Court Clerks Face Charges in Alleged Records Scheme

Two Van Nuys Municipal Court clerks face embezzlement charges for allegedly bilking taxpayers out of nearly $120,000 in records search fees.

Also charged in the alleged scheme is the husband of one of the employees, who is accused of charging clients court fees for background criminal records checks, but keeping the money.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office said the case, which was brought to authorities’ attention by an anonymous letter, is only the first to come from an investigation into similar practices across the county.

“There are other suspects and there’s an ongoing investigation,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Nicholas Koumjian said. “I expect further action.”

William Oses, his wife, Bridget Galvan-Oses, and Simon Cortez are scheduled to be arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court next week on charges of grand theft, embezzlement and unauthorized use of a government computer.

Oses, 27, owned Rapid Research, a small company that provided criminal-records searches to larger companies in the business of pre-employment screening, Koumjian said.

Oses faces a maximum of eight years in prison, while the other two face a four-year maximum.

In September 1997, the Los Angeles Municipal Court began charging $5 per record to individuals requesting criminal-records searches for background checks.

Courts receive thousands of those search requests daily and the fee, which goes to the county general fund, was implemented as a way to control the workload, said Marcia Skolnik, a court spokeswoman.

Galvan-Oses, 25, allegedly began surreptitiously doing the background checks for her husband as soon as the fee was initiated.

In June 1998, Municipal Court officials received an anonymous letter alleging that Galvan-Oses was conducting the illegal searches. A court audit found she and Cortez had conducted hundreds of unauthorized searches in the previous month and a half, according to court papers filed by Koumjian.

In an interview the following month, Galvan-Oses and Cortez, 26, both denied having made any unauthorized searches. Galvan-Oses also denied having heard of Rapid Research, her husband’s business.

However, workers found 18 pages of names and 26 computer printouts in a folder in her desk, leading to her suspension, court records show. She was later fired. Cortez, who was a student worker, was fired immediately.

Oses and Galvan-Oses later admitted to one of Oses’ clients that they pocketed the search fees, according to court papers.

Koumjian said others may have been bribing clerks to do the records searches off the books. The benefit, he said, is that it’s cheaper than paying the fee and the clerk would give quicker, better service.

“I think people are offering court clerks money to do it,” Koumjian said. “They may get a much faster turn-around time, which in a competitive business is important.”

In court papers, he said Galvan-Oses told her husband’s client that “the only way to get good service on the record searches was to pay court employees and that everyone was doing it.”