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	Vol.7, No 28, October 18, 1999
	Little merit in background check The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office confirmed last Wednesday the resignation of a staff prosecutor found civilly liable for killing a man more than 10 years ago. Mark Blackburn Never criminally convicted, prosecutor Matt Horeczko was not required to list the civil suit on his job application and worked in the office for more than five months before his background was checked out.   I am not sure what bothers me more, the fact that the D.A.'s  office, a group designed to prosecute and convict criminals to make our county a better place to live, can't even complete a simple background check on their employees, or the fact that the man, never criminally charged, is being treated like a stone-cold killer.   Lets start with the second point.   We have seen this happen before with the O.J. Simpson case. Simpson was held, tried and found not guilty of the crime of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. What all that legal jargon means is that 12 people believed that there was a slight possibility that Simpson did not kill his ex-wife and her boyfriend.   Even with a nationally televised reading of the not guilty verdict people still treat Simpson like a criminal. He has trouble finding places to eat, live, play golf and is regularly harassed on the street by people wanting to "shake hands with a murderer."   Horeczko was never even criminally charged with the murder he was accused of 10 years and the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that the Los Angeles Police Department lists the case as cleared. However he is being held to same standard as a guilty man. Granted, both Simpson and Horeczko were found liable in a civil court. But a civil trial does not have the same standard that a criminal court does. To be found civilly liable, a six person jury or a judge has to believe that the individual contributed to the death.   If you throw a party where alcohol is served and a person drinks too much, crashes their car and dies, you can be found civilly liable for that death because you supplied the booze.   Worst of all, Horeczko is now guilty in the eyes of his boss, District Attorney Gil Garcetti, the top legal eagle in all of Los Angeles who should know the difference between being convicted in a criminal trial and being found civilly liable.   Garcetti's office stated to the Times that they perform a background verification after the person is hired and that it can take up to 120 days to complete. That means for  about four months anyone with the ability to lie on a job application can work as a prosecutor in the D.A.'s office without a problem. It took the D.A.'s office more than five months to find out, 30 days past the supposed cut off time.   All they had to do was check his state bar review form, an application filled out by law graduates and lawyers from other states, to practice law in California. It asks if the person was ever involved in a civil action.   Horeczko not only answered  the question truthfully, the bar found no cause not to grant him a license to practice. No similar question appears on the D.A.'s application. Oddly enough, in the same section on the same day the Horeczko article ran, another story concerning background checks was discussed.   An FBI fugitive, wanted in connection with a 1983 Los Angeles bank robbery, elluded capture when he was found to be working under an assumed name on campus at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore. Doesn't anybody read resumes anymore? I have gone to school for some time to earn the degrees necessary for my chosen field of law enforcement. I have taken the classes, joined the clubs that look good to recruiters, made sure my record is clean and that the people I hang around with will not make me look guilty by association. That's right, no golf with O.J. We live in the age of world-wide fax's, credit card sized telephones and computers that can fit in your pocket, but no one at the D.A.'s office can find out the guy they just hired may have killed a guy in San Pedro just twenty miles up the road. I guess technology does not replace good old investigative skills. I hope Mr. Horeczko sues to get his job back and I hope he wins. If not, I would suggest a career as a defense attorney. Better to have a lawyer who knows both sides of the road then just the straight and narrow path.		Pyramid concert details released   Sedan smacks into campus shuttle   Skateboarders defy on-campus rules   Campus art teaches about domestic abuse   Retiring professors leave voids in CSULB classrooms Closing Holly-wood   Little merit in background check Alumni share their FX secrets with campus   Pantera still confident in its metal sound   Conference shuffle may have domino effect Fall 99 ISSUES DAILY 49ER HOMEPAGE
Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.