By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
Old arrest reports and personnel records raise questions about why Corrections Officer Michelle Hung was hired at the Osceola County Jail, where she now faces charges of smuggling a handgun to an inmate serving three life sentences.
Fired from two previous jobs for tardiness and poor performance, Hung, 44, joined the jail staff in 2000. Her evaluations ranged from superb to below average for handling the high-stress job.
Yet years earlier, Hung’s inability to handle stress while baby-sitting three children landed her behind bars after a bloody fight. She was charged with cutting two women with an 18-inch knife after saying she was “very upset and having a bad day,” according to Orange County sheriff’s reports.
“Michelle stood over me with the knife over my head and I grabbed it with both hands to prevent her from stabbing me,” her sister Awilda Nieves wrote in a sworn statement.
The charges were dropped because records show Nieves and the other victim, one of Hung’s friends, refused to testify. But documented allegations of violent behavior can be grounds to reject an applicant for a corrections or law-enforcement job, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
It could not be learned this week whether Osceola County’s current standards would allow someone with Hung’s history to be hired at the jail. She earned $45,743 a year.
Osceola investigators had access to Hung’s criminal record when they conducted her pre-employment background check. In 1999, Hung applied to work for the state Department of Corrections. It could not be learned Tuesday whether her arrests made her an unsuitable candidate.
At the Osceola County Jail, Hung was cited for frequently being late to work, rudeness to superiors and co-workers and for “radical mood swings” while on duty. She also won praise for what one supervisor characterized as her potential “to be an outstanding officer.”
In January 2006, Hung received the jail’s Employee of the Month award for saving the life of a teenage inmate.
“The suicide attempt was real and not just a ‘joke’ to get attention,” a supervisor wrote. “Officer Hung had just recently completed in-service training on suicide prevention and knew . . . ‘kids’ often act spontaneously without thinking ideas through to completion.”
Details of the new criminal case against Hung in the attempted jailbreak June 22 remain sealed. Hung remains held without bail in the Orange County Jail.
Copyright 2009 Sentinel Communications Co.