13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |No Record Found

No Record Found

About the Series

Criminal background checks are in the news now more than ever.  Thousands of people depend on them to screen out convicted criminals for jobs in schools, nursing homes and other places.  But how reliable are they?  The Eyewitness News Investigators uncovered startling findings about the Indiana's central criminal records database.  Numerous crimes from burglary to child molesting to murder aren't even in the database.  The background check may say "No Record Found," but many times that's far from accurate.

This series was prepared by reporter Angie Moreschi, investigative producer Gerry Lanosga, and photojournalist Bill Ditton.  It aired April 29-30, 2004.

Part One

The victims were little girls – 10, 9 and 6 years old.

James Altes, an Indianapolis Public School janitor, was accused of molesting at least four girls in his home over a four-year period. 

“I was just a little girl,” recalled Alyson Boffo.  “To me that man is sick.”

“I hate him,” said Cheryl White, Boffo’s mother.  “I will always hate him.”

Altes was convicted in January this year – a relief to the victim’s families.  But when Eyewitness News did a background check on Altes recently, it came back “no record found” – as if he was never even arrested.  That was a shock to White and her daughter.

“It's like they smacked these kids right in the face,” White said.  “That upsets me (that) it's not in there.  It should be in there."

Alyson Boffo was six when she was molested.  She came forward eight years later and testified at Altes' trial.

“To know that it's not even in there (that) he's done something wrong is horrible,” Boffo said.

And her mother has another worry.

“What if there’s another man just like him out there somewhere,” she wonders, “going into the school systems, going into anywhere?”

That's a real concern based on what we learned about the criminal records repository kept by the Indiana State Police.

For $7 in person or about $15 online, people can run what's called a limited criminal history search. It's supposed to reveal any arrests in the past year and all felony and A misdemeanor convictions – from child molesting to murder to theft – a person has in Indiana.

But the Eyewitness News Investigators made a troubling discovery about just how limited these limited criminal history checks are.

We picked 10 names off of the state's sex offender registry and ran them through a state criminal history check.  Only two out of the 10 convictions showed up.  The other eight – like Altes – “No Record Found.”

A recent Department of Defense study backs up that finding.  Indiana was the worst among four states studied, with only 24 percent of local criminal records showing up in the statewide database.

Most troubling is that the number of people depending on the state police repository for background checks is soaring.  Youth leagues, schools, daycares and nursing homes rely on it to screen employees and volunteers, all the while assuming the information on an official state document is accurate.

Tim Lavery, Superintendent of the North Knox school district, found out the hard way how unreliable a state criminal history check can be, and four teenage boys suffered the consequences.

Lloyd Coats, a school bus driver hired by the district, is now charged with molesting the students, some of whom rode on his bus.  It wasn't the first time he was accused of crimes against minors.  In 1993,  he was convicted of battery and providing kids with alcohol.

The district ran a state police background check on Coats before hiring him.  It came back – no record found.

“We were pretty amazed and pretty shocked that what we thought we were getting was a good background check,” Lavery said.  “Indiana definitely has a problem.”

Under state law, it's up to law enforcement agencies and county clerks in all of Indiana's 92 counties to report arrest and conviction information.  The state police say they just keep the information.  

“The only thing I can tell you is it’s as reliable as what’s provided,” said 1^st Sgt. Dave Bursten.

Major Fred Pryor, commander of the State Police Records Division, said that’s not as reliable as the agency would like, because counties too often fail to report the outcomes of criminal cases.

“The fact that we don’t have all the dispositions on file, I would say yes, that would give (people) a false sense of security,” Pryor said.

Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said the repository is so bad, in fact, that prosecutors don't rely on it anymore.

“It would be malpractice if we did,” he said.  “I couldn't tell you how many times we have people with known histories and we pull that thing up and it says none.  Run that again!  Comes back – none.  Huh?  How can there be none?  We're talking about serious crimes.”

Hamner said it’s dangerous to rely on those checks.

“People who are trying to do background checks, like schools and nursing homes, if they don't have all this information, decisions can be made that result in a danger to the public.”

That's exactly what a child who's been through it fears.

“If they're not doing their jobs to put them in there,” said Alyson Boffo, “then really they’re just setting someone up to get hurt.”

Part Two

The First Baptist Church Youth league in Indianapolis depends on state police background checks to help protect the hundreds of children who play there.

“If they’re coaching, assistant coaching or refereeing, we run a screen on them,” said George Robinson, the league’s athletic director.

Parents like it.

“Yeah, I’m glad they’re doing them,” said Colleen May.  “Yeah, they should be doing them.”

But an Eyewitness News investigation discovered people who use state police background checks get a false sense of security if they think they’re reliable in screening out dangerous criminals – even if they get an official state document back that says "no record found."  

We ran the names of 10 sex offenders, and only two of the convictions came back.  Even the highly-publicized case of convicted child molester James Altes – an Indianapolis Public Schools janitor – no record found.

“That’s shocking,” May said.

Fred Pryor, commander of the Indiana State Police records division, admits there's a problem.  But he blames many of the 92 counties around the state that fail to report arrest and conviction information to the central repository.

“We're no better than the information we're provided,” Pryor said.

The use of electronic fingerprint machines has helped law enforcement agencies considerably in reporting arrests, he said, but counties still lag in reports on the final disposition, or outcome, of a case. 

State law says it is specifically the duty of county clerks to report that disposition information.  So we decided to travel around the state to find out why so many don't do it.

First stop – Boone County.

“I’ve heard they don't always get the records that they need,” said County Clerk Lisa Garofolo.  Garofolo knew all about the reporting problem, but she thought her office was getting the job done.

As it turns out, confusion between her office and two of the criminal courts caused the system to break down – and only one out of every three criminal case dispositions made it from the clerk’s office to state police.

“It’s frustrating in that we'd like to do everything correctly,” Garofolo said.

Boone County's not alone.  In Knox County – just as much confusion.

“I have never known that an actual list came from our office,” said Knox County Clerk Brenda Hall.  “It’s just never been done in this particular clerk’s office.”

In Johnson County, a newly-elected clerk hadn't even heard of the state police central repository.

“I have no idea,” said Jill Jackson.  “I’m sorry, I can’t answer.”

Even in Marion County, Indiana's largest, most sophisticated county, there are problems.  Clerk Doris Ann Sadler had never seen the statute that requires her to send criminal case information to the state police, and worlers in her office didn't know who, if anyone, is sending it.

During our investigation, we learned something most clerks we talked with didn't realize.  Frustrated by the lack of information in the system about a year and a half ago, prosecutors in many counties took over the responsibility of sending dispositions to the state police.  The system, called Proslink, is run by the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council.

Pryor said the conviction data prior to that date are sketchy.  And there are still many holes even in current data, as we saw with convicted child molester James Altes.

In fact, Sadler said she found Marion County didn’t send conviction information to the state police at all in 1999 and 2000.

As for Altes, officials said a computer glitch on the day his information was to be sent to the state resulted in the loss of that information and the information on every other criminal convicted that day. 

That’s been corrected now, but according to the prosecutors group, that kind of glitch happens about once a week.

“Needless to say, it doesn't make me happy,” Sadler said.  “It give the clerk's office a black eye….  I’m appalled at the thought that there is some convicted child molester out there who's not on that system.”