By STEVEN REILLY
sreilly@njherald.com
SPARTA — When Rachel Mongiovi returned home in 2008 from a year of studying abroad, she was hoping to land her dream job as a civilian administrator at Picatinny Arsenal.
However, what she came home to was a nightmare that still haunts her today.
While Mongiovi was studying at the London Metropolitan University in England, back in New Jersey on Nov. 8, 2007, her sisters, Sarah Conklin, 30, and Jessica Mongiovi, 23, were stopped by Stanhope police on a traffic violation. The sisters conspired to use Rachel’s name to get out of trouble.
The police linked Rachel Mongiovi’s name, birth date and Social Security number as an alias to Conklin’s criminal record, which includes seven felonies. Now, any time a criminal background check is done on Rachel Mongiovi, her sister’s record comes up.
“It is like I don’t even exist,” said Mongiovi, 27. “I have no civil rights to protect me from this. I spent my whole life doing the right thing and working hard, and now I have a criminal record whenever I go for a job.”
In the 2007 incident, Jessica Mongiovi, the driver, told police she was Rachel Mongiovi and gave them Rachel’s birth date and Social Security number. According to police, Jessica did this to avoid charges for driving on a suspended license.
Police records show that Jessica Mongiovi, under Rachel’s name, was let go with a traffic ticket. Conklin was arrested on outstanding warrants and taken to the Sussex County Jail in Newton.
When Joseph Mongiovi, the father of the women, discovered the traffic violation against his daughter Rachel, he contacted the Stanhope Police Department and said Rachel was out of the country on that date and could not have been the driver.
Stanhope Police Sgt. Charles Zweigle investigated the claim by the women’s father, and interviewed Jessica and Sarah.
According to a Stanhope Police Department arrest record dated Dec. 1, 2007, Jessica and Sarah confessed to using Rachel’s name because “they knew Rachel’s license was clean.”
Jessica and Sarah were arrested and ultimately convicted of giving false information to police. Because of the nature of the crime, Rachel Mongiovi’s name, birth date and Social Security number were listed as an alias to her sister Sarah’s criminal record, which includes seven felonies.
Stanhope Police Chief Steven Pittigher said that when the sisters were arrested, the complaints went to the prosecutor’s office with Rachel Mongiovi’s name on them. The charges against Rachel Mongiovi were dismissed, but the complaint still existed.
“The police department has very little control over the complaints that are sent to the prosecutor’s office,” Pittigher said. “There are some things (Mongiovi) can do, and we will do all we can to get her going in the right direction to clear her name, but it will be a matter for the court.”
Mongiovi tried to fix the mixup right away. She appealed to the Stanhope Police Department. She pleaded with the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office to take her sister’s criminal past off her record.
But all she got after five years of begging was a letter from the prosecutor’s office stating: “Rachel Mongiovi was considered by this office to be the innocent victim of crimes committed by her sisters. She was not a party to the crimes committed nor did she have any prior criminal history.”
But the criminal record from her sister still comes up when any potential employer does a background check on Mongiovi. Even with the letter, that red flag has made it difficult for her to get a job that relies on background checks as a qualifying factor.
Frustrated, defeated and lost, Mongiovi has given up on her dream job at Picatinny Arsenal for now.
“You have to have a clean record to even work in the base store. What are they going to do if I walk in there with seven felonies showing on my record? They are going to laugh at me,” she said.
That did not stop the graduate of Barton College in North Carolina and former intern for the British Parliament from applying to other jobs to help pay off her student loans and car insurance. But so far each place she has applied has turned her down.
“I went to Lowe’s, where I worked before I went away to college, to try to get one of the five jobs they had advertised, but I was told they had all been filled,” Mongiovi said. “I even applied to work as a sales clerk at Dale’s Jewelry in the mall, but they made me take an honesty quiz after my record came up, and I still didn’t get the job.”
Mongiovi did find some sympathy from a recruiter for a temp agency who accepted her explanation of her criminal record and hired her for clerical work, but the jobs last only a few weeks at a time.
“I have been devastated by this. I can’t find work in any of the fields I went to school for because of the background check,” Mongiovi said. “I have lost my car, I am behind in my loan payments and I have to move back with my family.”
Her parents have since moved out of the area and she is living with her grandparents.
She is not in contact with her sisters but wants them to get the help they need.
Meanwhile, she is seeking the help she needs to restore her own identity so she can find permanent employment.
But according to Barbara Lee, a professor at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, that will be an uphill battle.
“In this day and age, any criminal record equals no job for most job applicants,” Lee said. “Maybe (Mongiovi) can try to explain her situation, but employers are very exposed to lawsuits today. They don’t want to take any chances hiring someone with a criminal record. She is really stuck in a terrible spot.”
Lee said there are no laws in New Jersey that prevent employers from running a background check on applicants and then factoring the results into the application.
“She may have a chance to explain to a potential employer in advance,” Lee said. “But there is no law that says the employer has to take it into consideration. This is an issue that speaks to her civil rights as a victim and needs to be addressed at a constitutional law level.”
Mongiovi took her case to her local lawmakers to try to find a solution to the problem. State Sen. Steve Oroho and Assemblyman Gary Chiusano, both R-24th Dist., said their office was looking into any help they could provide Mongiovi.
“We learned of Rachel’s dilemma a few weeks ago, and I can empathize with what she is going through,” Chiusano said. “She is a victim, and we are going to take her concerns seriously.”
Oroho said his office has been in contact with the state Office of Legislative Services to begin to research how a person can be exposed to this type of identity theft.
“We are looking to specifically address Rachel’s issues and find out if this is not covered by any statute on the books,” Oroho said. “If it turns out victims are vulnerable to this, we will address it.”
One common piece of advice that has been passed on to Mongiovi by anyone who has been asked about this issue is this: Get a lawyer.
“Everyone has told me to go see an attorney, but the ones I go to don’t want the case, or they are too expensive. I can’t get a job to pay for a lawyer to clear my name so I can get a job. It is like a nightmare I can’t wake up from, and it starts fresh each and every day,” Mongiovi said.
“I went to college and studied how great government could be, and how it could help the people in need,” she said. “But after going through this, I don’t think that way anymore.”
Mongiovi has contacted the Seton Hall Law School Law Clinic and the Rutgers Law School Law Clinic to try to resolve the civil rights violations that she said have made it impossible to use her degree in political science and history to land a job.
“Everyone I have talked to has told me that there is nothing they can do. The most ironic thing is that I was the victim of a crime and I am being punished for it,” Mongiovi said. “Everyone says that I need to put out more money to clear this up, but where are my civil rights? They don’t seem to exist here.”
