital
Isn't Amsterdam
The last time police tried
to enter the mountainside
village of Lazarat near this
historic southern city last
summer, they prompted a
ferocious firefight a local
police commissioner describes as “very much like
a real war.”
Speaking on condition of
anonymity for fear of being
ostracized, he said he was
part of a special forces operation during which sniper
units occupied high ground
as SWAT teams moved in
to arrest a handful of people working in fields surrounding the village.
They were no ordinary
fields: Lazarat is known as
Albania’s drug capital, notorious for its cannabis and
lawlessness.
The annual crop earns almost $6 billion, according
to the Italian financial po-
formation of a government As Albania’s economy
following national elections has slumped in the last few
years thanks to the economAlthough local police dis- in June to invest large
pute that figure, they admit funds in the fields this year. ic crises in neighboring
Greece and Italy, Lazarat
that marijuana production
Law enforcement agencies has prospered.
is booming.
have taken few preventive
Intelligence reports sugLast year’s raid didn’t last measures, enabling
gest the village cultivated
long. When officers began Lazarat’s illegal trade to
more than 60 acres of land
flourish. Any moves
cutting down cannabis
this year, an estimated
plants, 15 SUVs mounted against the village now
300,000 plants that could
could prompt a “bloody
with heavy machine guns
yield as much 500 tons of
war,” he added.
materialized and started
marijuana.
firing.
Instead, the police spend
Photographs taken with
“We were drawing indis- the better part of the sumcriminate fire from 20 posi- mer stopping water trucks long-range zoom lenses
show terraced plantations
tions, including heavy ma- from entering the village
and arresting migrant labor- that have turned the barren
chine guns and anti-tank
scrapes of mountain land
missiles,” the commission- ers headed there. They
into a lush green oasis.
seize any cannabis shiper said. “I saw a 70-yearold grandmother shooting ments they notice coming
Journalists trying to enter
at us with a heavy machine out.
the village risk as much as
gun. I thought I was going
police. The traffickers paLast year, the haul
to die.”
amounted to nearly 15 tons trol the main road and trail
of marijuana, while another cars to discourage reporters
Worried about civilian
casualties, the police with- ten tons were seized at vari- from bringing unwanted
publicity.
drew as snipers disabled the ous borders.
SUVs with explosive bulCannabis is usually plant- Last month, traffickers
lets.
ed in May and harvested in spotted two local journalists and a French videograThey haven’t been back. September. Up to 90 perThe commissioner said that cent of village residents — pher.
drugs traffickers have taken 7,000 in all — are believed
to take part in the business. Telnis Skuqi, a local coradvantage of a political
respondent for the Albania
power vacuum during the
lice.
Telegraphic News Agency,
says three people driving a
Ford cut the journalists off
as they were driving away.
“They warned that we
would end up dead if we
didn’t stop filming,” he
says.
Villagers have also taken
random pot shots at passenger cars on the highway
Lazarat overlooks in revenge for various police
operations.
When police shot a villager wanted for kidnapping in
2007, a mob attacked and
burned the police station in
Gjirokastra. An armored
personal carrier now parked
on the station’s lawn serves
as a reminder.
Thanks to the threat of
major civilian casualties if
police attempt to move into
Lazarat, only political will
can solve the problem, the
police commissioner says.
That, he elaborates, means
“a decision from the prime
minister’s office and nothing less.”

19. Non-Criminal
Record
Certificate
Required For
Beijing
Employment
License
Applications
With the aim to strictly
enforce the rules and regulations related to the examination and approval of employment licenses, foreigners who wish to work in
Beijing are required to submit a non-criminal record
certificate issued by their
place of residence for the
application of an employment license and expert
work permit.
According to the Beijing
Human Resource and Social Security Bureau
(hereinafter referred to as
the ‘Bureau’), the new rule
also applies to foreign employees transferring to Beijing from other locations in
China. The non-criminal
record certificate submitted
to the Bureau shall be one
of the following:
A non-criminal record
certificate issued by the
public security authorities
or judicial authorities in the
applicant’s place of residence (with a translation
provided by a professional
translation company in Beijing);
or A non-criminal record
authenticated by a Chinese
Consulate. However, the
new rule does not apply to
applicants holding Hong
Kong, Taiwan, or Macao
passports, and submission
of the non-criminal record
certificate is only required
in applications for employment licenses and expert
work permits.
As the time taken for issuing a non-criminal record
certificate varies largely
from country to country
(from weeks to months),
the new requirement will
add to the time needed to
prepare for the employment
license application in Beijing.
years.
The research by the
RAND Corporation was
funded by BJA. The findings indicate that prison
education programs are
cost effective.
