The Private Investigator & Security Professionals of West Virginia (PISP) is holding its Quarterly Meeting Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 8:30 a.m.
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The South Carolina Association of Legal Investigators (SCALI) will hold its Annual Conference and Educational Seminar on May 14-16, 2009 in Greenville, SC.
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ALBANY, NY - Federal judges with New York’s Court of Appeals recently heard arguments about police use of GPS devices. At the heart of the case is whether police should be allowed to hide the devices without attaining a court warrant. The recent case stems from a 2005 break-in case, in which Scott Weaver was convicted due to a GPS device that police had placed on his van without his knowledge. Weaver’s attorney’s allege that the device infringed on Weaver’s privacy rights. Police attorneys allege that using a GPS device on a car is similar to watching a vehicle, which does not require a search warrant. It is unknown how the ruling might affect the rights of PIs to use GPS devices.
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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld was caught by police and had his lies exposed with simple PI techniques. His cell phone, e-tag and credit card were used to track him when he fled. PI Charlie Rahim, of the Charlie’s Angels PI agency notes that the Einfeld shows how anyone’s actions can be traced with simple technology. Using Einfeld’s cell phone and credit card bills, authorities were able to track him, prove that he was driving when he claimed he was not, and were able to determine that he had made lunch plans with a friend.
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NEW YORK, NY - An expensive and headline grabbing divorce between Swedish countess Marie Douglas-David and her husband, business mogul George David, began with PIs. PIs uncovered that Douglas-David was having an affair with a fencer, promoting David to sue for divorce. He has filed for divorce four times; however, the first three times he filed for divorce he allowed the filing to lapse. Douglas-David is now demanding $100 million, alleging that her husband made her dependent.
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FAIRFIELD, CT - Helen Sun and Robert Drawbaugh had been married for about eight years, when Drawbaugh claimed that Sun’s violent and obsessive behavior created problems for himself and his family. At one point, Drawbaugh alleges, Sun hired PIs to have him followed. Apparently, PIs were not enough for the troubled woman. This week, Sun made headlines when she broke into Drawbaugh’s bedroom while he slept, handcuffed herself to him, and bit him repeatedly in the arms and torso while he dialed 911 to get help. Sun is currently being held on $15,000 bond.
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NEW YORK, NY - PIs with experience in fraud investigation are in high demand right now, even while job prospects in other industries appear slim. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the number of open mortgage-fraud investigations has more than doubled in the last two years. Fraud investigations, corporate fraud investigations and other fraud cases are all increasing in the current economy. The FBI, PI firms and security consulting firms are, in many cases, recruiting investigation professionals to help them with the increasing case loads.
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LONDON, ENGLAND - PIs and the Office of Special Investigations have thousands of Nazi suspects under investigations, but authorities now fear that the clock is ticking and many Nazis who have not been apprehended will elude justice. As former Nazis get older, more will simply die without facing a trial for their crimes. Part of the problem is that in the years immediately following World War II, Western countries worked with Nazi professionals in order to fight the cold war. The priority was not on bringing Nazis to justice. During the period before the 1970s, when few countries sought Nazis to bring them to justice, private investigators were the ones who sought out and captured some of the more notorious Nazis. Simon Wiesenthal, for example, established the Jewish Historical Documentation Centre and launched inquiries that led to the arrest of many Nazis.
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LAYTON, UT - In 2005, the city of Layton passed an ordinance to ban dumpster diving by citing concerns over identity theft. Shawn Kane, President of the Private Investigators Association of Utah, says that’s not an issue with licensed investigators who are actually registered with the Department of Public Safety. According to Kane, the Supreme Court says that once trash hits the street, it is public domain. “We sometimes have a need to search in somebody’s trash,” he said. Now, licensed private investigators can legally sift through residential garbage in Layton as long as they do not violate trespassing laws. The ordinance now includes PIs, along with police officers, on the list of people who can do the occasional dumpster dive.
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The Professional Association of Wisconsin Licensed Investigators will hold its Annual Conference April 2-4, 2009 at Country Springs Hotel - Water Park & Conference Center.
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• Group for Private Investigators
• Group for Process Servers