LA County worker hired despite rape record

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Los Angeles County health officials knew a man they had hired as a hospital worker had served time for raping two women, records indicate.

Documents show that county officials quietly fired Gariner Beasley, 48, last August, only a month after the Los Angeles Times found widespread instances of hiring applicants with serious criminal histories at the county's Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, then known as Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

The newspaper said several health department officials had access to Beasley's criminal history as he progressed within the county system. In 1992 he reportedly pleaded no contest to charges he raped a woman while on duty as a Los Angeles city police officer, as well as another sex assault, and served three years in prison.

"We had real pinheads working for us," Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina said, referring to managers who cleared the hires. The county fired 19 King workers, including Beasley, after the findings became public, the newspaper said.

The county employed Beasley as an X-ray technician, even though he was frequently alone with female patients, the Times said.