Private Investigator Public Records Internet Search Privacy Reporting - PI Buzz

Pre-acceptance investigations are a potentially money saving investment for attorneys, mentioned by this personal injury lawyer, and could be a life-saver in complex cases. I’ve done these sort of stealth investigations, which gave the lawyer leverage in her negotiations, and sometimes settled matters for sizable amounts before a case was filed.

California PI Eric Mason, who worked on Michael Jackson’s defense, was profiled for his work on behalf of a local politician - investigating the government’s investigation.

Mason’s newest client is Perata, the unquestioned head of the East Bay political machine and target of a federal public corruption probe. Perata has racked up at least $39,000 in bills from Mason’s firm so far this year. Mason specializes in “pre-indictment investigations,” which basically are defense-team probes into what the government is investigating.

Not everything that’s on the web can be found through a general search engine. A fairly new development being utilized by blinkx.tv and TVeyes enables keyword searching of text in video that’s posted on the Internet. SearchEngineWatch gives a wrap up.

Legislative action to open the original birth certificates of adoptees is making its way through the Connecticut General Assembly. The bill, An Act Providing Adult Adopted Persons with Access to Information in Original Birth Certificates, would make the birth records available to the adoptee and to approved researchers. Maybe investigators or genealogists in Connecticut could comment on the requirements to be an approved party.

The California legislature, adding its imprint to a politician’s dream issue, is considering Assembly Bill 2838, “an act to add Section 530.1 to the Penal Code, and to amend Section 2891 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to telephone records.”

If instituted this bill, codified as PC 530.1, offers 1 year in the slammer to any “person who willfully obtains a telephone calling pattern record or list of another person without that person’s consent…” Read the rest of this entry »

An earlier attempt to seal California divorce records was dashed by an appellate court but a revised version is on the legeslative fast track, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Senate Bill 1015 would require elected and private judges seal financial records and personal identifiers, including residential addresses, contained in divorce filings.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon request by a party to a proceeding for dissolution of marriage, nullity of marriage, or legal separation, the court shall order sealed or redacted any portion of a pleading that lists the parties’ financial assets, liabilities, income or expenses, or provides the location of, including a residential address, or identifying information about, those assets, liabilities, income, or expenses.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has been relentlessly hammering Congress and various regulatory bodies to outlaw pretexting and the sale of telephone subscriber information. EPIC is now trying to bring the American Bar Association and state Bar associations under their sway. In their letter to the Bar associations EPIC says that lawyers, via hired private investigators who engage in pretexting for any purpose, have committed an unethical act, in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

We believe that attorneys who hire investigators or other companies to engage in pretexting violate ethical norms.

The pressure is being applied by EPIC on public and private entities - through legal, legislative and regulatory channels - to restrict any method of information gathering that isn’t specifically allowed by law which they consider to be a violation of personal privacy.

We request that appropriate action be taken to ensure that attorneys in your state are not employing investigators or other companies to engage in pretexting or other fraud.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kern County, California has its civil index accessible online. Civil and small claims actions are searchable by docket number, last name or partial last name. The inclusive dates are somewhat limited, as are the types of cases:

Cases that may not be online include Unlimited Civil and Family Law cases from 1996 and earlier and Limited Civil cases (including Unlawful Detainers and Small Claims cases) from July 2003 and earlier.

With all that said, I found Superior Court cases listed that were filed in the 1970s.

The Kansas Supreme Court met with mighty resistence when it tried to force Johnson County - the lone holdout - to comply with the fee-only access to statewide electronic court records. The persistent county has garnered the backing of the legislature for free access to the statewide electronic court index. Just to show who’s boss, the elected agents of the people propose to pay for the free online access with funds that were slated for judicial pay increases. Read all about it.

The North Dakota Attorney General has issued an opinion that a privately operated arts organization that received public funds is subject to the state’s open meetings and public records act. Read the rest of this entry »

A blog is a web page of bite-sized information blurbs, news items and commentary that is frequently updated. Each entry is called a “post” and is arranged chronologically. Most blogs are tailored to a theme; PI buzz covers topics of interest and benefit to professional investigators and researchers.

Blogs are unique because they’re instant messages to the Internet and they invite the reader to become a participant.(Select the “Comments/No Comments” link at the end of any post and take a trial run. Don’t fear. You can’t break anything.)

Your participation and ideas for future posts keep PI buzz alive. Read the rest of this entry »

Search the New Mexico Driving While Under the Influence Database of convictions that have been reported to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. Records are available from 2001 to the present and are searchable by partial last name, returning year of birth and date of conviction.