A $1 investment in prison
education translates into
Therefore, foreign emreducing incarceration costs
ployers are advised to plan by $4 to $5 during the first
ahead and try to obtain
three years post-release,
such certificates prior to
when those leaving prison
beginning the application
are most likely to return.
process. However, there
have been instances where U.S. Prison
the validity of non-criminal
Population
record certificates only
lasts for two months from Declined For
the date of issuance, so foreign employers should con- Third
tact their agent ahead of
Consecutive
time for detailed information to make sure their Year
application and all supporting materials are submitted U.S. Prison Population
within the required timeDeclined For Third Conframe. Beijing is not the
secutive Year During 2012
first city in the country to
implement such requireThe U.S. prison populaments, and other cities such tion declined 1.7 percent
as Suzhou and Nanjing al- from 2011 to 2012, falling
ready have similar rules in to an estimated 1,571,013
place.
prisoners, according to the
U.S. Bureau of Justice StaHowever, as the country’s tistics.
newest Exit-Entry Law
does not explicitly require
It was the third conseculocal governments to imtive year of a decline in the
plement such requirements, number of state prisoners.
it is not clear whether other
large cities such as ShangNine states had a decrease
hai, Shenzhen and Guang- of more than 1,000 prisonzhou will follow Beijing’s ers in 2012: California,
lead and require the subTexas, North Carolina, Colmission of such certificates. orado, Arkansas, New
York, Florida, Virginia and
New Report On Maryland.
Effects Of Prison
Education
A research report sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) finds
that, on average, inmates
who participated in correctional education programs
had 43 percent lower odds
of returning to prison than
inmates who did not.
For other situations such
as renewing or amending
About half of the approxiwork permits, or changing
mately 700,000 individuals
employers within Beijing
who leave federal and state
with a valid visa, such cerprisons each year will be
tificates are not required.
reincarcerated within three
records of the Secretary of
In addition, anyone caught State and/or Attorney General, etc. Historical newspashoplifting in the town is
arrested instead of simply per accounts of the crime
and conviction can also add
being issued a citation.
substance to your family
history.
This new proactive approach was chosen in reHundreds of thousands of
sponse to a 55 percent inother criminal records are
crease in the number of
also waiting to be discovshoplifting cases in July
ered in state and university
alone.
archives, county courts and
The police force attributes other repositories. Your
the increase in shoplifting ancestor may not have been
to the large number of re- sent to San Quentin for
murder, but you may be
tailers in the area.
surprised to find a newspaper account of his being
Police also say that it is
investigated for arson, or
more effective to take a
proactive approach to deal- being arrested for a minor
ing with shoplifting rather misdemeanor such as vathan simply responding to grancy, petty larceny, gamshoplifting cases after they bling or even making
moonshine. Turn to finding
have taken place.
aids for repositories such as
the State Archives, the
Library
Using Genealogy Family Historylocal county
Catalog or the
Sources For
historical society to learn
what might be available for
Background
researching your own crimChecks
inal ancestors.
Most of us can't claim notorious criminals such as
John Dillinger, Al Capone
or Bonnie & Clyde in our
family tree, but our ancestors may have been convicted and imprisoned for
hundreds of lesser reasons
just the same. State and
federal penitentiaries and
prisons, state archives and
other repositories have put
a wealth of records and databases online that may put
you hot on your ancestor's
trail. These online indices
often include extra details
from descriptions of the
Small Town
offense, to the inmate's
Takes Unique
place and year of birth.
Mug shots, interviews and
Approach To
other interesting records
Fighting
may also be found in these
databases of Historic U.S.
Shoplifting
Prison Records Online or
Researching Criminal AnPolice in Rosenberg, Texcestors in Britain.
as, are taking an unusual
approach to addressing the
While having these prison
recent increase in shopliftand inmate databases availing in the town.
able online is a great starting point, most of the recPart of that approach inords beg that you dig furvolves posting the names of
ther -- into correctional recshoplifters on the police
ords, court records, jail
force's Facebook page.
logs, Governor's papers,
Miley Cyrus On
Drugs: Weed,
Molly Are The
Bomb, Coke Not
So Much
Miley likes molly, Miley
likes weed, Miley doesn't
like cocaine. That's pretty
much what you need to
know if you're in the mood
to procure drugs for Miss
Miley Cyrus.
The 20-year-old wild
child shared this info with
Rolling Stone for its current
issue, and her opinions on
marijuana might spark a
few memories of her sparking up a bong hit of
"salvia" back in 2010.
