The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "criminal court records" ...
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Officer Absent, Case Dismissed
Many defendants facing felony charges were set free in 2007 because police officers, who arrested them, never showed up for court. Further, these defendants already had long criminal records and after being released were later arrested for other crimes. In some instances, cases were postponed when officers did not show up for court, instead of having the case dismissed. No matter if the case is postponed or dismissed it wastes the time of judges, lawyers, defendants, and the public’s money.
Tags: law enforcement; Louisville Metro Police Department; Jefferson District Court; absences; county attorney
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Above the Law
The Illinois State Police are refusing to seal or expunge thousands of criminal records. Many of these ex-offenders have reformed themselves and strive to clear themselves of these criminal records. Thousands of these ex-offenders have convinced judges to seal or expunge their criminal records. Furthermore, many ex-offenders believed their records were sealed or expunge, only to find out their records are still public.
Tags: Criminal records; Illinois; State Police; Court; FOIA
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Concerns in Happy Valley
Penn State's football coach Joe Paterno is the winningest coach in Division I history despite the many criminal charges against his program's players over the years. A database was created using computer assisted reporting to analyze players' Pennsylvania court records over the last seven years.
Tags: Nittany Lions; off-campus; scholarship; NCAA; CAR; Football Bowl Subdivision; Big Ten; linebacker;
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Sealed Records
KLAS investigated Arash Hashemi, who was accused of torturing and almost killing his girlfriend's young daughter, and found that all his criminal cases were sealed.
Tags: court; records; sealed records; child abuse; deportation;
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Bus Drivers
"The Channel 8 I-team investigated the criminal histories of all of Clark County School Bus Drivers. Major findings include: 13% of drivers had come in contact with the courts, either arrested, cited or charged with a crime, 5% of those resulted in convictions, including 6 convictions for driving under the influence."
Tags: bus drivers; criminal convictions; database searches; criminal records; DUI; public safety; children safety
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Hidden Dockets/ Secret Cases
In Florida hundreds of state cases have been hidden from the public for decades. "These cases included the divorces of politicians, judges, lawyers and businessmen, and the criminal cases of informants. Judges failed to obey public access law when sealing off those cases. In Miami, judges and prosecutors Miami also falsified public criminal court records, violating a state criminal statute and covering up evidence of embarrassing public corruption and an unsolved murder."
Tags: court; criminal cases; divorce; judges; murder; public access law; sealed cases; Miami; Florida
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Holes in the System: Ohio's Missing Fingerprints
The State of Ohio's database is missing tens of thousands of criminal records used to perform background checks on job applicants for both public and private employers. Without the information, a convicted felon could potentially be hired for a position their conviction would usually preclude them from obtaining. The investigation found that local courts were not fingerprinting defendants who were summoned to court rather than being arrested. The state's computers do not accept a conviction without fingerprints. After finding many examples of convicted criminals' records not existing in the database, the reporters further discovered that some state officials were aware of the issue, but had been slow to act.
Tags: Criminal records; database; fingerprints; convicted felons; background checks
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Hidden Dockets/Secret Cases
This story is a duplicate. For the file, go to story 23214
Tags: courts; ciruit court; hidden cases; public records; civil cases; criminal cases; docket
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Justice at War
After analyzing the Army Court-Martial Management Information system database it was found that soldiers who broke military rules were more likely to face charges than those who violated civilian law. These violations were mainly aimed at Iraqi civilians and included robbing , kidnaping and killing them. Also it was found that the Army's recruitment has enlisted men of questionable background. Some of these men would not be hired by other law enforcement groups such as the police, due to their criminal records.
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Good Gifts Gone Bad PART II
The authors investigated a car donation scam, with over $2 million dollars worth of vehicles that had been donated not going to their intended charities. This was the tip of other fraudulent activities by middlemen, hired by the charities to manage donations. Charities were not carrying out background checks on the middlemen, and some of these people abusing the system were already convicted criminals.
Tags: charities; car donations; fraud; vehicle donations; court records