WA- Slain sex offender held job at women's shelter

Posted in Related Deaths

3-25-2004 Washington:

He was a convicted rapist, a level three sex offender, and last week, he killed a single mother before he was fatally shot by police.

But despite his history of abusing women, Lawrence Owens, 43, had spent the past three months working through a temporary employment agency at the YWCA's Opportunity Place, a Belltown facility that includes among its services a 25-bed shelter for homeless women, some of them victims of domestic violence.

Because Owens was working through the Labor Ready employment agency, YWCA authorities did not know about his criminal background.

"As you can imagine, we were pretty angry when we learned of this," said Sherry Dawley, YWCA's director of community affairs. "Labor Ready got quite an earful when we contacted them."

The YWCA immediately ended its relationship with the agency, she said.

Stacey Burke, spokeswoman for the Tacoma-based company, said Labor Ready didn't know about Owens' background, either.

The agency conducts background checks of its employees only at clients' request, she said.

"It wasn't requested by the customer," she said, adding the company might have reconsidered where it placed Owens.

Owens' violent actions, Burke said, should not reflect upon the thousands of people Labor Ready employs.

"This situation is so unusual and so sad," she said.

Seattle police Capt. Neil Low, who supervises the sex offender unit, said employers aren't among the groups the department notifies when a sex offender registers in the area.

"We're not going to get these people fired from their jobs," he said. "We're not trying to punish them. We're trying to keep them from hurting more people."

Still, he said, he understands why the YWCA would be reluctant to have a level three sex offender working at a women's shelter.

"That's a bad mix," he said.

In 1997, Owens pleaded guilty to assault and unlawful possession of a firearm after his arrest for beating up a girlfriend in his Seattle apartment. He also held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her.

As part of the same case, Owens was convicted of assault with sexual motivation for beating and raping another woman.

He was sentenced to nine years in prison, but was released this past September. Upon release, he was required to register as a level three sex offender, the type considered most likely to reoffend.

On March 17, Seattle police shot Owens to death at the Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill.

Just moments earlier, Owens had killed 31-year-old Dori Cordova, shooting her three times with a shotgun he was not legally entitled to possess because he was a convicted felon.

Owens and Cordova were tenants at the Jensonia Hotel near downtown Seattle and were displaced by fire a week before the shooting. They were staying at the community center, where the Red Cross had set up a temporary shelter for the displaced tenants.

Investigators have said Owens apparently had found someplace else to stay and wanted Cordova to join him. When she would not, he killed her.

By coincidence, Cordova and her 10-year-old son were about to move into another YWCA facility, said Nicole Wagner, a family-support worker with Gatzert Elementary School who was helping mother and son. (Note: The facility where Cordova and her son were moving was misidentified in the original version of this article.)

"Lawrence knew she was going there," Wagner said. "She only went to the community center to gather personal belongings."

Owens had worked at the YWCA shelter since December, Dawley said.

Because the facility had only opened in November, the YWCA had not filled all the positions with permanent workers. They relied upon temporary employment agencies to fill the gaps.

Labor Ready supplied Owens as a custodian.

By most accounts, he was doing a good job, Dawley said.

"There are a number of staff members who were upset about his death," she said. "He had been a very good worker, had been a very pleasant worker. He went out of his way to be very helpful to people."

Still, she said, had the YWCA known about his status, he would not have worked there.

The agency requires criminal background checks on all employees and believed Labor Ready was following the same policy, Dawley said.

"We go to such great lengths to try to create a safe environment for everyone," she said.

Since learning about Owens' background, the YWCA has decided to require any temporary employment agency it uses to conduct background checks and to let the YWCA know what they find before they send workers to any YWCA facility.

Cordova's son is living with relatives in Kent. But his mother's sudden death has been hard on him.

Mother and son had struggled financially for some time and had received help through Seattle Public Schools' Family Support Worker Program.

The program provides vouchers, clothing and housing assistance.

Cordova's son still needs help with many of these things, Wagner said.

"This is a pivotal time for him," she said. "He's a super, super kid."

His mother's funeral is set for Sunday. ..more.. by HECTOR CASTRO