"I think weed is the best
drug on earth," she told the
mag. "One time I smoked a
joint with peyote in it, and I
saw a wolf howling at the
moon. Hollywood is a coke
town, but weed is so much
better. And molly, too."

20. Mexico Drug
Lord Holds Sway
Over Chicago
Crime Rate
The two Mexican couriers
were hauling a tractortrailer full of cash: $3 million collected for drugs sold
on the streets of Chicago.
Juan Gonzalez and David
Zuniga were driving their
rig throughIndiana in October 2011, transporting the
money to Mexico. As they
stopped to fix a flat tire,
three members of the Gangster Disciples, Chicago’s
biggest street gang, held
them up at gunpoint.
The gang had bought the
drugs -- and now these
members wanted the money back. They pistolwhipped and handcuffed
Zuniga. As the gangsters
were hooking their own
purple Kenworth cab to the
money-laden trailer, Gonzalez fled through a cornfield and called the police.
After a 15-mile chase north
along Interstate 65, lawmen
intercepted the rogue truck,
arrested the gang members
and recovered the loo
Gonzalez, who worked for
Mexican drug lord Joaquin
Guzman, made a surprising
request that fall day: He
wanted proof for cartel
leaders that police had confiscated the $3 million.
“He knew, without a receipt, they’d kill him or his
family in Mexico,” says
Jack Riley, head of the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration for a five-state region that includes Illinois
and Indiana.
Such is the fear that Guzman inspires on both sides
of the border. Operating
from heavily guarded compounds in the Sierra Madre
of northern Mexico, Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel supplies 80 percent of the heroin, cocaine, marijuana and
methamphetamine -- with a
street value of $3 billion -that floods the Chicago region each year, the DEA
says. Job seekers in Guzman’s 150,000-strong enterprise must list where
their relatives live.
Get Shorty
As far as the authorities
can tell, 5-foot-6-inch (1.68
-meter) Guzman, a grade
school dropout known as El
Chapo (or Shorty), has never set foot in Chicago.
Yet during the past seven
years, Guzman, who’s now
in his late 50s, has seized
control of the supply and
wholesale distribution of
drugs in Chicago and much
of the Midwest.
This steady flow of dangerous substances is sparking
pitched and often deadly
turf wars between Chicago’s splintered, largely African-American and Latino
gangs.
“Most of Chicago’s violent
crime comes from gangs
trying to maintain control
of drug-selling territories,”
Riley says. “Guzman supplies a majority of the narcotics that fuel this violence.”
Confounding Police
The Department of Justice
indicted Guzman in absentia in Chicago in August
2009, charging him with
conspiring to transport
drugs across international
borders. He has so far confounded all efforts by Mexican and U.S. authorities to
put him and his cartel out
of business. Two years after officers thwarted the
Indiana hijacking, police
still intercept drugs or cash
heading in or out of Chicago every couple of weeks.
That pales in comparison to
what they miss.
“We’re lucky to stop a 10th
of what’s going through,”
says Terry Risner, sheriff
of Jasper County, Indiana,
80 miles (130 kilometers)
southeast of the city.
The pipeline of Sinaloa
drugs to Chicago runs
through the predominantly
Mexican neighborhood
known as Little Village on
the city’s southwest side,
authorities say. Yet four
years after federal prosecutors indicted twins Margarito and Pedro Flores for being key Guzman distributors in Little Village, police
don’t know who has succeeded them.
‘Home Port’
The drugs continue to
pour in. In a 2006 conversation monitored by Mexican police, Guzman said he
wanted to make America’s
third-largest city his “home
port.”
He’s done that, says Art
Bilek, a retired detective
who’s executive vice president of the Chicago Crime
Commission, a publicsafety group that in February named Guzman the
city’spublic enemy No. 1.
“We had freelance distributors in Chicago before,”
Bilek says. “Guzman has
taken them over one by
one. He centralized everything -- the shipping, warehousing and distribution of
drugs, and the collection
and transport of money
back to Mexico.”
Chicago had cartel drugs in
the past but not cartel leaders, Bilek says.
“Now, Guzman has top
people in here to make sure
things run smoothly,” he
says.
The link between drugs and
crime, including violent
crime, would be hard to
overstate in Chicago.
Eighty-six percent of adult
males arrested in Chicago
last year tested positive for
drug use. Chicago, with a
population of 2.7 million,
had 506 murders in 2012,
the highest per capita
among the four most populous U.S. cities.
‘Heroin Epidemic’
So pervasive is narcotics
commerce along the Eisenhower Expressway, the
city’s main east-west artery, that federal authorities
have nicknamed it the Heroin Highway.