The New Hampshire Judicial Branch has issued its preliminary report, New Hampshire Supreme Court, Task Force On Public Access To Court Records. The 92 page publication continues the trend in state courts, refining the meaning of public records by creating tiers of access to information, depending whether it is displayed on the Internet or in a courthouse.

Task Force members included representatives from the NH League of Investigators.

The Associated Press writer detailed many of the panel’s recommendations.

New Jersey Senate Bill S879 Protects Property Records Maintained by Tax Assessor from Public Disclosure is in its second reading in the state Senate and is criticized by open government advocates as a step backwards for public records. The opening text of the proposed bill states:

As amended by the committee, this bill would exempt from the definition of government record, and therefore from public access under P.L.2001, c.404, property record cards maintained by local tax assessors. The bill would allow a property owner, or the property owner’s designee, to have access to the property record card for the owner’s property directly from the municipal tax assessor.

Acceptance of the bill would change the status of real property records, closing access to the general public, journalists, private investigators and most anyone who previously had access. The Couirier News Online cites opponents of the bill and notes that it creates an exemption for real estate agents.

Find cemeteries on a map within a specified geographical region. This visual tool adds a valuable dimension to the work of building family trees - developed for death penalty, real estate and probate cases - because names of counties change and cemeteries fall into disuse. Select a state and county to see each cemetery plotted on the map. This genealogy site also pre-searches the selected cemetery name for any references at Rootsweb.

The Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania will add the Philadelphia criminal index to its online electronic case record system. The comments submitted in advance of the upcoming March 2 hearing reflect the dilemma of maintaining open courts and transparent government while avoiding harm to people, due to inaccuracies in the data. The court’s Notice of Proposed Access Policy details the Court Administration’s reasoning in expanding access while instituting many restrictions, such as limiting birth dates to year of birth and age. This is sure to aggravate false positive name matches.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting on the controversy.

So many new public records Internet sites are mixing the traditional form of the public records index with add-ons made possible by technology - and they’re really useful.

Search real property profiles at zillow.com, a free Internet site that is searchable by street address. Search results include a satellite map, home value, square footage, date of last sale and comparable homes. This database lists all homes in the counties covered, not just properties for sale.

Because of variabilities in geographical areas and the timing of the satellite photography, some placement of homes on the maps may not be exact. There’s no substitute for for getting on the ground, using your own eyes.

The UK publication, The Register, has an article citing the difficulties with avoiding tracking of your Internet activity. Privacy and anonymity - Just how far does Big Brother’s Eye See? is peppered with links to news articles and data security sites. The author offers the surprising conclusion that a wireless connection through an Internet cafe may better shield your IP address.

I think the final frontier is still wireless. If you need a cheap, easy-to-borrow IP address that isn’t yours (but is entirely legitimate), there is always one available inside a Wi-Fi coffee shop, an internet cafe, or your local public library. Surf with a cappuccino, along with everyone else. Socialise a bit. Your IP address is a cup of beans. When combined with a system like Anonym.OS, these are good and mostly anonymous options for most people.

Those of you who have been following my musings over the past year on my prior blog, PI News Link, know the pitfalls of the California court indexes maintained by the data brokers. My posting, Court Records Site Surveys-Part Four, pointed to data gaps in the county indexes - even those that fall within the inclusive dates. I highlighted a comparative search of the Santa Clara County online government site index and that of a data broker.

Recently I performed a similar search of the San Francisco County online government site index. I searched the party name, which returned a half dozen cases from 1996 and 1997. I ran the same search at Merlindata. Its civil cases are indexed from 01/04/1988 to 09/20/2001. None of the cases appeared in their index. What’s going on?

Merlindata court records, as with any other vendor, are only as good as the data the court provides. The San Francisco Court hasn’t sold their court index information for 5 years and may have added older cases that weren’t included in prior years.

Have any of you noticed a similar problem? I’m wondering if non California court data is equally flawed.

Hong Kong - Joseph Tsang is a Hong Kong-based private investigator who specializes in identifying the manufacturer and sellers of fake goods for many global companies. His main target area for counterfeit goods focuses on the sprawling outdoor markets of China’s Shanghai and the hundreds of sellers at the Xiangyang market. This area is world-renowned for fake Rolex watches, Callaway golf clubs and Louis Vuitton bags.

Tsang said his company performs 50 to 100 investigations a month with about one-third of those result in some enforcement action.
Another private investigator “Wang” searches the electronic and software markets to spot pirated products. His investigative reports have helped Microsoft pursue several successful cases against violators. “Wang” doesn’t disclose his first name to protect his livelihood. He visits the Zhongguancun district, China’s Silicon Valley, on the lookout for a high-end enterprise software that Microsoft markets to companies.

