Prisoner's appeal rejected in identity theft case

A federal court judge today rejected the appeal of a man who was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a scheme to sneak cell phones in to prisoners.

According to the court filing, the judge rejected Clayton Deardorff's claim that he pleaded guilty because his lawyer did a poor job. Deardorff's appeal also came after the deadline for filing such an action.

Deardorff was a prisoner at the time the scheme took place, according to court records. After an initial brief flurry of publicity, this case, which involved state employees using taxpayers' personal records for profit, received almost no publicity.

Deardorff's wife, Robin Lynette Deardorff, a former employee of the Missouri Department of Social Services implemented the scheme on the outside. She and
six others used Social Security numbers, names and birth dates to set up cell phone and landline phone service to help prisoners make calls through the account.




When she was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2007, Mrs. Deardorff was a state employee, working for the Family Support Division of the Department of Social Services. The arrest was an embarrassment for Social Services, with officials claiming that it takes several weeks to conduct a background check and that is why no one had discovered any problems with Mrs. Deardorff's background.

In the June 14, 2007, Turner Report, I noted that it only took me a few minutes to discover enough information to keep Mrs. Deardorff from ever holding a job in which she dealt with taxpayer money:

Perhaps someone needs to give our state bureaucrats a lesson on how to do a simple background check. It only took The Turner Report five minutes (not one month or eight to 12 weeks) to uncover enough information to sound warning bells about the prospect of Mrs. Deardorff working for the state government, or in any position of responsibility, for that matter.

A simple check of case.net shows eight listings for Mrs. Deardorff, including seven criminal charges. The oldest charge, dating back to 1993, was for misdemeanor stealing, for which she received five days in jail and was placed on probation.

Two years later, Mrs. Deardorff received 30 days in jail for endangering the welfare of a child, not exactly the type of activity that seems in keeping with the Family Support Division of the Department of Social Services.

The remainder of the criminal charges involve annual charges of driving while revoked from 2003 through 2006, with the last three times involving the use of electronic shackles in lieu of jail time.

In 2005, she also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of passing a bad check.

It would not have taken long for a background check to uncover the news that Mrs. Deardorff's husband (and co-defendant) Clayton Deardorff, is an unwilling guest in a Missouri state penitentiary.

The day after that post was made, I uncovered more information about Mrs. Deardorff, by checking her maiden name on case.net:

A quick check of Case.net records under Mrs. Deardorff's maiden name, Robin Sidney, shows yet another conviction. On July 13, 1995, she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor stealing charges and was placed on supervised probation for two years. This was the second time she had pleaded guilty to a stealing charge.

Other defendants who have pleaded guilty in this case include two former Department of Revenue employees who also used their jobs to gain access to Missourians' personal records.

Three years have passed and yet no one has released any information on how many Missourians had their personal information compromised through this scheme and how these people were allowed to be in responsible positions in state government.