Two O.J. Dream Team Members Address Private Investigators

Two members of the O.J. Simpson defense team from 1994 were reunited yesterday, as famed trial lawyer F. Lee Bailey and forensic scientist Henry C. Lee addressed a conference of private investigators.

The two men have participated in some of the country’s most sensational trials and cases, from Mr. Bailey’s work in the Boston Strangler and heiress Patricia Hearst cases to Mr. Lee’s investigations into the murders of JonBenet Ramsey and Chandra Levy, the suicide of White House Counsel Vincent Foster, and the reinvestigation of the Kennedy assassination.

For anyone who has heard or read the views of Mr. Bailey, it should come as no surprise that he was critical of law enforcement and the continued use of the death penalty during his 50-minute talk.

“The biggest flaw in the judicial system in the United States has been and continues to be the reliability of the fact-finding process,” he said. The majority of facts in criminal cases are collected by law enforcement officers.

Reporter Moonlights as PI

Private investigator

Fear factor: 0. I laugh in the face of danger.

Cool factor: 10. If private eyes weren't cool, there wouldn't be so many TV shows about them.

Coulda been worse: I could've spent eight hours in a car. Midnight till dawn. In January. In a blizzard. With a full bladder. Or worse.

It was dark. Really dark. The kind of dark you only see when it's not light. Somewhere off in the black-velvet night, a shot rang out and a woman screamed.

Either that or a car backfired and a cat yowled. I get 'em confused.

My name is Yarborough. Chuck Yarborough. I'm a gumshoe. A shamus. A sherlock. A private eye. Magnum with a beard and not just that woolly bear on his upper lip. Sam Spade without the Maltese Falcon.

For today's story, I am a private investigator for Demopoulos & Associates, the firm run by Pete D. and his wife, Bonnie.

Here's how it went down: The other day, I'm sitting in my office, minding my own beeswax, checking out the racing form for Thistledown and reminiscing about the days when newsroom desk drawers came with Scotch bottles, typewriters clattered a staccato symphony and stale smoke hung in the air like yesterday's sauerkraut. And then, this dame walks in like she runs the place.

City Hires PI to Look Into Campaign Allegations

A private investigator has been hired by the City of Dahlonega to look into allegations made by a city council candidate.

Robert Bridges, who is running for Seat 1, has accused city employees of fraudulent handling of the zoning map, obtaining free city water and embezzling funds. Most of these accusations have been made through campaign signs, ads in The Dahlonega Nugget and, most recently, a campaign letter that was mailed to every city resident in Dahlonega.

Private investigator Tim Huhn stated that Bridges declined to participate in the resulting investigation until after the elections.

As a result, city manager Bill Lewis said Monday that this would bring the current investigation to a close.

“Any time allegations of this nature are made, there is a responsibility to the citizens and to the employees named to take the claims seriously and determine whether there is any basis for them,” stated Lewis in a prepare release. “Mr. Bridges' failure to present anything to the investigator that would support his claims led the council to agree no further action on the matter is warranted.”

Chercover's Sophomore Novel "Trigger City" Gets Rave Review

Chicago private investigator Ray Dudgeon is having a bad night. Rolling over onto his right side, where a beating by two crooked cops had dislocated his shoulder, he triggered a nightmare and woke up with the taste of his own blood in his mouth. "The taste of blood, sudden sweats and flashback images sometimes happened when I was wide awake," he says. "... The episodes had diminished during the months I'd spent with my grandfather down in Georgia but when I came back to Chicago they were right here waiting for me. Chicago was full of triggers. Chicago was Trigger City."

This has been an unusually rich year for crime fiction. But Sean Chercover's second Dudgeon book, after 2007's terrific "Big City, Bad Blood," manages to rise to a unique height. He seems on his way to becoming the Ross Macdonald of his time, close to rubbing shoulders with Dashiell Hammett in the Crime Writers' Hall of Fame.

Business has been bad for Dudgeon since the aftermath of his mauling, and he and his part-time trainee, Vince, now mostly try to pay the rent and buy the occasional beef sandwich at Al's #1 Italian on Taylor by doing divorce work—snooping on errant lovers and spouses for a few dirty dollars. He's even trying to find a buyer for his beloved 1968 Shelby: "It easily constituted over 80 percent of my net worth. I could barely afford the insurance on it."

So when Isaac Richmond, a retired U.S. Army Intelligence officer, hands Ray a check for $50,000 for two months' exclusive work, looking into the murder of his daughter, Dudgeon is sorely tempted. "All I had to do is take a case that had zero chance of success," he says as he tries to convince Richmond that it's hopeless.

Private Investigator Catches Sunglass Counterfeitter

A 35-year-old Davenport man was arrested Tuesday after being accused of selling counterfeit sunglasses.

Kenneth Jason Watkins, of 2617 W. 49th St., is charged with one count of second-degree intellectual property counterfeiting.

According to the arrest affidavit, Watkins had been advertising on a Web site that he was selling Oakley “M” Frame sunglasses for $25. The “M” Frame sunglasses are a registered trademark product for Oakley.

A private investigator allegedly met Watkins on Aug. 24 and bought a pair of the sunglasses for $20.

The private investigator then sent the sunglasses to an employee of Oakley, who filed an affidavit Aug. 28 in which he said the sunglasses Watkins was selling were counterfeits of “M” Frame sunglasses that normally sell for $165.

Private Eyes Meet in Michigan

The Michigan and Ontario Councils of Private Investigators are holding their first joint conference this week with events scheduled on both sides of the border.

During the 2-day conference, Ontario Council President Debbra MacDonald of C3 Investigations is giving participants a look at a case that required her to work undercover for months in order to get the information she needed.

"I went undercover for 4 months to find out that the alleged victim was lying," MacDonald told WWJ Newsradio 950's Pat Sweeting.

"So, it was a very interesting file on a very interesting case. We have ADWC [Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted] coming out and they defend a lot of wrongly-convicted," she said.

India Uses PIs to Stop Terrorism

When you go out dancing this Navratri, the woman swirling next to you in a backless choli could well be a private eye looking for suspicious elements wanting to unleash terror.

With Navratri this year being held in the backdrop of serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and terror attacks elsewhere, many garba venues will be monitored closely, with policemen, private security personnel and desi James Bonds mingling with dancers dressed in all the finery to keep vigil.

“Undercover agents, both male and female, will be dressed in traditional kediya-dhoti and ghaghra-choli,” says M M Khan of Blackcat Secret Services. In Gujarat, private eyes have been hired over years, but mainly by worried parents to trail teenage children, NRIs to keep an eye on would-be brides and spouses suspecting their partners of infidelity.

However, the shadow of terror over the festivities this year has changed their brief, with most detectives being asked to keep their eyes open for a potential bomber rather than a cheating wife or a teenager out to have fun.