This is taken from a front page story from the Philadelphia Daily News on December 13th:
"KEVIN HUTCHINSON openly admits that he pleaded guilty in 2002 to misdemeanor charges of simple assault, harassment and related offenses for fighting with his ex's new boyfriend.
"I know what I did was wrong, " said Hutchinson, a William Penn High and Thompson Institute grad. "It's the first and only time I've ever been in trouble. It was a dark time in my life, and I put myself through a lot of unnecessary nonsense."
Hutchinson, 32, of North Philadelphia, even put it on his job application in September at GameStop, a video-game store at 22nd Street and Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia. So he was stunned when, after a month of employment, his manager called him into his office Oct. 19 and asked if anything was on his record that he hadn't disclosed.
"He said, 'If there was, would you be surprised?' " Hutchinson recalled. "I told him I'd be shocked, and a few minutes later, they fired me for nondisclosure of information."
Through no fault of his own, Hutchinson had fallen victim to what some experts say is a disturbing consequence of background checks - erroneous information gathered by careless or unscrupulous data brokers.
Hutchinson said he repeatedly asked whether he was being fired for the 2002 charges. He said his manager emphatically told him, "No, " but refused to tell him why he was being fired. Hutchinson said he never received a copy of his background check or a termination letter from GameStop. A job sought at WalmartAbout the same time, Hutchinson had an interview for an overnight-manager position at a suburban Walmart. After being out of steady work for more than a year, he had planned to work both jobs. He gave the company permission to do a complete background check and disclosed in writing his misdemeanor convictions, he said. A week later, Walmart sent him a denial letter and a copy of his background check conducted by General Information Services, a background-screening company based in South Carolina. That background check said Hutchinson had been convicted in 1996 of felony cocaine possession in Gloucester County, Va., and sentenced to 10 years in prison. "I have never even been to Gloucester County, Va., " Hutchinson said. "Back then, I was still in high school." After receiving the report, Hutchinson said, he called GIS to dispute the information. More than two weeks later, the company cleared his criminal-background check of the false felony-cocaine charge, according to GIS records he received.
On his own, Hutchinson had his fingerprints taken at the Pennsylvania State Police's Belmont Barracks and sent them to the Virginia State Police to demonstrate that he was not the man on their records, he said. "GIS said they dealt with it, but I didn't want to leave any stone unturned, " he said. It was too late for employment at Walmart, where Hutchinson had been red-flagged not only for the false cocaine charge but also for his legitimate misdemeanors, he said. And GameStop, where Hutchinson said the bosses knew about his misdemeanors when they hired him, refused to hire him back after the felony-cocaine charge was cleared. "They told me I had to reapply to see if I could get another position with the company, " he said. "Why should I have to reapply when you let me go off of false pretenses? You didn't even give me a chance to explain."
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