Background checks would have raised red flags

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- A simple call to the University of Michigan last August, to

confirm that prospective director Alan M. Meyers actually earned two

doctorate degrees there, would have found the claim on his resume’ to be

false, according to a report from an Oregon police department.

Officials from the Costa Mesa Senior Center also could have read a 1978

article in Newsweek magazine that detailed the story of man named Carmi

Bar-Ilan -- who has since allegedly changed his name to Alan M. Meyers --

who served one and a half years in a federal penitentiary for allegedly

trying to strangle a psychiatrist he had impersonated for more than a

year.

They would have also read that police found a University of Michigan

embossing machine and bogus stationary strewn across his apartment.

Instead, they hired him.

If the board of the Community Action Committee -- a health clinic and

day-care center serving poor migrant workers in Pasco, Wash. -- had

checked the references Meyers had listed on his resume’, they would have

found the address of one of his previous employers was actually his own

home on a quiet residential street in Anaheim.

Instead, they hired him.

“As a nonprofit, you’re always looking to raise funds,” said Judith

Gidley, who replaced Meyers as executive director there. “When someone

tells you they can do that, and their track record on paper proves it,

well, you’ll do whatever it takes to hire that person.”

Meyers could not be reached for comment, but has denied any wrongdoing in

published reports.

His wife, Debbie Franklyn, refused to speak when confronted at their

Anaheim home.

A growing pile of police and court documents from Arizona, Washington,

Oregon, California and the nation’s capital appear to depict a chameleon

of a man who has stolen money, created a fake professional history, used

as many as five aliases and allegedly even tried to kill a doctor he

impersonated for more than a year.

Costa Mesa police and Klamath County Sheriff’s deputies said they believe

Meyers is this man.

The senior center board abruptly fired Meyers on Tuesday after Costa Mesa

police presented evidence suggesting he had used bogus credentials to get

a job.

Costa Mesa police are still investigating Meyers and haven’t arrested him

or filed formal charges.

In June, Meyers will go to trial in Klamath Falls, Ore., where he is

accused of stealing $8,500 from a nonprofit health clinic also serving

primarily migrant workers.