Politicians Using Private Investigators to Take a Closer Look at Opponents and Themselves

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A questionable military service record. An immigrant housekeeper without a visa. A criminal charge from long ago. Sexual indiscretions.

Such private issues thought long buried are the currency of the secretive and growing world where campaigns hire private investigators. PIs dig up dirt on opponents and, increasingly, the candidates who've hired them.

"Were they really in the military? Did they actually serve in combat? well, maybe not," said Randy Torgerson, a PI and president of the United States Association of Professional Investigators based in Montana. "Some of the biggest things, as people move up the ladder, are sexual issues ... and then the embellishments.

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Private Eyes Aim to Kill Black Ops Video-Game Piracy with Kindness

Private investigators have begun tracking down pirates of Call of Duty Black Ops, an unpublished video game that’s expected to be the hottest game of the season.

But instead of busting them and turning them over to the FBI, the investigators are trying a different tactic. They’re approaching the pirates and telling them to please stop selling illegal copies of the game.

One of the people who bought a disk online has even posted a four-part video on YouTube describing his experience (part one of BlackGate is posted below) of buying a game and getting caught. He described the investigator who cornered him as “polite.”

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Family Launches Private Investigation into Spokane Pastor Shooting

SPOKANE VALLEY -- The family of an elderly Spokane Valley pastor killed in an officer-involved shooting in August has hired a private investigator to dig deeper into the case.

On the night of August 25, Spokane County Sheriff's deputy Brian Hirzel shot and killed Scott Creach, 74, in the parking lot of Creach's business, The Plant Farm.

Creach's family is still waiting for a decision from Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker on whether Hirzel will be criminally charged, but they are also conducting their own investigation into what happened that night.

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Casey Anthony: Texas EquuSearch Volunteers Cite ‘Tampering’ by Defense Private Eye

Two Texas EquuSearch complained to WFTV-Ch. 9 that a defense private investigator in the Casey Anthony case tried to tamper with their testimony.

The two men said investigator Jeremy Lyons tried to get them to change their testimony about searching for Caylee Anthony’s remains, WFTV’s Kathi Belich reported tonight.

Volunteers Brett Churchill and Brett Reilly say the area — where the toddler was later found — was underwater when they searched it. Both men are prosecution witnesses in the murder case, and both told Belich that Lyons’ actions were like tampering. The two volunteers “say Lyons lied to Churchill that Reilly had changed his story about whether the woods were flooded,” Belich reported.

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Body Confirmed to be Missing Banker; Cause of Death Still Sought

Harrison Township — The Macomb County Medical Examiner Office has determined the body found along the shores of Lake St. Clair is that of missing Mount Clemens bank executive David Widlak, but it's still unclear what caused his death, officials said.

The body of the 62-year-old from Grosse Pointe Farms was found in a marshy area of Lake St. Clair on Sunday night.

Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said this afternoon the examiner's office was able to positively identify the victim from dental records.

The medical examiner was not able to find any evidence of blunt force trauma to Widlak's body and is waiting for the results of the toxicology report to shed more light on the cause of his death, Hackel said.

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Investigator: Kamp Grew Angry During Interview with Neighbor

CHARLESTON — Heather Kamp grew angry when she learned private investigators were at her neighbor’s house, flashing money and asking questions about Kate Waring’s disappearance, according to testimony today.

Investigator Eugene Frazier told a Charleston jury said he and two other investigators went to Terry Williams apartment on James Island in August 2009 hoping to learn something about Waring. Williams lived next door to Kamp and Ethan Mack, who emerged as suspects in the case.

Frazier said he had been contacted by landlord Isaac Washington, who was troubled by an article in The Post and Courier in which Mack claimed to be living on Johns Island. Knowing that Mack and Kamp lived beside him, Washington was worried that Mack was trying to mislead police, Frazier testified.

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Forsyth Investigators Search Grounds Around Missing Woman's Apartment

Forsyth County investigators Tuesday afternoon were preparing to search the grounds around the apartment of a 66-year old Cumming woman who has been missing for a week.

