Posted on Mon, Feb. 06, 2012

From the e-mails and voice mails:

JOB OPPORTUNITY — Last week, a retired state correctional officer who also happens to be a paralegal answered a classified ad seeking paralegal services.

When she saw the mailing address — 250 E. Hackett Road in Modesto — she assumed it was that of the Community Services Agency offices, which include Child Protective Services and other agencies that might use paralegal services. She mailed a copy of her résumé.

The CSA's address, though, is 251 E. Hackett. The Public Safety Center — part of Stanislaus County's jail system — is at 250 E. Hackett, directly across the street from the CSA.

A couple of days later, the woman — who asked that her name not be printed for security reasons — answered the phone. A voice indicated she was receiving a prepaid call from an inmate at the Stanislaus County Jail.

Alvis Rhodes, still in jail awaiting trial after a 2006 homicide, wanted to hire her.

I wrote about Rhodes in September because he is among the number of murder defendants who have been awaiting — or delaying — trial for a number of years. He's had 32 pre-trial hearings, 18 mental competency hearings, seven hearings to set a jury trial among his 106 court-event entries in his file since his arrest a half-dozen years ago.

Rhodes really is trying to hire a paralegal, I'm told. The ad itself was real.

But being a former state prison guard, the woman instantly became sickened at the thought of a jail inmate in possession her résumé, which includes her professional background, home address and phone number. Did he share it with other inmates?

So she called jail authorities and went to the facility. Rhodes, out in the yard when she arrived, carried a file with him that included her resumé as well as others.

"We were treated with great respect," she said, referring to the sheriff's custodial officers at the Safety Center. "But why did it get to him in the first place?"

Having worked in the mail room at a state prison, she said inmates can receive legal documents — from the courts or their attorneys — without review. All other mail is subject to inspection.

Sheriff Adam Christianson said his staff errs on the side of caution because inmates have the right to receive so-called legal mail without interference. Rhodes, he said, is a master at manipulating the system.

"I have staff working overtime dealing with his inmate grievances," Christianson said. "But all of them have due process rights, and we have no choice but to follow the laws."

The bottom line is this: When responding to any job listing, use the Internet to check out the address.

McMOMENT — When the McDonald's on McHenry Avenue in Modesto officially reopens Saturday morning, a group of veterans who meet there every morning for coffee will be raising the flag on the new pole. They've been congregating there for more than two decades. I first wrote about one of them, Mike Stavrakakis, in 2008 when he started collecting books, magazines, videos and DVDs to take to veterans' medical facilities throughout Northern California. Stavrakakis, 83, is now undergoing chemotherapy for cancer he developed after being exposed to radiation from nuclear testing when he was in the Navy.

Since that 2008 column appeared, along with a couple of other mentions since, Stavrakakis has collected and distributed more than 16,000 pieces to various veterans' waiting rooms.

The McDonald's at 2118 McHenry Ave. became the 764th built in the United States and featured 15-cent hamburgers and french fries for a dime when it opened in 1965. It got a face-lift in the late 1970s and was rebuilt completely in 1997. The current remodeling began in December.

The flag-raising ceremony will begin at 9 a.m.

I STAND CORRECTED — In my Jan. 24 column on Elinor Sauerwein, the Modesto woman who bequeathed $1.75 million to The Salvation Army, I mentioned that her husband, Harold Sauerwein, had worked for a ranch belonging to Ned Gould. He was a physician for whom Gould Medical Group — now Sutter Gould — was named, but was not the founder. C.R. "Rusty" Maino was Ned Gould's son-in-law. Maino and his brother, V.J. Maino, founded the organization in the late 1940s and named it in Ned Gould's honor.

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at jjardine@modbee.com or (209) 578-2383.