The expressway leads to
suburban DuPage County,
where State’s Attorney
Robert Berlin recently declared a “heroin epidemic.”
Since the start of 2012, an
average of one heroin user
has died every eight-and-ahalf days in the county,
Berlin says, many of them
in their teens and twenties
and snorting Sinaloa’s
product.
As the setting sun casts
long shadows on a hot Fri-
day in June, young men in
low-riding jeans cluster on
porches and around liquor
stores near Pulaski Road
and Van Buren Street,
ready to do business. Keeping an eye out for police,
the men lean into car windows, quickly consummating their transactions.
Gang members pay for
their turf with blood. Harold “Noonie” Ward, a leader in the Gangster Disciples
before going to jail in 1994
for selling drugs, links the
persistence of street violence to Guzman’s stranglehold over supply. Ward
says Chicago gangs were
once able to pick among
several Latin American
vendors.
Supplier’s Power
With Guzman gaining
near-monopoly control,
they can’t negotiate prices:
He personally dictates how
much distributors pay his
operatives, court documents allege. In the past
decade, wholesale heroin
prices have doubled in Chicago to the current cost of
$80,000 a kilogram, says
Nick Roti, head of antigang enforcement for the
city’s police. For street
sellers to keep profits flowing, they must seize ground
in sometimes lethal blockby-block combat.
“The supplier has all the
power now; he can set prices,” says Ward, 51, who’s
chief executive officer of
Block 8 Productions LLC,
a record and film company.
“It used to be honor among
thieves,” he says of gang
protocol that punished renegade behavior like the hijacking in Indiana. “Now,
it’s by any means necessary.”
Memorials that have sprung
up south and west of downtown reflect a grim statistic:
The city suffers an average
of more than five shootings
and more than one murder
every day.
Two Chicagos
The crimes tell a tale of
two Chicagos. The number
of murders in the city is
half what it was during the
crack epidemic of the early
1990s. Yet on portions of
the South and West sides,
killings are actually more
common today, according
to research done by Daniel
Hertz, a graduate student at
the University of Chicago.
On the north side, with its
parks and high-rise residences abutting Lake Michigan, murders have declined so much that the area
now rivals Toronto as an
oasis of urban safety, he
says.
“Over the last twenty years,
at the same time as overall
crime has declined, the inequality of violence in Chicago has skyrocketed,”
Hertz wrote.
The city prepared for another potential bout of
bloodshed when schools
reopened in late August:
After Mayor Rahm Emanuel permanently closed 47
elementary schools in June,
mostly in the murderplagued south and west, the
city agreed to hire 600
monitors to escort children
through gang boundaries to
their new classrooms.
Three days into the academic year, dismissal at
one elementary had to be
delayed because an 18-year
-old woman was shot a few
blocks from the school.
Obama Link
Across the street from the
community center in
Altgeld Gardens, a housing
project on the far South
Side where President
Barack Obama once
worked as an organizer,
names of gunshot victims
line a yellow-brick hallway.
In the South Shore neighborhood, a deflated heartshaped balloon droops
above candles, teddy bears
and two white crosses. Police say the victim, 24-yearold Jordan Jefferson, was a
Black P. Stone gang member who was on parole for a
narcotics violation when he
was gunned down on June
30. A note written on the
wall behind the makeshift
shrine reads: “Love you
always. RIP. Your Mom.”

21. Mexico Drug Lord
Holds Sway Over
Chicago, Crime Rate,
continued from preceding
page
Losing Children
Eight people were killed
during the Labor Day
weekend. Four days around
the Fourth of July holiday
were even bloodier: 47
shootings left 11 people
dead, according to the Chicago police. Two boys ran
up behind 14-year-old
Damani Henard and shot
him in the head as he rode
the bike he’d received for
eighth-grade graduation
home from playing video
games. Factions of the Four
Corner Hustlers are battling
over the neighborhood, and
Damani was an unintended
victim, police say.
“The streets of Chicago belong to gangbangers,” says
Damani’s mother, Yolanda
Paige, who, on the day
Damani was killed, had
made him tacos before
leaving for a 16-hour day
working two jobs as a nursing assistant.
“We’re losing our children,” she says.
Guzman grabbed control of
Chicago partly by exploiting the disarray among its
gangs. From the 1970s into
the 2000s, organized megagangs divvied up drugselling territories from public-housing towers, says
Jody Weis, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation
agent and Chicago Police
Department superintendent
from 2008 to 2011. The
city razed the housing projects just as federal prosecutors were using new
racketeering laws to convict and incarcerate gang
leaders.
