Since dirty cops in Australia got a beating in the media this past week, perhaps its time that I gave the details of the dirty deeds of the criminal counselors at Hampton Roads Regional Jail. Otherwise, it might look like Australia has all the corruption. When I started this blog, I promised to detail the criminal behavior of the counselor who got away with worse crimes than the crims she was counseling. A popular saying amongst correctional staff at HRRJ was that "not all the criminals are behind the bars". Just as the top drug cop who was arrested in Sydney this week, had a spending addiction, so, too, did Carol Erbes. Her spending addiction led her into criminal behavior to finance her spending habits and cover her debts. Carol taught me a lot about "criminal thinking". Until I worked at the jail, I didn't know that criminals have some identifiable thinking patterns, but Carol was far smarter in her criminal thinking than the inmates - which is partly why they were inmates, and why she got to go home every day. The other reason is racism - the prosecutors gave the little middle-aged white granny a pass, while the young black offenders got the book thrown at them.

Of course, Carol's spending addiction eventually caught up with her, and she could no longer keep paying all her bills. So Carol came up with the All-American solution - bankruptcy. At first, Carol was going to file under Chapter 13, which would have required her to repay at least some of her debts. She saw an attorney in Newport News, and was pleased that she would be able to wipe out a substantial portion of her sizeable debt. But then greed got the better of her, and she decided to go for Chapter 7 instead, which would wipe out ALL her debts. Now, strictly speaking, Carol didn't qualify for Chapter 7, but a little legal detail like that wasn't going to stop Carol's brilliant plan. With the help of a crooked attorney, she found a real estate appraiser who would make sure she got a very low appraisal on her home, so that her debtors could not come after the equity in her home. Then she maxed out her credit cards. This is the really brilliant part of her plan - I give her full credit for its slyness, because I would never have even thought of it - she found that she had $6,800 remaining on her Home Depot credit card. She was planning on doing some renovations to her home, but she really didn't want the bother of having to buy and store all of it prior to her bankruptcy. Her plan was both brilliant and brazen: she went to Home Depot and got the remainder of her credit in the form of gift cards, rather than goods. The little round granny with a bag full of thousands of dollars of gift certificates created a bit of a buzz, according to Carol's account. She told the nosy customers who were aghast at her purchase, that she was buying them to give as a wedding present!!! Riiiiiiiiight! Home Depot staff may have been suspicious, but they really didn't care if it was fraudulent or not - they would get their money for the gift certificates from the credit card company, regardless, and the credit card company would be stuck with the bad debt.

There was only one problem with this brilliant plan. I pointed out to her that the credit card company was likely to flag this big purchase, and it may be excluded from the bankruptcy because it was obviously done in preparation for filing bankruptcy. So, undaunted by the prospect of a criminal fraud investigation, Carol simply delayed her bankruptcy filing to lessen the likelihood of an investigation. But her plan to avoid paying back any of her debts almost came unstuck, because she had far too much income, and assets. So a little perjury solved that problem - and instantly, she had thousands less income, and poof! no retirement or other assets. Outcome: excused from paying over $50,000 in debt. But then the perjury went on, and on, and Carol found herself having to lie under oath to cover her dirty deeds.

If the irony of the counselor at the jail being more of a criminal than the criminals she counseled wasn't enough, Carol began working as an adjunct teacher at St. Leo's College. I wonder if the Catholic college knew about Carol's lying and stealing when they employed her? Not the kind of example they want for impressionable young minds at a Christian college.