Local Private Investigator Arraigned for Falsifying Pistol Permit

Syracuse, NY - A local private investigator who once claimed a plane he was flying crashed because of extraterrestrials was arraigned today in Onondaga County Court on charges he repeatedly lied on his pistol permit over the past two years.

Noah Felice, 51, of 5421 Springview Drive, Fayetteville, was indicted Monday on 12 counts of first-degree offering a false instrument.

Ten of the charges accuse him of lying when he amended his New York Firearms License by claiming he had no criminal convictions on his record and by claiming that his license had not been suspended in the past.

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MHA Hires Detective

The Millville Housing Authority has hired a private detective to perform investigations and surveillance into active fraud, drug and gang activities at the authority's various public housing developments.

The MHA on Tuesday voted to contract John Mazzeo - proprietor of the Mazzeo Detective Agency - on a weekly basis, in which he will also seek out those living illegally in public housing developments, as well as serve as a liaison to federal, county and local law enforcement officials.

"We need someone to assist us in apparent fraud and drug and gang activity," said MHA Executive Director Paul Dice Tuesday. "He has the skills and the professional background that we don't have."

Mazzeo will be paid a flat fee of $1,500 weekly, and will be retained "until he is no longer needed," said Dice.

MHA officials declined to say which housing developments Mazzeo will be focusing on initially.

Introducing himself to the public at Tuesday's MHA meeting, Mazzeo said he already has some investigations "ready to go" and to expect some news out of them soon.

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For A New India, A New Calling: The Wedding Sleuth

Ajit Singh knows about the lies people tell.

He has followed them through the littered, mildewed mazes of New Delhi's middle-class neighbourhoods. He has photographed them as they leave their lovers' apartments. He hears them exaggerate their salaries and hide their illnesses.

A thin man in an ill-fitting suit, Singh works out of a crowded office around the corner from a muffler shop. An incense stick burns behind his desk. A sign in slightly fractured English warns the staff: "Walls Has Ears And Eyes Too. BE ALERT."

Singh has spent years honing his skills: disguise, surveillance, misdirection. With just a few minutes' notice, he can deploy teams nearly anywhere across the country.

Because in modern India, where centuries of arranged marriages are being replaced by unions based on love, emotion and anonymous Internet introductions, where would a wedding be without a private detective?

"Today, there's a need to check if people are telling the truth. And that is where we get involved," said Singh. "Does that boy really have an education? Is he really earning that big salary? Is that boy or girl running around?"

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Burbank Investigation Wrapping Up

DOWNTOWN — A private investigator hired by the city to probe allegations of misconduct within the Burbank Police Department is expected to submit his final report in the coming week, officials said Tuesday.

City officials said they expect to spend the next several weeks poring over confidential information gathered by investigator James Gardiner, a retired police chief hired by the city as it grappled with a federal investigation into allegations of excessive force by officers and five lawsuits filed by eight current and former officers.

Burbank Police Chief Scott LaChasse will be the first to review the investigation, followed by a group that includes the city manager, city attorney, former U.S. Atty. Debra Wong Yang and Police Assessment Resource Center Director Merrick Bobb, officials said.

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Convicted Killer Gets His Own Investigator

The Riverside County Superior Court has appointed a special investigator on behalf of a convicted killer being tried for the murder of a 10-year-old Beaumont boy.

Judge David B. Downing appointed private investigator Enrique Tira for Joseph Edward Duncan during his upcoming capital trial.

Downing assigned the investigator to help Duncan prepare his defense, subpoena victims and collect evidence. Tira is being paid $75 per hour by the county without a cap, according to court records.

Duncan is representing himself on Riverside County charges for the 1997 kidnapping and killing of Anthony Martinez, who was taken from his Beaumont home. His body was found nearly two weeks later bound with duct tape and beaten with a rock.

Duncan has already received three death sentences and nine life terms for killing a family of four in Idaho. According to court records, he has confessed to Anthony's killing, but pleaded not guilty.

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Woman Suing North Myrtle Beach Reports Private Investigator Filmed Her at Work

A woman who is suing the city of North Myrtle Beach for sex discrimination says she caught a private investigator filming her at work this week.

Carol Johnson and her lawyer, Bonnie Hunt of North Charleston, said they believe the incident – which occurred at 12:28 p.m. Tuesday – might stem from an unrelated worker’s compensation claim filed by another city employee.

Johnson said the private investigator might have confused her for the other woman, who is a friend of Johnson’s.

Hunt said she is continuing to gather information about the incident.

Dirk Aydlette III, a Columbia lawyer who is representing the city in the Johnson lawsuit, said neither the city nor its law firm hired the private investigator.

Horry County Police identifed the private investigator as Michael Holland Cook of North Myrtle Beach.

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Brittanee Drexel To Be Sought by Private Detective Agency

The head of a company that helps parents find missing children has hired a detective agency to search for Brittanee Drexel.

