CINCINNATI — A River City Correctional Center employee supervised inmates for nearly three months while there were four active warrants for her arrest.
Court records show Jamila Abdur-Rahman, 38, was charged with felony drug possession, domestic violence, disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia in March, three months before she began working as a 'resident supervisor' at River City.
The warrants for her arrest were issued in August and are still active, according to court records.
River City's Executive Director Scott McVey admitted he didn't know about her criminal charges or warrants until the I-Team informed him about the criminal cases and asked him to confirm that she was a River City employee.
"Due to your notification to us last night of her charges we have reviewed her background information again and have immediately terminated her from River City as well as notified Hamilton County Sheriff of her current address," McVey wrote in his email response to the I-Team's questions.
McVey wrote that River City conducted a background check on Abdur-Rahman in the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) database and didn't see any indication that she had active criminal charges.
But the I-Team quickly and easily confirmed Abdur-Rahman's active criminal charges and warrants by searching for her name in the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts' website.
It was at least the second time in recent months that River City fired an employee who supervised inmates after learning that background checks hadn't discovered information disqualifying them for their job at the minimum-security facility on Cincinnati's west side.
In June, River City hired Armani Vaughn as a resident supervisor, even though Vaughn was still on community control — also referred to as probation — for a robbery in 2019.
McVey told the I-Team that the BCI check didn't show Vaughn was still on probation and didn't have any "red flags," so River City hired him to supervise inmates.
Steve Irwin, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said they are reviewing McVey's claims about information available through the BCI database.
The I-Team searched for Vaughn's criminal cases on the Clermont County Clerk of Courts' website. It took 40 seconds to confirm he was still on probation.
Seven weeks after Vaughn started supervising inmates at River City, a Clermont County probation officer called the facility and told staff that Vaughn was still under court-ordered supervision, according to McVey.
After that, McVey said River City ended Vaughn's employment.
"That's troubling if the reason that happened is because somebody slipped up or something fell under the radar in the process of deciding who's going to work there," retired judge and former prosecutor Fanon Rucker said. "It can really cause people to question the integrity of the program itself."
The I-Team began investigating River City in July after two inmates escaped from removing an entire windowfrom an exterior wall.
One of the escapees, Thomas Cromwell, held a woman hostage at knifepoint in a Mason hotel room.
The nearly 12-hour police standoff ended when an officer shot and killed Cromwell.
The I-Team's investigation has also documented violence inside the treatment-focused facility and the security threat posed by alleged members of a prison gang.
Rucker said he's concerned that River City's problems will hurt the program and discourage residents who are there to get treatment, develop skills and become successful.
"There are few things that are more powerful than a person defeating themselves before they begin their journey," Rucker said.
McVey said that based on the I-Team's investigation, River City will change the way it conducts background checks by searching for job applicants in local court databases.