The family of Ann Marie Barker, who lived alone at the Oxford Summit apartments on Ronald Reagan Boulevard in Cumming, has hired Alpharetta private investigator T.J. Ward to help find her, Ward said Tuesday.

“I’m working with the sheriff’s office, and so far it’s still a mystery what happened,” said Ward.

Forsyth County sheriff Ted Paxton said in a statement released by his office that there was no sign of a struggle at Barker's apartment and her purse and cell phone were at the residence. Barker was last seen Oct. 5 when she made a routine transaction at a nearby Wachovia Bank.

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Testimony: Private Firm Hired for Booker Investigation

ROCKFORD — Winnebago County Sheriff Deputy Chief Kurt Ditzler told a disciplinary panel today that the department hired a private investigator to look into allegations against Sgt. Aaron Booker because department staff couldn’t give the probe the time it deserved.

Ditzler, who holds the department’s No. 2 position, testified this morning in a Sheriff Department’s Merit Commission disciplinary hearing regarding Booker. The hearing has recessed until this afternoon.


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Director John McTiernan Prepares to Appeal Sentence

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Die Hard" director John McTiernan was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000 on Monday for lying during the wiretapping investigation of Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano and about his involvement in the wiretapping of producer Charles Roven. U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer gave a stinging rebuke from the bench before sentencing McTiernan, saying "the defendant doesn't feel the law applies to him."

McTiernan declined the opportunity to address the court or speak with reporters outside the courtroom, but free pending an appeal, he spoke to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Hollywood Reporter: You were given the opportunity to speak before sentencing, but you chose not to. Why?

John McTiernan: My lawyers said that if I said one thing that's really on my mind, than they could guarantee that I was going to prison right now. I was all prepared. They spent basically 36 hours pleading with me. (I was told,) "You'll feel good for about five minutes, and then you'll curse yourself for a long time afterwards."

THR: What would you have said?

McTiernan: I'm not saying anything. There wasn't any point in saying anything in that venue; that venue wasn't listening.

THR: There were pointed comments from the bench about not eating "aged cheese and fine wine" in prison. Where did that come from?

McTiernan: (Judge Fischer) was trying to ridicule me. I take a very heavy-duty antidepressant; I've lived on it for 35 years, and it has heavy dietary restrictions. And what they did was take the silliest of them and put them in. It was some ridicule the prosecution had put in their papers, and she just repeated it over.

THR: You'll be appealing?

McTiernan: We're already filing the papers. I've already paid the appeals lawyer.

THR: Are you optimistic that you will not serve the sentence?

McTiernan: I didn't start this because I was afraid to go to jail. It would have been much easier to go to jail. And less expensive. And some of the minimum-security prison camps are not bad, and there are actually interesting people there. And I have managed to live my life not being too afraid of new experiences, including going off to a federal prison for four months. That isn't why I started this fight. I started because these people have less respect for the law than they accuse me of having.

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Private Investigator Sues Fraser-Kirk

Frank Monte, a private investigator, says he is suing the David Jones publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk for claiming he has been illegally bugging and stalking her.

Mr Monte said in a statement yesterday that he had hired a barrister and directed his solicitor to launch defamation and perjury proceedings against Ms Fraser-Kirk, who is suing her employer and former boss, Mark McInnes, for sexual harassment.

''They've dragged me into this screaming,'' he said. ''I've kept my nose clean for some time now.''

Mr Monte told a newspaper in August he was being paid ''a substantial amount'' to investigate Ms Fraser-Kirk but had so far refused to say who hired him. David Jones has denied hiring him.

Ms Fraser-Kirk's legal team said this week in the Federal Court that the 27-year-old had developed a psychological disorder as a result of ''extreme'' media interest in the case.

Barrister Rachel Francois said in court that her client was ''particularly intimidated'' by reports that Mr Monte was running background checks and surveillance on her.

Mr Monte said yesterday he resented insinuations he was involved in illegal surveillance, such as ''bugging, stalking or bombing''.

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