By John Marzulli
August 17, 2001
State officials have moved to revoke the license of a Bronx security firm that they say illegally hired ex-cons as guards, including one who is charged with murdering a woman in the development where he worked, the Daily News has learned.
The security firm, Baitul Nasr, is a nonprofit corporation that says its mission is to help the unemployed become productive workers. The company's name means House of Help in Arabic.
But according to charges filed against Baitul Nasr and its founder, Mikial Abdur-Rahim, by the Department of State's Division of Licensing Services, the company knowingly hired at least 13 convicted felons between October 1999 and February 2000.
Under state law, convicted felons are barred from working as private guards.
Authorities said they also found that in January, Baitul Nasr placed at least 58 unregistered or improperly registered guards at housing developments throughout city.
But Inez Nelson, a former Baitul Nasr employee, told The News that when applicants acknowledged felony convictions on their applications, they were simply hired at a cheaper hourly rate and were not fingerprinted.
She said the ex-cons were called community facilitators instead of guards to evade scrutiny, but they patrolled nonetheless.
"They hired them as soon as they came out of the prison system," said Nelson, who worked there from late 1997 to October 1999. She is suing Baitul Nasr, charging she was sexually harassed by a top company official.
When Nelson was in charge of screening prospective employees, she said, she was criticized by her supervisors for questioning the ex-cons' backgrounds.
"They used to call me 'Miss Policy and Procedure' because I went by the books," she said.
One felon hired by the firm was Rene Lisojo, 33, who had five felony convictions when Baitul Nasr hired him soon after his release from prison in July 2000.
Police said Lisojo was listed in company records as a dispatcher, but he admittedly patrolled Richman Plaza, a housing development near the Harlem River in the South Bronx.
On Jan. 9, while on duty in the lobby of 44 Richman Plaza, Lisojo accompanied 22-year-old Giselle Figueroa to her apartment. There, police say, he sexually abused and stabbed the young mother.
In an interview yesterday, Abdur-Rahim acknowledged that some of the checks on Baitul Nasr guards slipped through the cracks. But he said: "I wouldn't knowingly hire a convicted felon."
Giselle Figueroa, pictured with her son, John, was allegedly killed by Rene Lisojo, a guard working for Baitul Nasr.
He said Lisojo lied about his background on the job application and that some of his paperwork was lost when a clerk handling the application went on maternity leave.
Abdur-Rahim said Baitul Nasr is out of the security business, most of its contracts lost in the wake of Lisojo's arrest.
But he said a second security firm operated by him called Al-Quyamat has picked up what's left of Baitul Nasr's security business and operates out of the same location on Third Ave.
A spokeswoman for the Division of Licensing Services said Abdur-Rahim could lose his license if the charges are substantiated in a hearing next month.
The company also faces up to a $1,000 fine on each of the 77 violations cited by the state. Last year, Baitul Nasr pleaded guilty to employing unregistered guards and paid a $3,500 fine.