“The biggest driver of violence in Chicago -- and
where it’s becoming difficult to address -- is the factionalizing or breaking
down of the bigger gangs
into these smaller cliques,”
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says.
Guzman stepped into the
vacuum in Chicago by first
winning a key stronghold in
Mexico: the transshipment
border town of Ciudad Juarez. He was born 300 miles
south in the mountain village of La Tuna de Badiraguato, according to Malcolm Beith’s “The Last
Narco: Inside the Hunt for
El Chapo.” Relatives sponsored his rise in the drug
trade, the book says.
Guzman set his sights on
Juarez, a sprawling city of
1.5 million, when cartel
leader Amado Carrillo
Fuentes died during plastic
surgery in 1997.
Severed Limbs
Incarcerated in a Jalisco,
Mexico, prison on murder
and drug-trafficking convictions, Guzman escaped
in a laundry cart in 2001
and unleashed a spree of
assassinations starting seven years later, police say.
By 2012, he’d won much of
Juarez and the route
through El Paso,Texas, and
highways north.
A 26-year-old member of
the rival Aztec gang recounts those deadly days.
Sitting in a sweltering room
on a west Juarez street
where a table fan strapped
to a wooden beam provides
no respite from the suffocating heat, the man runs
his forefinger under his
chin to show how he slit
throats.
He recalls how hard it was
to sever the arms and legs
Warring Factions
of one of his victims with a
Rudderless, Chicago’s
hacksaw because bones are
more than 70,000 gang
so strong. In all, more than
members split into an in10,000 people died in the
creasing number of warring mayhem that cemented
factions. When police
Guzman’s grip on the Juasearched for the reason
rez crossing.
murders were on a pace to
climb past 500 last year,
Mexican Mud
they identified about 625
Today, Sinaloa hit men
gang offshoots, including
and kidnappers called the
100 they hadn’t previously New People patrol the city,
known about.
says Alejandro Hope, a for-
mer intelligence officer for
Mexico’s government and
now a security analyst at
the Mexican Competitiveness Institute. The New
People and allied gangs
lure recruits -- and gain information -- with gifts, says
the gang member, whose
waist swims in his baggy
jeans.
“They know all of our
movements because they’re
our friends,” he says, asking not to be identified because he feared reprisals.
Chicago’s connection to
Mexican drugs goes back
decades. Local MexicanAmericans sold brown heroin called Mexican mud in
the 1970s, says Luis Astorga, a sociologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Guzman
inherited and improved that
network along with channels that Ward, the former
Gangster Disciple, says he
set up in the early 1990s in
Detroit, Minneapolis and
elsewhere.
‘Logistical Genius’
Law enforcement officials
say Guzman chose Chicago
for the same reasons Sears,
Roebuck & Co. once centered catalog sales in the
city: It’s a transportation
hub where highways and
rail lines converge and then
fan across the Midwest.
The disappearance of factory jobs and the struggle of
public schools on the city’s
South and West sides also
give Guzman tens of thousands of willing salesmen
who are jobless and poorly
educated.
In 2009, a Guzman distributor ran 11 warehouses and
stash houses in
Chicago and
southwestern
suburbs. One
was in Bedford
Park, steps from
a facility used by
FedEx Corp.,
operator of the
world’s largest
cargo airline.
“He’s a logistical genius and a
hands-on guy,”
Riley says, adding that Guzman
is also a billion-
aire. “If he had turned his
talents to legitimate business, he’d probably be in
the same situation moneywise.”
The Chicago police strategy of saturating high-crime
areas with patrols appears
to be cutting the homicide
rate. Murders through Sept.
8 fell 21 percent -- to 297
from 377 -- from the 2012
period. Yet the authorities
have made scant progress
in cracking Sinaloa’s supply chain.
retaliation -- so patrols can
swarm the trouble spots.
Cure Violence
In the neighborhoods, a
Chicago nonprofit called
Cure Violence tries to reduce shootings by removing potential attackers and
victims from the streets.
Frankie Sanchez, a former
gang member who works
with the group, drove members of the Gangster Two
Six Nation, one of Chicago’s biggest Latino gangs,
to a Wisconsin lake after
several shootings in June.
After another, he hustled
them to the city’s Grant
Park. The tactic worked:
Nobody else got shot, at
least not in the critical period immediately following
the crimes.
In addition to destroying
lives, the violence is bad
for business, says Toni
Preckwinkle, Cook County
Board president.
“It’s terrible for our region
because it makes it seem
like this is an unsafe place
to live and work,” she says.
While the city’s tourism
numbers have held up so
far, Moody’s Investors Service in July cited crime
when it reduced Chicago’s
general-obligation debt rating by three grades -- a
magnitude unprecedented
for a major U.S. city, according to data since 1990.
