Employee with Outstanding Warrant Kidnaps Boss: Part III.

Let’s hypothetically say that Palermo fell under the protection of Title VII., even if the EEOC had gotten involved; their track record is inconsistent and the EEOC has been accused by many courts and employers for bringing forth investigations and lawsuits without any merit. Case in point, EEOC vs. Peoplemark; this case began in 2008 after and African American by the name of Sherri Lynn Scott accused the company of having a blanket policy of not hiring anyone with a criminal record, and accordingly, the EEOC brought a lawsuit against Peoplemark for alleging that Peoplemark had a blanket policy for not hiring anyone with a criminal record. The Commissioner at the time was Stuart Ishamuru, who said during testimony at the time:

Peoplemark “had a policy that denied the hiring or employment of ANY (emphasis added to the word “any” by Ishamuru) person with a  criminal record and that this policy unlawfully discriminated against black people in violation of Title VII.”

However, as it turned out Peoplemark had, in fact, hired 22% of the 286 so-called victims despite having felony criminal records. During the entire 3 year lawsuit and investigation, the EEOC only produced one name and that was of one Sherri Lynn Scott. Ms.Scott applied for work at Peoplemark one month after getting out of prison for multiple Felony convictions, including Home Invasion and Larceny. The EEOC lost this case as well as $751,942.00 in attorney’s fees and expert witness fees, all payable to Peoplemark.

After all of the numerous examination and analysis of EEOC vs. Peoplemark, there isn’t much mentioned about the key plaintiff in this case who actually was responsible for getting the wheels in motion going in the EEOC’s investigation and litigation of Peoplemark, which leaves the question, what ever happened to Sherri Lynn Scott? Turns out she has a lot in common with Chris Palermo. Both of them are felons, both have tempers, and both have multiple criminal records. But Sherri Lynn Scott was in a very high profile case with one of the government’s largest agencies, the EEOC. The EEOC might want you to forget about this case and Ms. Scott.

In the midst of EEOC vs. Peoplemark, Sherri Lynn Scott was arrested (and subsequently convicted) in Michigan on June 15, 2009 for Felonious Assault (aka Assault with a Dangerous Weapon). Ms.Scott was sentenced on September 21, 2009 and was sentenced to 1 ½ to 4 years in prison. Sherri Lynn Scott currently is on Parole, she was first paroled on September 21, 2011.

Time will tell if Ms. Scott will stay out of prison and can be gainfully employed. Palermo first must do his time before he is to get to the second chance stage. Ex-convicts face a range of challenges after release from prison; their biggest challenge can be finding a viable job. Here are just a few of the many organizations that help inmates after prison:

Safer Foundation www.saferfoundation.org

Second Chance www.secondchanceprogram.org

National HIRE* Network www.hirenetwork.org

*HIRE stands for Helping Individuals with Criminal Records