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	Archdiocese Missed Arrests Background Checker Convicted a Week before Hiring By Dan Horn Cincinnati Enquirer May 30, 2006 http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060530/NEWS01/605300344 Alex Henties was on probation in two states while he supervised the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's criminal background-check program. Church officials say they were aware before hiring Henties that he had committed a theft and some other minor crimes in the 1990s. But they say they did not know about the more recent offenses. The archdiocese fired Henties last year after he was arrested on drug possession charges. Court records show that he was convicted of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in Hamilton County June 16, 2003 - one week before the archdiocese hired him as coordinator of the background-check program. Three months after starting his new job, Henties was arrested again in Dearborn County, Ind., on drunken-driving charges. Judges convicted him in both cases and sentenced him to probation for one year. After initially defending the decision to hire Henties, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said last week that he regretted hiring someone with a felony record to run the background-check program. "The fact that there was more than one arrest might add to that regret," church spokesman Dan Andriacco said of Henties' arrests in 2003. "But one felony conviction is bad enough." Critics say the failure to spot convictions in two states before and after Henties' hiring raises questions about the background-check program. They say their concerns are magnified in Henties' case because he was hired to help set up and coordinate the program, which fingerprints all church employees and checks their criminal history. "In the position he was in, they should have done a background check," said Christy Miller, co-leader of Cincinnati's chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "That's not a lapse in judgment - that's just very poor policy." ACCESS TO PERSONAL DATA Miller and others have complained that someone with Henties' history never should have access to employees' personal information. More than 30,000 people have gone through the background-check program, and church officials say there is no evidence anyone's information was compromised. The archdiocese has hired a private investigator to examine the program and to investigate sexual abuse allegations that Henties recently made against his former boss, Vince Frasher. Frasher, the archdiocese's personnel director, has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of those investigations. Church officials have referred the case to Hamilton County prosecutors, who also are investigating. Authorities recently obtained a search warrant to seize some of Frasher's computers. Prosecutor Joe Deters declined comment, and Frasher could not be reached. Andriacco would not say whether any church computers have been taken. "We would welcome a criminal investigation if the prosecutor's office felt it was warranted," Andriacco said. WCPO-TV (Channel 9) reported this month that Henties, who is serving a two-year prison sentence, had told police that Frasher abused him. Henties, 32, said the abuse took place while he was growing up in Montgomery and continued for several years. Andriacco said Frasher last month gave church officials a letter, signed by Henties, denying any abuse took place. He said he did not know anything more about the letter or the circumstances under which Henties signed it. ABUSER OR MENTOR? Andriacco said the letter describes Frasher as a mentor and surrogate father. Court records also indicate that Frasher and Henties had a close relationship. A report prepared last year after the drug arrest describes Frasher as a "friend and legal guardian." Judge Robert Ruehlman sent Henties to prison for two years in March after he returned to court on a new charge of fleeing police in a car. That charge led to the two-year prison sentence. E-mail dhorn@enquirer.com
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