In a story that shows the importance of using overlapping tools to do criminal background checks, a jury recently ruled that negligence by the Housing Authority in a North Carolina city led to an elderly woman’s death at the hands of her crack cocaine addicted neighbor in 2007.
A story on CharlotteObserver.com revealed that attorneys sued the agency on behalf of the 63-year-old woman’s estate after she was strangled in her apartment at a public housing complex for the elderly and disabled. Her 46-year-old neighbor – who reportedly had a history of violence, drugs, and mental illness – was later convicted of her killing.
Jurors awarded victim’s sons $132,000 over their claim of inadequate tenant screening after a background on the convicted killer missed several convictions for violent behavior in the man’s past. Jurors said they could not agree on a monetary amount, and the final figure was a compromise that was far less than the $10.4 million in damages the sons were asking for.
At issue in the trial was whether the Housing Authority properly screened the woman’s killer with a background check before it let him live in the apartment complex. The CharlotteObserver.com reported that the attorney for the woman’s estate argued that the Housing Authority violated its own procedures by doing only a North Carolina background check – not nationwide background check – on the woman’s eventual killer. The N.C. check missed violent crime and drug convictions in Maryland that would have prevented the man from living at the apartment complex.
The jury agreed, and CharlotteObserver.com quoted the foreman as saying that the just felt like the elderly woman’s murder could have been prevented with better background checks. The attorney also said he hoped the judgment would make the Housing Authority do more comprehensive background checks on tenants.
A tragic story such as this reminds employers – and landlords – of the importance of national multi-jurisdictional searches that can uncover criminal records that job applicants – or tenants – have in states other than the one in which they currently live and work.
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