investigativevoice.com

REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER COVER-UP
COULD INCLUDE UP TO 6 DPW EMPLOYEES;
THIRD PROBE LAUNCHED THIS WEEK

By Stephen Janis


Fearing the city does not have adequate safeguards to prevent registered sex offenders from working in jobs that put them in direct contact with the public, City Councilwoman Helen Holton (D-8th) is calling for an investigative council hearing into the case of Dennis J. McLaughlin, a convicted sex offender who kept his job while in prison and was allowed to work with the public after his release.

Citing the growing scandal that has embroiled the Department of Public Works and McLaughlin, who managed to collect sick leave while in prison and later secured a job that sent him into schools and private residences to investigate water leaks, Holton said she wants to know how he slipped through the cracks.

“I want to understand why this happened,” Holton said Wednesday afternoon. “I think it is a public safety risk when we have convicted sex offenders in these types of jobs, she said.

“Are we checking the registry?” she said. “What are the protocols?”

In a resolution calling for the hearing, Holton cites the case of McLaughlin, a registered sex offender who fraudulently collected sick pay while serving eight months in prison between July 2007 and May 2008 for sexually abusing a minor, despite being on the Maryland Registered Sex Offender List.

“There were employees that knew what was going on,” Holton said. “And even one is too many.”

WANTS OFFICIALS TO TESTIFY

Holton wants representatives from the Department of Public Works, the city solicitor's office, human resources and union officials to testify before the council.

The council investigation is the third probe launched since Investigative Voice first revealed that McLaughlin was collecting sick leave while in prison.

Last week the Inspector General’s office took over an internal investigation initiated by Department of Public Works Director David Scott. Earlier, officials of the ASMCE 66, the union that represents 10,000 city employees, said it was investigating allegations that McLaughlin was borrowing additional sick time from the union’s “sick bank,” sick leave donated by fellow employees to workers with lengthy illnesses.

Meanwhile, Scott said Wednesday that investigators now believe five to six employees may have been involved in a far-reaching cover-up that involved forging medical leave slips for McLaughlin while he was in prison and submitting them to keep him on the payroll.

McLaughlin was arrested three weeks ago on charges of impersonating a police officer and sexually assaulting a woman he had pulled over. On Feb. 1 a Baltimore County jury handed down a nine-count indictment against McLaughlin including new charges of kidnapping and a total of three counts of impersonating a police officer.

In 2007 he pled guilty to sexually abusing a minor under the age of 15. However, he was required to serve only eight months of his 16-month sentence. McLaughlin is currently being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center.

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