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August 5, 2005Police, ISD spar over sex offenderBackground check didn't turn up recordByRecord-Eagle staff writer CHARLEVOIX - State police defended a background check they conducted that failed to uncover the criminal history of a convicted sex offender who spent the past several years as an administrator with the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District. And ISD officials could have discovered the administrator's past had they sought a fingerprint check allowable under federal guidelines, state police said. ISD officials and state police swapped barbs following Sunday's arrest of Arthur Kirk, 70, director of its AmeriCorps volunteer program. Kirk is charged with multiple felony weapons offenses after authorities discovered he owned handguns despite a long criminal history, including sex crimes with children, under another name, Arthur Kirkeby. He's free on bond while awaiting a court hearing. The revelation prompted ISD superintendent Mark Eckhardt to criticize "deficiencies in the Michigan State Police background check system," a contention that did not sit well with state police. State police Lt. Aaron Sweeney, who commands the Petoskey post, said in a written statement the agency determined its backgrounding system worked properly. "Prior to Sunday night, when Kirk was arrested on three firearms-related felonies, Arthur Kirk did not have a criminal history," Sweeney said. "Once it was discovered Arthur Kirk is also Arthur Kirkeby, this alias information was immediately added to the criminal history record of Arthur Kirkeby." Kirk's criminal background emerged after he applied for a concealed weapons permit in May and submitted to a required FBI fingerprint background check. His criminal past as Kirkeby includes at least three prior sex offenses, including a first-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction involving an 8-year-old boy in Macomb County, for which Kirkeby served five years, four months in prison and was released in 1986. Sweeney said the ISD had the power under federal law to require a fingerprint check on volunteers such as Kirk, "which would have returned the same conviction information Kirk/Kirkeby's concealed weapons application did." Eckhardt said the district would now require fingerprint checks for AmeriCorps volunteers as it already does for employees. The state police background system provides a name-based search of the Michigan criminal history record, Sweeney said. Other identifiers can also be added to the record, but a match to a criminal history will not occur without a hit on the name, he said. "This is why fingerprint-based searches are of critical importance in not only confirming the criminal record, but also the positive identification of persons," Sweeney said. But Eckhardt continued to challenge the effectiveness of the state system. "There are flaws in the system design if information such as Social Security number is disregarded as a primary personal identifier when determining a person's criminal background," he said. Kirk's Social Security card, under the name "Arthur Kirk," contained the same number as the one Kirkeby used at the time of his arrests decades ago, Charlevoix sheriff George T. Lasater said. Kirk was not required to register as a sex offender, as his convictions came before that law was installed, and the law is not retroactive, Lasater said. Kirk's duties with the intermediate school district were administrative for the past three years, ISD spokeswoman Dianne Litzenburger said. But he did work directly with children as an AmeriCorps volunteer in the Charlevoix Middle School in 2001, she said. See Related Story: Charlevoix AmeriCorps director arrested on firearms charges - August 2, 2005
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