Napoleon,MI - Patricia Sroka is a 52 year old private investigator from Michigan. She found herself back in the dating scene after a long marriage ended with the death of her husband. She wanted to make sure she knew a little something about her potential companions. So, she started using her skills and talents as an investigator to find a suitable companion.

Patricia is a licensed investigator and owner of Private Eyes Investigation and Security Services in Napoleon. Tragedy struck more than once when Patricia was involved in a travel-trailer explosion that burned 20 percent of her body.

She started using Cupid.com, an online dating service and met a man named Jerry. After getting his phone number, she immediately began using her skill and resources and within the hour she knew everything she needed to know.

It’s been two years, and Patricia and Jerry are still together. She says,

“I highly recommend going to a professional for people getting into the dating thing. I did it for myself, but that’s because I was really cautious. The fact that I’ve been doing this (as a career), chasing down the cheating boyfriend, I think made me more cautious than the average woman would have been.”

Charleston County, SC - Samuel R. Crain, a South Carolina licensed PI has been charged with stalking and was held on $100,000 bond. Even though private investigators are exempt from laws prohibiting stalking, it doesn’t protect anyone who does it for personal reasons and not as part of a case.

The victim alleges that Crain, 41, was stalking her and that she saw him watching her from a Piggly Wiggly parking lot. After signing a warrant for his arrest, Crain was quickly arrested and taken into custody. Crain is licensed in South Carolina and Georgia. I’m sure there will be more to read about this case.

PHARR, TX — Albert T. Garcia, 60, has been a PI for the last 10 years and now he’s campaigning for a Precinct 2, Place 2 seat that provides an annual salary of $50,555 and an $8,000 car allowance.

Garcia is a PI with a 30-year law enforcement background. He isn’t very familiar with holding a political office, but he thinks that his experience with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department as a homicide investigator and his other police related experience qualifies him for the job.
His firm is Results Unlimited Investigations and he is a member of the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators and the National Association of Investigative Specialists.

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Two Iowa PI’s found themselves testifying in a Muscatine County Courthouse about their involvement with a client, and potential client, who was ultimately charged with a double murder.

The man on trial is Luis Alberto Gomez-Rodriguez, a 40-year-old former Miami resident.The two local PI’s, Rodney Hulen and Thomas Breese, had testified that Gomez-Rodriguez had contacted both of them separately asking if they could help him find a native Cuban couple, Maria Antonia Rivero, a former girlfriend and Juan Sarol-Cepero’s, her new boyfriend. The alleged murder suspect claimed that he had gone on a business trip and when he returned that the girlfriend had absconded with more than $125,000. in cash and furniture.

The first PI he contacted and hired was Hulen on January 14, 2005 for a $200. retainer. When Hulen wasn’t able to find the hiding couple, Gomez-Rodrigues tried to hire Breese on February 21, 2005, two days before the murder.

Breese, the second PI, testified that Gomez-Rpdriguez was very nervous and that made Breese suspicious. Breese refused to take the case and told Gomez-Rodriguez he was busy. Breese also testified that Gomez-Rodriguez had copies of his girlfriends’ cellular toll bills in his possession along with documents that included driver licenses, and motor vehicle information on the couple.

This Iowa case should be is a major eye opener to PI’s throughout the US. You must make sure that the intentions of your client are very clear and when your gut says something isn’t right, it is probably correct.

The national advocacy organization for private investigators, NCISS, has issued a position statement that argues for restrictions on the sale of telephone subscriber records, while pressing for the cool headed recognition that PIs provide a public benefit in accessing this information for legal purposes.

Historically, the lawful, legitimate acquisition and use of telephone records - both cellular and land line - have proven to be an invaluable and cost effective asset in the processing of many types of investigations. Investigators from both the public and private sectors have used phone records as a tool to assist in investigating allegations of ID theft, fraud, abuse, parental and stranger abductions, to trace connections in drug transactions and follow stolen goods, to locate witnesses, runaways and debtors, as well as an aid in collecting judgments and for many other critical purposes. The legitimate and lawful use of phone records as an investigative tool provides the investigator with a cost effective, accurate and expedient method of confirming or denying critical thinking in many areas, and offers a focus for further investigative methods. For these reasons, NCISS supports the commercial provision of these records to licensed, fully vetted investigators who establish permissible purpose and are held accountable for the lawful and ethical use of such records.

The Utah House passed HB28,legislation that requires local governments to remove names and addresses from government documents, excepting those that are specifically identified as public records. This amendment to the Government Records Access Management Act creates a fist sized exception that can be wielded by any county clerk.