Broken Trust
Multnomah County routinely hires parole officers with criminal records. Last week, one of them was indicted for stealing from his probationers. BY MAUREEN O'HAGAN, mohagan@wweek.com When Multnomah County hired Frank Caywood as a parole officer in May 1995, it wasn't worried that he had a police record. In fact, the county Department of Adult and Juvenile Community Justice has several former criminals on staff. But a year after Caywood was sworn in, he allegedly began stealing from the very people he was supposed to supervise, according to criminal charges filed against Caywood last week. On Oct. 8, a Multnomah County grand jury indicted Caywood, 37, on 12 counts of theft, official misconduct and possession of heroin. According to Marlin Hayes, one of Caywood's probationers who testified before the grand jury, Caywood "presented himself as nice and respectful. He was even nice enough to come by my house--I didn't even have to come into the office and report." Hayes says he wasn't suspicious when Caywood accepted his $25 per month supervision fee in cash and failed to provide official receipts. It appears that in some cases, Caywood didn't turn over the money he collected from Hayes and others to the county as required. At some point, the theft caught up with Caywood--and the offenders he supervised. Hayes says he began getting letters from the county saying that he could be sent to jail for not paying his fees. Hayes later learned there was a warrant issued for his arrest. "I'm sitting up here shaking in my boots," Hayes explained. "He said, 'Don't worry. I'll take care of it for you.'" Caywood never took care of it. Instead, he allegedly pulled the same scam with other offenders he was charged with supervising. "It's a huge violation-of-trust issue for people who probably didn't have a lot of trust in the first place," says Maggie Miller, a spokeswoman for the county parole department. Caywood was fired last month, after being on leave since the investigation began in May. In 1989, Caywood was convicted in Nevada of conspiracy to possess stolen property and conspiracy to commit forgery, both misdemeanors. According to policy, prior convictions do not disqualify someone from employment with the department, whether they are felons or misdemeanants. In fact, a personnel policy approved by department director Elyse Clawson in April says, "The Department recognizes that ex-offenders can make a positive contribution to society." That's partly because parole officers are a strange hybrid, required to be part law officer and part social worker. Much like alcohol and drug counselors, who are often recovering addicts themselves, the county thinks ex-offenders have something to offer to those on parole. "We work with people who committed crimes and we're working with agencies all the time to try to get them to employ them," Clawson told WW. She points out, however, that there are several constraints. Full-fledged parole officers, for example, must be certified by the Department on Public Safety Standards and Training, which does not accept convicted felons, although it does accept people with misdemeanor records. Corrections counselors, on the other hand, have somewhat less responsibility than parole officers and need not be certified. "I don't think you can say just because someone had a previous misdemeanor conviction that they can't be OK as an employee," Clawson says. "Clearly, Frank Caywood was not. When we were aware there were concerns we moved on them very quickly." Miller says that among the department's 120 parole officers, some probably have misdemeanor records, although she adds that it's difficult to say exactly how many. She also says the department currently employs a corrections counselor with a felony record, "and he's excellent." "I don't have a concern outright that we have people with misdemeanors becoming parole officers," says County Commissioner Dan Saltzman, although he believes that each applicant should be considered individually. The county policy isn't that unusual. The Washington County parole department recently hired one person with a misdemeanor record. The Clackamas County parole department has no current employees with criminal records, but it doesn't have a blanket prohibition. That openness in hiring stands in contrast to the practice of other law enforcement agencies. According to Lt. Cliff Madison, people with misdemeanor records are allowed in theory to become police officers, but in practice, they probably wouldn't be hired, he said. "You're being asked to uphold the law," Madison explains. "You're going to be on the stand testifying. If it were something in your background that would go to your honesty, where your morals came into question, that would probably wash you out. "Forgery," he added, "would definitely bring up a question regarding a person's honesty." |
