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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Striking Steelworkers Being Watched by Private Investigator

They say you're not paranoid if they're really out to get you. Some Steelworkers proved it Wednesday.

As the crowd was dispersing after a rally with Jack Layton at the Steelworkers' Hall on Brady Street, strikers spied a security guard filming as they were leaving.

The man was seated in his vehicle, parked along the side of the entrance to Kelly Lake Building Supplies, located behind the new Steel Hall.

He admitted to being a private investigator hired by a firm by the name of SCM in Toronto to "observe" the activities of Steelworkers in the parking lot of their union hall.

Clearly nervous at being questioned by several Steelworkers, the man replied, "Nice," when a Sudbury Star reporter identified herself and asked him who he was.

When asked what he was hired to do, he replied: "Just security, ma'am. Observation," he said, pointing to his sunglasses.

When asked who hired him, the man said: "I don't know. I told you what I know, ma'am. I don't want to tell you anything else."

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Grandfather Turns Detective

A retired GM worker turned amateur detective breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday when he heard Durham Police had charged Greg Carter for posing as a psychologist.

The charges came more than a year after the 69-year-old man lost his 10-year-old granddaughter — and his life savings — in a custody battle where “Dr. Greg Carter” testified.

“They took on the wrong guy,” the burly man said gruffly, sitting in his home north of Bowmanville Tuesday. “I’ve never lost a fight.”

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Private Investigator Helps Nail GOP Hypocrite

It's not often that we get to say, "I told you so," so we mustn't let those moments pass.

With that in mind, it's a special pleasure to report that a private investigation led to the recent resignation of David Barber, the head of Alabama Governor Bob Riley's Anti-Gambling Task Force.

Milton McGregor, owner of VictoryLand near Montgomery, said he hired a private investigator, who caught Barber playing a slot machine at a Mississippi casino. Barber won a $2,00 jackpot in late December at the Golden Moon casino in Philadelphia, Mississippi. When confronted about his activities, Barber resigned from the governor's task force.

Reports the Mobile Press-Register:

"I knew he was going there. I knew what took place in Mississippi," McGregor told the Press-Register. "I wasn't out to destroy David Barber. He destroyed himself."

McGregor and other Alabama casino owners are waging a high-stakes battle with the Riley administration over the legality of electronic bingo machines, which have been seized in raids led by Barber's task force.

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Hunter who mistakenly shot private investigator pleads guilty

A Taberg man accused of shooting a private investigator with a shotgun after mistaking him for a turkey pleaded guilty Thursday to charges in connection with the case.

William Wehnke, 51, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor third-degree assault, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful manner of taking, a violation that alleges Wehnke was using the wrong type of ammunition for turkey hunting, according to Oneida County court documents.

Wehnke faces three years of probation and 100 hours of community service when he is sentenced Tuesday, March 9, in Oneida County Court.

Wehnke accidentally shot New Jersey private investigator Matthew Brady, 26, who was dressed in camouflage and lying on the ground when he was struck. The shotgun blast hit Brady in the side of his body, his back and his legs.

Brady had been sent to Taberg to investigate Wehnke's workers' compensation claims, police said at the time.

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Board Hires Investigator

The same night Superintendent Judith DeMuth spoke of La Porte Community Schools’ “nightmare” $1.6 million budget cut coming from the state, the School Board unanimously voted to spend $250 an hour on a private investigator — with no limit on how much money will be spent.

The hiring of Larry Evans, an attorney with the Valparaiso firm of Hoeppner, Wagner & Evans, was approved Tuesday. He is supposed to find out whether any administrators or staff knew about former high school volleyball coach Robert Ashcraft’s alleged sexual relationship with a player.

There is no time or cost limit for the investigation, DeMuth said.

“This is ridiculous. There is already an investigation started by the (Indiana) State Police,” said La Porte resident Randy Mumms, who spoke at the meeting. “This is a waste of people’s money.”

DeMuth said the school district was “just made aware” that the State Police were going to investigate the same issue, and that they made the decision to hire Evans before they found out. Administrators can legally contract for services before those contracts are brought before the board publicly for approval, said School Board attorney William Kaminski.

School Board President Mitch Feikes said the board could have voted against hiring Evans, but didn’t because the investigator will look at a different aspect of what may have happened than State Police will.

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Records: Sanders, Foley involved in probes of board members, employees

Records obtained yesterday by The Blade from the state auditor's office show that at least one of the investigations ordered by Toledo Public Schools of three former school board members began with a tip from former TPS Superintendent Eugene Sanders.

