KALAMAZOO, MI – Along with many other PIs, Carl Clatterbuck notes that many people want to reunite with missing loved ones at this time of year. Adopted children, for example, often wish for a holiday season of reunions. However, Clatterbuck and other PIs caution clients that reunions between biological parents and adopted children sometimes require patience and time. Adoption agencies and the Kalamazoo County Probate Court report that they get more requests for information about adoptions (usually from adopted children seeking their biological parents) between October and December. Many experts advise against locating families prior to the holidays. This time of year tends to be stressful already.

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NEWPORT BEACH, CA – Niveen Ismail allegedly tried to convince PIs and investigators to take part in a plot to kidnap her son from foster parents. Ismail was eventually arrested for attempted kidnapping. She had apparently approached a number of PIs to take part in the plot, and these investigators tipped police off about the plot. Police then sent an undercover investigator to speak with Ismail. Ismail offered the investigator money to kidnap her son and take him to Mexico, where she could flee with the child. Authorities are looking for other PIs and investigators who may have been solicited by Ismail about the plot.

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JEFFERSON, CO – PI John Sampson and his team from CSI Consulting and Investigations arrived at Shaffer Elementary School investigating a custody case. What happened next is a matter of some debate. Sampson says that his team – wearing specially made hats and badges with the acronym “CSI” – identified themselves as PIs and claimed they were never asked for IDs. Principal Gina Rivas claims that she and her staff felt that they were dealing with law enforcement officers and shared information with the PIs based on that assumption.

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SAN DIEGO, CA – John F. Steel IV is suing the city of San Diego, alleging that PIs and police officers conspired together when they falsely accused him of drunk driving in 2007. Steel is claiming excessive force, false arrest, negligence, conspiracy and battery. Police pulled Steel over in 2007, claiming he was driving erratically and was possibly intoxicated. Steel claims that PIs later worked with police to use the incident to damage his custody case with his wife. Steel alleges that PIs were following him around bars one night, then one of the PIs called a friend on the police force to pull Steel over.

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OMAHA, NE - PIs are always telling the public to hire PIs for surveillance work, since it is easy to run afoul of surveillance laws. One Nebraska woman, Dianna Divingnzzo, has learned the hard way that the PIs are right way to go. Divingnzzo and her father are being sued by Divingnzzo’s ex-husband, who is accusing the duo of hiding a recording device inside a teddy bear belonging to the couple’s daughter. Divingnzzo allegedly used the recording device to gather evidence against her ex-husband to use in a custody case. Divingnzzo was awarded sole custody but now is being accused of violating state and federal wiretapping laws.
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PHOENIX, AZ - According to some PIs in Arizona, the number of parents who don’t pay child support as they are required to do is on the rise. Many PIs, including Bill Mosely, report that they are getting more calls from parents who are concerned about non-payment of child support. According to Mosely, the average non-paying parent owes $35,000 to $50,000 in child support. Mosely expects the problem to get worse with the economy, as some parents struggle to make payments as their incomes shrink and as jobs disappear.
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“Five years ago, it was mostly women hiring us to investigate their husbands for infidelity. Now it’s reversed…I don’t know what’s happened,” said Josh Livermon with a smirk.
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Forsyth County must do a better job of collecting child-support payments, because when those payments aren’t collected, children can suffer. And, as their parents turn to social-service agencies for help, the costs are eventually passed on to the rest of us.

Forsyth leaves millions of dollars that is owed to custodial parents uncollected each year, Blair Goldstein reported in Sunday’s Journal. The county’s social services department is supposed to step in when a parent has trouble collecting court-ordered support. So far this year, the county DSS has collected just 61 percent of the support payments owed each month. That’s less than the collection goal of 71 percent set by the state. And that makes Forsyth the urban county with the worst collection rate other than Mecklenburg.

That has got to change.

Caregivers in the thousands refuse background check

Thousands of Coloradans who get state aid for providing in-home day care to the children of relatives or friends are refusing to undergo the criminal background checks required by a new state law.

As a result, 70 percent of the people caring for 7,662 children and getting payments under the state’s Child Care Assistance Program in 2006 are expected to be ineligible for additional money, state human-services officials said.

The remaining providers who agree to the background checks will get the payments if they pass.

A proposal moving through the state Legislature would require courts to change how they decide child custody cases. Historically, Minnesota’s courts have awarded physical custody of a child to one divorced parent, typically the mother. But a bill under consideration would require court to presume that children of divorced parents split their time living between both parents.

Minnesota’s courts have long held a preference against divorced parents sharing physical custody of their children.

In 1945, Justice Leroy Matson said children need stability, and it’s difficult to achieve stability when “a young child is shunted back and forth between homes.” Minnesota’s courts continue to cite Matson’s words in child custody cases today.

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