Man wanted by interpol - working as US prison guard

[faceless]

Man wanted by Interpol found working as a guard in US prison
Times Online

A simple Google search of Michal Preclik's name turns up an Interpol wanted poster from his native Czech Republic. So where was he arrested? In a maximum-security prison in the US, where he was not an inmate, but a guard. Preclik, 32, had worked at the prison in the central US state of Nebraska for a year and his arrest came just two months after officials at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution promoted him to corporal. Prison officials learned last month that he was wanted on suspicion of drug and fraud crimes.

The electronic wanted poster, which shows his mug shot, went up on Interpol's website exactly a year before his arrest. The poster is the first weblink that appears when Googling Preclik's name. “This is just unbelievable that the state of Nebraska is hiring international criminals,” said Heath Mello, a Nebraska state senator. “Who's minding the store?”

As a result of the embarrassing mistake, the Department of Correctional Services is now reviewing its hiring practices. “Obviously, it’s a concern whenever we have anyone working at the facility ... who has any type of outstanding warrants,” said Dawn Renee Smith, a spokeswoman. The situation is reminiscent of a 2005 incident that led to a Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services policy that Google searches of job candidates be conducted. The department offered a job to Wayne Richard McGuire, but rescinded the offer after it was reported that he had been convicted in absentia in Rwanda of the 1985 murder of Dian Fossey, whose research was the subject of the movie Gorillas in the Mist.

Preclik ended up in Nebraska in 2002 when he got a job at a pig farm through a company that recruited Eastern Europeans as labourers in violation of their tourist visas. The farm is about 30 miles from the Tecumseh prison. Preclik later testified against Milan Matousek, who was convicted of transporting and harbouring illegal immigrants while helping the company. He was granted legal residency in return for his help in the prosecution, according to his wife, Kari Preclik, an American he married in 2005.

She said that the drug and fraud accusations stem from another prosecution he assisted with in the Czech Republic. She claims that he had become ensnared with organised crime while buying and selling cars and was kidnapped. While testifying in that case, he was accused of giving members of the group drugs. But she had no idea of an outstanding warrant. “We did not find out he was wanted until he was picked up,” Mrs Preclik said.

Interpol, which fosters police co-operation across the borders of 188 countries, and the US Marshals service, did not release any information about the accusations against Preclik. “I was shocked when I found out,” said Patrick Barker, an officer at the prison who worked with Preclik. “Here we have a guy facing drug and fraud charges and we're dealing with contraband issues at the prison.”

Ms Smith said that she wasn't aware of any internal investigations because of Preclik's situation. She said that the Corrections Department did a background check on Preclik before hiring him. But a national database that includes criminal records and warrants, the National Criminal Information Centre, apparently did not reveal any warrants for his arrest. There is often a lag between the time Interpol lists someone as wanted and when an arrest warrant is issued in the country where the person is residing.

Preclik was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on September 8 and next month there is hearing to determine whether he can be released on bond. He has asked that the decision to send him back to the Czech Republic be reviewed.

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Having watched a documentary about how shitty the job conditions are for prison guards (being barked at like they're in a bastard army boot camp etc) I'm not surprised at all that this has happened. A good majority of normal people would simply refuse to be such arseholes as to allow that kind of behaviour in their daily jobs, so they end up leaving and the international criminals end up doing it!

[pirtybirdy]

I don't know about the being barked at part, but I'm not surprised either due to the fact that it's a shitty low paying job that no one wants to do and is dangerous as well. I'm sure they either didn't do a simple HR check or didn't give a shit just so they can get someone to mind the criminal muckity muck.

[faceless]

The barked-at part was from a doc I saw recently about prison guards in Georgia. If they couldn't handle being shouted at by a sergeant-major type, the likes of which you've not seen since Full Metal Jacket, then they'd be out.

My view is that if you don't look after the lowest in society then the top has no worth.

[pirtybirdy]

I don't get that. Someone has to watch the creepy fuckers who rape, murder, and torture every day people just because their mommy's didn't give them an ice cream when they were kids, or whatever bullshit excuse they give themselves for behaving hideously. I don't think it has much to do with making those watching them feel worthy. That's my 2 worthless copper cents. lol!

[faceless]

have you never done something in the heat of passion that you wouldn't do on an average day?

And how many people claim external influences for what they've done compared to those who simply accept the legal situation in the state/country they are living in?

[Bat]

Never trust a Czech...

[SpursFan1902]

Sometimes they bounce...

[faceless]

[SpursFan1902]

Cute Face! I needed a ba dum tish....