And the documents reveal that the district made repeated use of a private investigator to check on suspicions about its employees.

In addition, a check paid to the investigative firm for the investigation of two private citizens who were often critical of the school district was signed in 2006 by the current superintendent, John Foley.

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Lawyer Wants PI Bala’s Safety Guaranteed

The lawyer for private investigator P. Balasubramaniam said today the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) willingness to meet with his client is a positive development but insisted that the private investigator’s safety must be guaranteed.

“It certainly appears to be a positive statement but we will have to wait for the MACC to contact us directly with acceptance of the conditions set for the interview,” said Americk Sidhu in an email to The Malaysian Insider.

“We have stated previously that Bala is prepared to assist the MACC in any way possible provided his safety is not compromised,” he added.

Yesterday, the new MACC chief Datuk Abu Kassim Mohamed declared the agency was prepared to meet Balasubramaniam anywhere — even abroad — over his allegations linked to the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder.

The missing private investigator has made a series of claims that involved Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his family.

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Detective owes city $22,000

DOWNTOWN — A former Burbank police detective has been ordered to pay the city $22,500 to cover a portion of the legal fees it incurred in defending itself against his privacy and defamation lawsuit.

Attorneys for Christopher Lee Dunn filed the lawsuit in July, claiming City Atty. Dennis Barlow illegally released his personnel records to the media the same day the former detective filed a wrongful termination and racial discrimination lawsuit.

But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer struck down the complaint on the grounds that it constituted a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP. The city then submitted paperwork showing legal costs of roughly $47,000, Barlow said, but on Friday was awarded the $22,500.

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Cleveland school board member apologizes for surveillance of district employees

Cleveland school board Vice Chairwoman Louise Dempsey apologized Friday to the community, saying she's sorry that the district hired private investigators to keep tabs on employees.

"What happened was unconscionable. The board does not condone this practice at all," Dempsey said. "We will never condone this behavior."

She said she was stunned to learn from a recent state audit that former Chief Operating Officer Daniel Burns had approved paying private investigators tens of thousands of dollars to keep several employees, including high-ranking administrators, under surveillance. Records indicate that the investigators were determining what the district employees did during the work day.

Dempsey's remarks came during a board retreat at the Quail Hollow Resort in Concord Township. The board is meeting there through today to discuss a new school transformation plan and other issues.

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Family Searches for Answers in Model's Death

MIAMI, Fl. (WXYZ) - The mother of a Playboy model with connections to Dearborn is demanding answers in the 26-year-old's death.

Paula Sladewski's body was found burning in a Miami area dumpster Sunday. She was so badly burned that investigators needed three days and dental records to identify her. She had been missing since leaving a popular nightclub at 7:00 a.m. Sunday.

Sladewski was in Miami for a weekend of celebrating and partying with her boyfriend, Kevin Klym. The couple, who lived together in both Michigan and California, arrived in the city on New Year's Eve. Klym has been named a person of interest in her death.

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N.C. Woman Hopes Baby Tooth Solves Cold Case

NEW YORK (CBS) ―A grim anniversary approaches with the New Year. An aspiring actor disappeared from a Manhattan party and was never seen again.

It happened 17 years ago but his family has never given up trying to find him.

Now it turns out a baby tooth his mother kept years ago could help in her search for the truth.

A mother climbs a narrow New York City staircase; private investigators in tow. They are trying to solve a 17-year-old mystery. Her son vanished here.

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Loose laws for Alabama private investigators

People who hire private investigators are sometimes at their most vulnerable. They're often in a situation where they might wish they weren't, and they want answers to sensitive questions.

One man in the business wants state lawmakers to pass a bill that would eliminate con artists in his trade who prey on clients' weaknesses.

Bill Posey is CEO of Posey Investigations. He said television and movies sometimes give his industry a bad name, but he hopes new legislation will clean up that image in a state that doesn't regulate who has the right to secretly get you information.

Auto accidents, extramarital affairs, missing persons and dogs, and custody battles are at the center of many PI investigations. Since 1996, Posey's career has revolved around secrecy.

But the private investigator isn't keeping quiet about a bill making its way to the state legislature. It would regulate and license the practice of private investigation, create a board to oversee such practices, and would make it a crime for a private investigator to work without a license.

"In Alabama, it is harder to get a fishing license or a hunting license," Posey said.

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