“The city’s budgetary flexibility is already burdened
by high fixed costs, including unrelenting public safety demands,” analysts
wrote.
More Arrests?
In January, 70 investigators led by the DEA set up
what they call the Chicago
Strike Force in a three-story
building. One investigation
spurred the indictment and
arrest of 21 defendants in
June for distributing heroin
and cocaine in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Riley
expects more arrests,
though the narcotics keep
flowing.
“The rivers of drugs coming into Chicago are diverse and sufficient to meet
demand,” says John Hagedorn, a criminologist at the
University of Illinois at
Chicago. “This is not a war
you can win.”
Civic leaders and police
vowing to reduce the gunfire have homed in on gang
-against-gang retribution.
On the fifth floor of their
South Side headquarters,
police use facialrecognition software to
scan images from 24,000
city surveillance cameras.
Within minutes of a shooting, they send e-mails and
texts about gang affiliations
-- and potential locales for
See next page

22. cause we have the right
connection.”
The top-ranked Sinaloa operatives in Little Village are
continued from preceding
obsessed with secrecy,
page
criminologist Hagedorn
says. They deal whenever
‘Evil Mexicans’
Skeptics in Mexico say
possible with family memU.S. authorities are defend- bers and have no interest in
ing their own interests by
leading a Chicago gang.
exaggerating Guzman’s
“Why would you want that
impact.
hassle when you’re busy
“It’s easier to sell the need making money?” he asks.
for a bump in your budget
if you speak about evil
Snortable Heroin
Mexicans than if you preLittle Village police comsent a complex web of
mander Maria Pena undergangs,” says Hope, the
stands how gangs operate
Mexican Competitiveness after growing up in nearby
Institute analyst.
Logan Square.
In Chicago, the DEA-led
“In my district, Latinos are
strike force concentrates its more territorial than gangs
anti-Guzman efforts in Lit- in other parts of the city,”
tle Village, where immisays Pena, a 25-year vetergrants have congregated for an who once walked a beat.
a century.
“They won’t allow opposiOn a sunny June afternoon, tion gangs to come through.
traffic snarls on 26th Street They only sell drugs to
as diners enjoy tortillas and known individuals.”
roast pork at $25 for four
A few blocks north of Little
people. The Two-Six gang Village, black gangs peddle
takes its name from this
Sinaloa drugs near the Eithoroughfare, which is
senhower Expressway, the
lined with currency exHeroin Highway. Riley
changes for buying identifi- says Guzman keeps the
cation cards and wiring
price of cocaine artificially
cash back to Mexico.
high to push a more profitaThe DEA is zeroing in on ble and easily transportable
so-called choke points in
product his chemists reLittle Village where drugs fined -- a snortable heroin
change hands between dis- that lures suburbanites
tributors and street gangs. wary of needles.
“The middlemen tend to be “They think if they snort or
Mexican gang members
smoke it, they won’t end up
from the Latin Kings, Two- injecting,” says R. Gil KerSix and Maniac Latin Dis- likowske, director of the
ciples,” says Roti of the
Office of National Drug
Chicago police. “From
Control Policy. “Very
there, it flows to Africanquickly, they do.”
American gangs, who control the street.”
Flores Twins
The Flores twins in Little
Village were the corner‘Right Connection’
stones of Guzman’s U.S.
Luis Lopez says he’s
proud to be a Two-Six
business from 2005 to
member. Since grade
2008, federal court documents allege. They took
school, he says, he never
wanted to do anything but delivery of 2,000 kilograms
join members of his extend- (4,400 pounds) of cocaine a
ed family in the gang. From month from Sinaloa and
associated cartels, plus herthe sidelines of a softball
oin, the documents say.
game in July, Lopez, 18,
describes the links between Their trafficking apLittle Village and Mexican proached $700 million in
2008.
smuggling.
The twins used local ware“Since we’re Latino, we
know more people who are houses to break down loads
tied to the cartel,” he says. from Mexico for retail dis“The black guys, they need tribution around Chicago
and shipment as far away
us for drugs and guns be-
Mexico Drug Lord
Holds Sway Over
Chicago, Crime Rate,
as Vancouver. They encoded ledgers to track cash
sent to Mexico for drugs
purchased on credit and to
note which couriers handled each step of the process.
The system ran smoothly
until early 2008. Guzman
began a war with boyhood
friend Arturo Beltran Leyva over, among other
things, the loyalty of the
Flores brothers, according
to federal court documents.
