Dec 16 2009
Critics say $10 background checks sold by Onondaga County sheriff are unreliable, overpriced
By Tim Knauss / The Post-Standard
December 09, 2009, 6:00AM
(David Lassman / The Post-Standard) Retired State Trooper Lisa Parlato attends a meeting of the Onondaga County Legislature's Public Safety Committee Tuesday. She was initially denied a job as a volunteer mentor in Syracuse schools because the county sheriff's background check turned up a 33-year-old arrest for shoplifting; the case was forever sealed by a judge.
Syracuse, NY - Lisa Parlato served 20 years as a New York state trooper. After she retired, she earned a bachelor’s degree in social work.
But the Syracuse school district initially denied Parlato’s request to volunteer as a mentor to pupils.
The reason: Her “background check” provided by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office revealed a black mark. It said she had been arrested for petit larceny - more than three decades ago, in 1976.
What the sheriff’s report did not say is that a judge ordered Parlato’s arrest record forever sealed from public view after she was accused of shoplifting at a DeWitt department store when she was 17. Continue Reading »
