Type of background checks at CSULB in question

By Kristopher Hanson
Summer Forty-Niner

The recent arrest of a Cal State Long Beach special education clinic employee marks the second time in a year that University Police have arrested a man for felony sex crimes.

University hiring practices include background and reference checks on most individuals; however, it is unclear what kind of background check was done on the man recently arrested.

On July 26, University Police arrested Roger McGookin, 63,  for felony sex crimes. The arrest has raised questions regarding his past at the Fountain Valley School District after officials there said they were very surprised he had been working with children at CSULB.

University Police arrested the former part-time CSULB lecturer and child psychologist at his Fountain Valley home on five counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and one count of distributing pornographic material.

Both crimes involved a minor under 14 years of age.

After his arrest, McGookin bailed out on a $260,000 bond and was ordered to appear for his arraignment less than a week later.

When McGookin failed to appear for his first arraignment date in early August,the Long Beach Municipal Court issued an arrest warrant,said Long Beach Police spokeswoman Jana Blair.

Police served the warrant, and brought McGookin before a judge at the Long Beach courthouse again on Aug. 3, at which time he entered a plea of not guilty, Blair said.

He was then ordered to appear at a preliminary hearing on Sept. 5, when prosecutors will possibly offer him a plea bargain, Blair said.

McGookin's role at CSULB has varied between part-time employee and outside contractor. From August 1998 to December of 1999, McGookin was a part-time lecturer in the CSULB Educational Psychology, Administration and Counseling Department, where he taught one class per semester, said University spokeswoman Toni Beron.

After that, he served in some capacity as a psychologist with the CSULB Educational Psychology Clinic, although he was officially "an outside contractor," Beron said, failing to elaborate on the term.

A voice message at the clinic stated the clinic offers "low-cost counseling, remediation and psycho-educational  evaluation" on children ages 7-17 by supervised graduate students.

A woman who refused to be identified answered the phone there and said she wasn't aware of the charges against McGookin, but did say that she knew him and "he seemed normal."

Beron said she didn't know who was paying McGookin's paychecks while he worked with the clinic, but said it wasn't CSULB and could have been the CSULB Foundation.

"Most of those contracts are paid through the Foundation," Beron said.

Fountain Valley Unified School District board members were apparently unaware that McGookin was working at CSULB, raising questions as to how extensive the background check was when he was hired as an outside contractor.

"I was not aware he was working there," said Carl Dane, assistant supervisor of personnel for Fountain Valley Unified.  "It comes as a surprise to all of us."

Dane said he could not elaborate, citing confidentiality agreements made with employees present and past, although he did say McGookin retired in 1998 after roughly 30 years with the district.

When hiring lecturers and professors at CSULB, Beron said it is standard procedure for an applicant to fill out a SC-1 form, which asks the individual under oath if they had been discharged from a previous job or convicted of a felony in the past.

McGookin apparently passed those questions.

However, Beron could not specify what reference or background checks were done on McGookin at the time of his hiring as a lecturer in August of 1998.

Attempts to reach McGookin at his Fountain Valley home were unsuccessful.

In another recent sex crime case at CSULB, Jerome Alvin Cruz, now 29, was arrested by University Police on June 25, 1999, after a mentally disabled co-worker accused him of sexual battery.

Cruz had been employed by the Forty-Niner Shops as a food service worker and was working in the Parkside Commons when he forced the co-worker into a walk-in refrigerator and performed oral copulation by force on the co-worker, police said.

Cruz pleaded no contest to the felony sexual battery charge on Jan. 7, 2000 and was ordered to spend 264 days in county jail and serve three years' probation. His jail time was suspended for time served and he now lives in Long Beach.

In addition, Cruz has been listed as a "serious offender" under California's registered sex offender law, commonly known as Megan's Law.

When hired by the Forty-Niner Shops, Cruz's background was not checked extensively, said Roman Gulon, Forty-Niner Shops general manager and chief executive operator.

"Background checks are not done on most employees except ones who handle cash or apply for upper management positions," Gulon said, adding that Cruz's hiring didn't raise any red flags.  "He came up clean."