Criminal past is no bar to nursing

Menchaca did not respond to a request for comment sent to him in state prison in Lancaster.

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Databases

Goodman said many hospitals conduct their own criminal background checks. And, she said, one minor crime such as a drunk driving conviction may not indicate that a nurse shouldn't be allowed to practice, a view shared by outside experts. Even so, multiple convictions generally warrant some sort of discipline, Goodman said. "There's obviously a problem. There's obviously a pattern."

The board could have found out about some nurses' criminal histories or accusations against them just as The Times and ProPublica did -- by reviewing government databases.

By comparing the state's Megan's Law database, which lists registered sex offenders, with the state's list of registered nurses, for instance, reporters immediately found three cases in which the names and addresses of sex offenders matched those of registered nurses with clean records.

One of those in the Megan's Law database was Thomas Walker Carson, 52, who was convicted in 1989 of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 14 and in 1997 for failure to register as a sex offender.

In an interview outside his home in Calimesa, Carson said he continues to work as a nurse and has never been contacted by the nursing board. "The people I work with know all about me and my office knows all about me," he said. "It's never been a problem."

Carson, a former medic in the Air Force, said his conviction occurred nearly 20 years ago and involved a friend's 13-year-old sister.

Asked why he didn't tell the nursing board about his conviction, Carson said, "I'm not going to volunteer for more grief. . . . They don't ask me anything on my renewals. I just pay for a class and pay a fee."

He now works as a home health nurse with an older patient, he said, not children. But he said he still must provide for his two children and believes he is a good nurse.

"I personally am not dangerous," he said. "I wasn't dangerous then."

The nursing board's Goodman said she was unaware that any sex offenders were licensed in good standing.

"I'm sure with Megan's Law being what it is, I'm sure there's a database out there and it would be very interesting -- wouldn't it? -- to run names against a database," she said. "I don't know. I'm thinking out loud."