Dale County, Alabama’s Department of Human Resources recently learned the importance of conducting business due diligence when selecting key service providers.
The Department, which oversees many of the County’s child protective services, contracted with A&J Lab Collections to administer drug tests to parents in child-custody, neglect, and other court cases.
In many cases, the information provided by A&J Lab Collections was the deciding factor in determining whether a parent was able to maintain or would lose custody of their own child.
A&J Lab Collections was owned by Brandy Murrah.
Previous Criminal History
According to Imperative’s Critical Criminal Background Investigation on Murrah, prior to becoming the County’s drug screening vendor, Murrah’s criminal history included:
- Two misdemeanor theft convictions.
- Five felony convictions for credit card fraud.
- Twelve misdemeanor convictions for negotiating worthless instruments (bad checks).
In their apparent ignorance of Murrah’s extensive criminal background, Dale County trusted Murrah to collect urine and hair specimens and send them to a drug-testing laboratory.
Instead, according to Murrah’s own guilty plea, in many cases, she simply didn’t send the specimens to the lab, choosing to falsify results and avoid the cost of the lab tests.
According to the Dothan Eagle, Murrah’s deceit was identified after one of her victims, who lost custody of her children due to falsified drug test results, called the doctor listed on her report, “only to learn that the doctor had never done the screening.”
Her next call was to the Ozark Police Department.
The subsequent investigation led to Murrah’s arrest and conviction for sixteen forgery offenses.
According to The Southeast Sun, testimony revealed that Murrah was often simply telling the County employees what they expected to hear:
The DHR employee told [the judge] that DHR did tell Murrah what specific drugs to look for in the tests she conducted and that her false tests did concur with what drugs she had been told to look for. “We would tell her what the allegation was,” the employee answered in response to Adams’s question.
It turns out that falsifying drug tests were not Murrah’s only crime. She also lied about the results of the drug tests in court hearings, leading to a felony perjury conviction.
She is currently serving fifteen years in an Alabama state prison.
A decade ago, this blog told the story of Stephen Robertson, a self-described computer “guru” who was prosecuted for hacking into the networks of two former employers. He subsequently set up shop as a consultant, presumably consulting with companies who didn’t conduct background checks on even their key contractors.
Businesses request due diligence investigations in a variety of transactions where the integrity of another firm’s principals or key personnel could have a significant impact on the business.
For instance, accounting clients often request due diligence on the principals and firms who come to them for audit work. These client-acceptance investigations ensure that the firm is aware of any red-flags before engaging with a new audit client.
Recently, we conducted an in-depth investigation of a potential distributor for a manufacturer of medical-grade personal-protection equipment (PPE). When our report outlined the distributor’s owner’s long civil litigation history—including lawsuits from other suppliers for breach of contract—the deal was scuttled.
Certainly, every business transaction doesn’t require this level of due diligence.
But, as in the case of Dale County, Alabama’s Human Resources Department, when the outcome of a transaction can result dire consequences if a dishonest or dangerous person is involved, business due diligence is a wise investment.
Dale County, Alabama’s Department of Human Resources recently learned the importance of conducting business due diligence when selecting key service providers.
The Department, which oversees many of the County’s child protective services, contracted with A&J Lab Collections to administer drug tests to parents in child-custody, neglect, and other court cases.
In many cases, the information provided by A&J Lab Collections was the deciding factor in determining whether a parent was able to maintain or would lose custody of their own child.
A&J Lab Collections was owned by Brandy Murrah.
Previous Criminal History
According to Imperative’s Critical Criminal Background Investigation on Murrah, prior to becoming the County’s drug screening vendor, Murrah’s criminal history included:
- Two misdemeanor theft convictions.
- Five felony convictions for credit card fraud.
- Twelve misdemeanor convictions for negotiating worthless instruments (bad checks).
In their apparent ignorance of Murrah’s extensive criminal background, Dale County trusted Murrah to collect urine and hair specimens and send them to a drug-testing laboratory.
Instead, according to Murrah’s own guilty plea, in many cases, she simply didn’t send the specimens to the lab, choosing to falsify results and avoid the cost of the lab tests.
According to the Dothan Eagle, Murrah’s deceit was identified after one of her victims, who lost custody of her children due to falsified drug test results, called the doctor listed on her report, “only to learn that the doctor had never done the screening.”
Her next call was to the Ozark Police Department.
The subsequent investigation led to Murrah’s arrest and conviction for sixteen forgery offenses.
According to The Southeast Sun, testimony revealed that Murrah was often simply telling the County employees what they expected to hear:
The DHR employee told [the judge] that DHR did tell Murrah what specific drugs to look for in the tests she conducted and that her false tests did concur with what drugs she had been told to look for. “We would tell her what the allegation was,” the employee answered in response to Adams’s question.
It turns out that falsifying drug tests were not Murrah’s only crime. She also lied about the results of the drug tests in court hearings, leading to a felony perjury conviction.
She is currently serving fifteen years in an Alabama state prison.
A decade ago, this blog told the story of Stephen Robertson, a self-described computer “guru” who was prosecuted for hacking into the networks of two former employers. He subsequently set up shop as a consultant, presumably consulting with companies who didn’t conduct background checks on even their key contractors.
Businesses request due diligence investigations in a variety of transactions where the integrity of another firm’s principals or key personnel could have a significant impact on the business.
For instance, accounting clients often request due diligence on the principals and firms who come to them for audit work. These client-acceptance investigations ensure that the firm is aware of any red-flags before engaging with a new audit client.
Recently, we conducted an in-depth investigation of a potential distributor for a manufacturer of medical-grade personal-protection equipment (PPE). When our report outlined the distributor’s owner’s long civil litigation history—including lawsuits from other suppliers for breach of contract—the deal was scuttled.
Certainly, every business transaction doesn’t require this level of due diligence.
But, as in the case of Dale County, Alabama’s Human Resources Department, when the outcome of a transaction can result dire consequences if a dishonest or dangerous person is involved, business due diligence is a wise investment.
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Don't become the victim of a Bad Hire Day!
Download our eBook 7 Steps to Making Bulletproof Hiring Decisions to learn how to create a thorough background screening process that starts before an applicant even walks through your door.