As the Guzman-Beltran
Leyva battle claimed hundreds of lives in Mexico,
the twins offered during the
summer of 2008 to help the
DEA investigate Guzman,
Patrick Fitzgerald, thenU.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said
in court documents.
The twins recorded their
phone calls with Guzman
and their visits to his mountain stronghold. In an October 2008 meeting that included Margarito Flores,
Guzman and subordinates
complained that Mexican
authorities had ceded power to the U.S. in the war on
drugs.
has family ties to Sinaloa in
Mexico.
They charged Guevara, 31,
with conspiracy to supply
heroin after discovering a
secret compartment under
the floor of a house in suburban Forest Park, Illinois,
court records allege.
Grandma’s House
The building had been
owned by an 86-year-old
woman who died five years
earlier. Guevara, who lived
nearby, appropriated the
vacant home to stash money and drugs. He was arrested in 2010 with 7.7 kilograms of heroin stuffed in
a drive shaft he was transporting in his Jeep, theJustice Department says. He
pleaded guilty and began a
30-year jail sentence in January.
Sinaloa leaders orchestrate
punishments from afar. In
2011, they sent a list of targets to a clan of Chicago
roofers who served as cartel
enforcers by night, says
John Blair, intelligence director for the Cook County
Sheriff’s Office. The dossier contained names of people Guzman’s cartel believed had robbed it in
Setting Prices
“They are f---ing us eve- Mexico.
Blair suspects roofer Arturo
rywhere,” he said. In a
taped phone call in Novem- Ibarra was among Guzber 2008, he approved Ped- man’s U.S. hit men. Police
ro Flores’s request for a 9 shot and killed Ibarra as he
percent drop in the charge fled from a north side
neighborhood just as two
for Chicago heroin -- to
$50,000 a kilogram -- cit- men named in the dossier
lay bleeding to death from
ing poor quality.
“That price is fine,” Guzman said.
The Flores twins also taped
Jesus Vicente Zambada
Niebla, son of Ismael Zambada, who court documents
identify as a principal Sinaloa leader along with Guzman. Mexican soldiers arrested the younger Zambada in March 2009. He was
extradited to Chicago,
where he’s awaiting trial on
drug-trafficking-conspiracy
charges. He pleaded not
guilty on all counts. Charges against the Flores twins
are still pending.
Police deconstructed a further piece of Guzman’s
Chicago network with the
August 2010 arrest of Erik
Guevara, whom they say
stab wounds.
‘Unlimited Resources’
The Gangster Disciples
who tried to hijack Guzman’s cash in 2011 have
avoided Sinaloa reprisals so
far, says Jasper County
prosecutor Kathryn
O’Neall. An Indiana judge
sentenced the trio on May
28 to three years in prison
for money laundering. Gonzalez and Zuniga, who cooperated with authorities,
weren’t charged.
Guzman’s grip on the U.S.
Midwest may actually be
strengthened by a move
Mexican authorities hailed
as a victory in their war on
trafficking. In July, they
arrested Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, head of the
Zetas cartel, which Sinaloa
has been battling over a
route throughNuevo Laredo
on the U.S. border.
“Trevino’s arrest makes it
easier for Sinaloa to conquer territory,” says Jorge
Chabat, a security analyst
at the Mexico City-based
Center for Economic Research and Teaching.
The reach of Sinaloa and its
elusive leader extends from
the rugged Sierra Madre to
the dusty streets of Juarez
to Chicago and beyond.
“They’re the pre-eminent
organized crime group in
the world today,” the Chicago Police Department’s
Roti says. “They have almost unlimited resources.”

23. Consensual Sex
With Minor Not
A Crime, Delhi
Court Says
own will, accompanied him Ireland
and obstacles should not be
Open justice and access to
put in their happy married
court documents – a
life.
(lightly updated) footnote
"As the evidence indicates, they got married volA city court has observed untarily with their free conthat consensual sex with a sent. Hence no case is made
girl aged below 18 years
out under section 363
(kidnapping) and 366
does not constitute an offence under the Protection (kidnapping or inducing
woman to compel her marof Children from Sexual
Offences (POCSO) Act.
riage) of the IPC," the court
said.
