Sucks to be a California employer who wants to keep repeat, convicted thieves and embezzlers like Sharon Jean Logan away from your office payroll and client trust account.

As of July 1, 2023, it will be illegal to exclude them, as long as it’s been four years since they got off parole or probation for their last felony. That’s what California’s Senate Bill 731 does. Newsom signed it Thursday.

The new law automatically seals most felonies, including all thefts, frauds, and embezzlements, four years after the perp completes probation or parole. California’s ban-the-box law (Govt. Code section 12952) already prohibits employers from taking sealed convictions into account.

https://openstates.org/ca/bills/20212022/SB731/

Five-time financial felon Logan ended her probation for her last two felonies (stealing from her employer, and from another company) in June, 2020. Since then, she’s only been convicted of misdemeanors (driving without a license, and giving false registration information).

Therefore, as of June 2024, it’ll be like her eight financial crime convictions (five of them felonies) never existed. At least in California. And with her records sealed, employers won’t be able to access them in any state.

We find this concerning, given that Logan doesn’t seem to have corrected her lengthy pattern of dishonesty and financial irresponsibility. Last year, she was hired to manage the financial affairs of an Orange County law firm to whom she gave a falsified resume. (She’s no longer there as of two weeks ago.) Logan seems determined to get office jobs where she controls money.

The resume we were told she gave the firm makes claims that are proven false by multiple other court records, including her August bankruptcy petition.

It was hard enough to weed out the Sharon Logans even before SB 731. Some Facebook readers were tough on the law firm for failing to discover Logan’s false claims and criminal history. But it’s often hard to check resume claims. Logan claimed she’d worked for an attorney who is dead now. And, prospective employees often ask employers not to contact their current employer.

As for criminal records, there is no statewide check available in California to anyone but law enforcement and child-related employers. Otherwise, people have to do a name search in each superior court in each individual county. If the person has committed crimes in other counties, and doesn’t tell the employer they spent time there, it’s easy to miss.

If four years sounds like a long time to you, keep in mind that’s without another felony conviction. It doesn’t say anything about pending charges, or investigations. Remember that it took 3 years between the time Logan committed her last felony thefts, and her conviction.

Logsn also continues to owe more than $500,000 (counting interest) in criminal court-ordered restitution to her various theft victims over the past three decades. She’s not making payments on any of it. She’s trying to discharge it in bankruptcy. Criminal restitution is not supposed to be dischargeable in bankruptcy, but Logan is still trying. (More on that later.)

She also hasn’t paid her income taxes for the past three years, according to her bankruptcy petition.

Click to access bankruptcy-petition-8-27-2022.pdf

And, yet, Sharon Logan has recently found the money to take multiple pleasure trips around the country, according to her Facebook posts and reports. She eats at nice restaurants. She enjoys “crafted cocktails,” as she brags in the below Facebook post from earlier this year, ridiculing a former ally in the animal rights world.

She posted that she’s unashamed of her incarcerations, comparing herself to the likes of Martha Stewart and Danny Trejo. In her recent bankruptcy petition, she stated her intention to continue spending $250 monthly on facials.

And, she’s still got that donation button up for her nonprofit, Paw Protectors. Because Logan can’t imagine why the public might have a problem trusting her with their money.