Drexel, 18, of Chili was last seen walking out of a Myrtle Beach, S.C., hotel during a spring break trip last April. Her cell phone gave off its last signal several hours later about 40 miles south of there.

Frank Del Vecchio, CEO of AMBER Ready in Rockaway, N.J., and deputy chief of the Fairview, N.J., Police Department, said the company hired Benson Agency Investigations last week in the hope they can bring fresh insight to the case.

"After speaking to (Brittanee's mother) Dawn Drexel and others, we concluded that a private investigator is appropriate," Del Vecchio said Monday. "The Drexel family would be better served having a private investigator on the case."

AMBER Ready provides financial and logistical resources to assist searches and has developed technology allowing parents to create profiles of their children that can be quickly distributed if a child goes missing.

This is the first case in which AMBER Ready has hired a private investigator.

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Alabama Considers Revising PI Licensing Regulations

In fact, right now the State Senate is considering a bill to regulate private investigators and make it harder to obtain a PI license.

It's a bill Posey Investigations in Madison supports.

Right now anyone in the state can become a private investigator, but Senate Bill 24 - a bill that Posey Investigations fully support - may change that.

"I want it to be respectable. I want it to be respectable and right now in Alabama we're laughed at by Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida because we are unlicensed and as a result of that they think we're idiots," said Bill Posey, Owner of Posey Investigations.

Posey says 42 states have strict private investigator licensing regulations and requirements, but not Alabama, which is why the Posey's are working to bring credibility to the industry.

As it is now, anyone with $151 can become a PI.

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Private Investigators Must Seek State License Starting This Month

Until this year, anyone who wanted to call himself a private investigator in Missouri could do so under the law if no city license was required.

But starting this month, the state of Missouri has started accepting statewide applications for private investigators.

Under a Missouri law passed in 2007, all newly formed private investigators operating in Missouri must be licensed. Since the law went into effect, a Missouri Division of Professional Registration has created the State Board of Private Investigator Examiners, hired staff and has developed rules and regulations to implement the law.

On Feb. 1, applications for a private investigator license in Missouri were accepted for the first time.

"Until now, becoming a private investigator in Missouri required little more than a business license fee and a place to hang a shingle," says Dwight McNiel, chairman of the newly formed State board of Private Investigator Examiners and an investigator from Springfield.

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Famed Private Investigator Takes on 'Baby Gabriel' Case

The ‘Baby Gabriel’ investigation is ramping up this week with a planned search of a San Antonio landfill where police fear the boy's body could have been dumped.

Now there is a new face involved in the case. Jay J. Armes is considered a quirky private eye with a track record of getting results. The eccentric investigator talked about why he is taking on the case as police say leads are drying up.

Armes’ clients include celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor and John Lennon along with royalty from around the world.

Armes is high-profile and high-price fetching between $150,000 to $1 million per case. Nevertheless he says he will search for Gabriel for free.

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Stalker Put Electronic Surveillance in Ex-Girlfriend's Home

A 37-year-old man has been accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend by repeatedly sneaking into her residence over a period of months, installing voice recorders in the home, spyware on her computer and sending her threatening e-mails.

Sarah Huntley, spokeswoman for the Boulder Police Department, identified the suspect as Christopher Spiewak of Boulder.

Huntley said Spiewak is being held for investigation of domestic-violence related to stalking, second-degree burglary, computer crimes and repeated harassment.

She said Spiewak was arrested about 11:25 p.m. Friday

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Snooping by Detective 'Legitimate' Part of Divorce Process, Judge Finds

A man who hired a detective to trail his wife to a motel where she was having an affair with a local priest was not stalking her, an Orange County, N.Y., judge has ruled.

Forced to resign after her husband turned over a recording of her and the priest to officials at the church where she worked, the wife accused her husband of violating an order of protection requiring him to stay away from her home and place of employment.

But Family Court Judge Debra J. Kiedaisch, who was sitting in the Supreme Court's integrated domestic violence part, held that the husband, who only handed over the tape at the urging of church officials, had the right to gather evidence to defend himself in a divorce proceeding.

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Missing Stoughton Man’s Family Getting Help From Investigator

The family of Ilya Lastovkin, a Stoughton man who has been missing for more than 11 weeks, has a nationally known private investigator working on the case.

Joseph Moura, president of the National Investigation Bureau, took on the case Dec. 21.

An investigative consultant with the CBS TV show “48 Hours,” Moura has been running his Stoughton-based detective agency for 27 years and has worked on many missing-person cases, including the high-profile 2007 disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann from a resort hotel room in Portugal.

Lastovkin, 22, was last seen Nov. 12, as he left his Memorial Drive home at about 6 a.m. Authorities have said foul play is not suspected.

Moura said a credible source reported seeing a man resembling Lastovkin walking on Route 138 in Stoughton on Nov. 15. The information was investigated by Stoughton police at the time but did not lead anywhere.

Acting Stoughton Police Chief Thomas Murphy said there have been no new leads since.

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