The court said the provi"In my opinion, it would
sions of POCSO Act suggest that where a physical neither serve the object of
relationship — which is not present enactment (POCSO
in the nature of an assault Act) nor the purpose of
— takes place with the mi- criminal laws to hold the
accused guilty on the
nor girl's consent and
where the consent has not ground that he had sexual
been obtained unlawfully, intercourse with the girl
no offence can be said to
below 18 years," the judge
have been committed.
said, adding that it would
not be good for the girl if
Rejecting the plea of the her husband was sent to
police and Delhi Commis- jail. The POCSO Act treats
girls and boys below 18
sion for Women that
POCSO Act prohibits mi- years of age as minors.
nors from having any kind
sexual relationship, addi"It is high time that state
tional sessions judge
authorities, its machinery,
Dharmesh Sharma said, "I NGOs and women groups
am afraid if that interpreta- made a determined and sustion is allowed, it would
tained endeavour to reach
mean that the human body out to all in schools, collegof every individual under
es and residential places,
18 years is the property of thereby creating public
the state and no individual awareness on various asbelow 18 years can be alpects of life in case of marlowed to have pleasures
riage at a tender age... beassociated with one's
sides creating awareness
body."
amongst adolescents and
young adults about the seriASJ Sharma, however,
ous psychological and
urged state authorities to
physical health issues that
spread awareness related to such a relation entails," the
unsafe sex or early marcourt observed.
riage. "But there lies a
greater responsibility on all According to the prosecuof us, the state including
tion, a complaint was filed
police in spreading and cre- before the police on March
ating public awareness
5 by the minor girl's mother
about the impact of girl or about her daughter going
boy marrying at a tender
missing since February 26.
age or indulging in unsafe
sexual activities," he said.
The accused was arrested
on March 6 and the girl was
The court made these ob- also recovered from his
servations while acquitting custody, it said. The girl, in
a 22-year-old youth of
her statement recorded becharges of kidnapping and fore a magistrate, said she
raping a 15-year-old girl
had willingly gone with the
whom he later married. The accused to his native place
youth, a native of West
in Kolkata and they got
Bengal, was acquitted of
married in a temple there
the charges as the court
and since then they have
held that the minor, on her been living together.
Article 34.1 of the Constitution provides that “Justice
… shall be administered in
public“. By way of footnote
to my earlier post on Open
justice and access to court
documents comes the decision of Hogan J in Allied
Irish Bank plc v Tracey
(No 2) [2013] IEHC 242
(21 March 2013). The applicant had been mentioned
in affidavits filed by the
defendant in the main action, and took this motion
to have access to those affidavits. Hogan J held in his
favour, and emphasised that
he was entitled to the affidavits as of right and not
necessarily on foot of an
application to court:
[ 21] In any event, I do not
consider that the Court’s
permission was required for
this purpose. These allegations were ventilated in civil proceedings in open court
and, as I have already
found, the affidavits were
effectively openly read into
the record of the court. Given that these proceedings
were in open court pursuant
to the requirements of Article 34.1 of the Constitution,
it follows that any cloak of
confidentiality or protection
from non-disclosure vanished at point. …
[22] The open administra-
tion of justice is, of course,
a vital safeguard in any free
and democratic society. It
ensures that the judicial
branch is subjected to scrutiny and examination and
helps to promote confidence in the fair and even
handed administration of
justice. Any system of secret court hearings could
pave the way for judicial
arrogance, overbearing judicial conduct and abuse.
ing section 46(1)(a)(I) of
the Freedom of Information
Act, 1997 (also here)
(section 46 was amended
by section 29 of the Freedom of Information
(Amendment) Act, 2003
(also here), but not in any
way that affected that decision). Moreover, Hogan J’s
dismissal of “secret court
hearings” calls our current
system of closed refugee
tribunals into question.
[23] In these circumstances the public are entitled to
have access to documents
which were accordingly
opened without restriction
in open court. This is simply part and parcel of the
open administration of justice which the Constitution
(subject to exceptions) enjoins. …
The public’s right of access to court documents is a
very important aspect of the
open administration of justice, but it has not heretofore been much exercised
in Ireland. It is expected
that the next draft of the
Legal Services Regulation
Bill 2011 will provide some
practical guidance on how
this very important right
can be exercised. For example, it should clear up
whether the public can exercise this right vis-à-vis
the relevant court office (in
principle, in my view, the
answer to that question
should be yes; though, at
present, there would seem
to be no such practice).
Moreover, whilst the judgment itself only expressly
covers documents fully
opened in open court, the
legislation could clarify the
extent to which the public
can have access to documents filed for the purposes
of litigation but not opened
in court.
This is an extraordinarily
significant decision, placing on a constitutional footing what the Court of Appeal in R (on the application of Guardian News and
Media Ltd) v City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court
[2012] EWCA Civ 420 (03
April 2012) recognised as a
fundamental principle of
the Common law, and expanding what is at present
available pursuant to Minister for Justice, Equality
and Law Reform v Information Commissioner
[2001] 3 IR 43, [2002] 2
ILRM 1, [2001] IEHC 35
(14 March 2001) interpret-