~ Prosecutorial Misconduct "Harmful Error" Database ~

The Center for Public Integrity, Harmful Error project details the state of prosecutorial misconduct through scholarly analysis and case studies. They've compiled a FREE national searchable database, drawn from appellate court decisions, in which the defense alleged prosecutorial misconduct. A search can be conducted by state, defendant name, and prosecutor name. A search limited by California returned about 100 citations; Alabama cases returned twice as many. California cases don't seem to have the prosecutor listed but other states do. Be sure to read their methodology. Here's a result example:

Details for case: People v. Gaines
DEFENDANT:Gaines, Maurice
State:CA
Jurisdiction:Solano County
Case:People v. Gaines
Citation:54 Cal.App.4th 821
Date Issued:4/28/1997
Was the misconduct ruled harmless error or prejudicial conduct: Prejudicial Conduct
If the court did not address the prosecutorial misconduct or ruled it harmless error, does a dissenting or concurring judge believe the misconduct was more serious than the majority did: Not Applicable

~ Adoption Birth Records: Changes in Access ~

The New Year brings some changes to accessing birth records of adoptees. New Hampshire will allow adult adoptees to obtain copies of their original birth certificates with the names of their biological parents. Read the article

The New Jersey Senate has passed a more restrictive "open access" bill that opens records for adult adoptees born from the point the law goes into effect. Records would be opened for adoptees born and adopted in the past, only if a birth parent does not file an objection to disclosure during a one-year time frame following implementation of the change in law. The passage of the bill in the Assembly is pending. Read the article

The reality game show, not to be upstaged by living reality, is diving into the adoption arena with FOX TV's, Who's Your Daddy? Opinions registered by adoption activists fall into different camps. Read the article PI Steven Weisz does the locates. He runs a company that specializes in locating separated friends and family.

~ Privacy, death, public records and the law ~

This is not just another lurid tale of mentally ill woman-kills-self-with-gun-purchased-at-WalMart. Shayla Stewart, a diagnosed manic-depressive and schizophrenic, killed herself last year with a weapon purchased at...(you know where). But here's the thoughtful, intriguing issue related to privacy, law enforcement records and gun ownership.

Stewart purchased a gun at WalMart, and her meds, a prescription for which she had on file at the WalMart pharmacy. The store did not check it's pharmacy database, before selling the gun, because that's a medical record, which they are barred by law from accessing for other purposes. The FBI check didn't capture the medical history, when they did the gun check, because many states don't report it. Isn't privacy fun!

As long as we're going to allow guns to be sold like candy, should the sellers have a duty to screen the mental health history of the purchaser--much as bartenders assess the intoxication level of their patrons before selling them a drink? Read an article.

~ A bad surveillance day ~

According to this law.com article, 25% of workers compensation surveillance video ends up supporting the plaintiff. And that's out of 10-15 percent of cases that are videotaped.

In the cited case, the defendant videotaped the plaintiff, who really was injured. The defense declined to use the tape but the plaintiff attorney impeached the defense witness with it. Ouch! Does it make sense to observe first, then videotape, if the evidence supports the defense? I guess insurance companies don't want to pay for the extra work. They'd probably rather roll the dice and get dinged at trial...

Database of the Day: Equine Identification

This horse identification program identifies and records information on individual horses, including color photos, microchip data and maintains that information in a database, which can be accessed for a fee.







Identity database, equine investigation

Next? Closing divorce records

Fear is fomenting across the land. The people, faced with the uncertain danger of their personal identifiers used by unauthorized others, are rising up, demanding that the personal become, well, personal. Or, at least only the purview of the government. What happens when the proceedings of government are closed, the relationships of the wealthy to politicians are kept under seal? Ask the Governor of California, who issued a vote of approval to shuttering public records, signing into law AB 782, which allows redaction of divorce records with one party's request.

The Los Angeles Times recounts one recent tale, demonstrating just how the wealthy need protection...

Billionaire investor Ronald Burkle has persuaded the courts to shield from
public view, at least temporarily, dozens of documents in his divorce file,
arguing that a new state law requires trial and appellate judges to seal the
records.

At a hearing Tuesday in Superior Court in Long Beach, Burkle's
lawyers argued that the law, signed in June by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
requires sealing records that disclose financial assets in divorce cases on
request of one of the parties.

Divorce Case Raises Questions on Records Law
Ronald Burkle cites measure that permits sealing of documents. Media lawyers call it unconstitutional. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-burkle23dec23,1,2420407.story?coll=la-news-state

States across the land are finagling to restrict access to government records, even in New Jersey! The Open Public Records Act was implemented in 2002, requires government agencies to release records or pay for the legal fees accumulated in attempting to gain access. The AG's office is plotting for ways to restrict release of public records, with the catch-all exception, ambiguously called "homeland security".

Critics charge open public records law is being gutted
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-nj--openrecords1226dec26,0,7999042.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey [Free subscription required]

Bad drivers automotive database

Cops, as private citizens, are fed up with bad drivers, and are telling us (for a fee) who's been naughty. Tattle, and find who's been tattled on, and get the satisfaction of knowing that the errant (or accused errant) driver, will receive a letter informing her (is it more commonly a him?) that they've been seen weaving, tailgating or speeding! Read all about it

Bankruptcy database

This free bankruptcy database indexes large publicly owned companies that have filed for bankruptcy. Lynn M. LoPucki developed this tool for journalists.

WebBRD is the most powerful business bankruptcy research tool on the web. WebBRD enables you to design and instantly execute an empirical study of large, public company bankruptcy cases in seconds -- in the most complete, accurate data
available anywhere.

WebBRD is a byproduct of my empirical research on large, public company bankruptcies. Over a period of almost twenty years, I have collected the data from those studies -- more than 140 fields of data on each of more than 860 cases -- in the Bankruptcy Research Database.

The changing state of public records access

The Santa Cruz County Recorder is joining Monterey, California in withholding, from the public, access to the original documents, which are scanned into a digital format before they are sent back to the submitter. The title companies are steamed up because of their historical access to recorded documents as they come in the door. Some claim that certain information is not recorded. Read the article

Is this a significant turn of events, a better approach to securing original documents, reflective of a trend to diminish access to public records, or none of the above?

You're invited to add comments (just select the comments link at the bottom of this message).

Archival sources - video, film, news, print

Archival news and film footage, along with stock film (bad weather...), service. Search across all sources by keywords and get a synopsis of the content of each document.

Vanderbilt University claims to house the largest collection of National network news.

blinkx.tv, still in beta test, indexes radio and television broadcasts, searchable through a keyword index.

Many magazines and newspaper articles are archived on the internet. Time Magazine introduced its searchable database, which extends back to 1923. The free search only returns an annotation of the article but, then you can go to a major library (of which you are, of course, a card holder) index and often obtain the whole article. First try entering the title, in quotes, in an internet search. This will sometimes return a site that is distributing the article for free.

U.S. newspaper archives, on the internet, are organized by state, then publication, with inclusion dates and costs, if any, courtesy of the Special Libraries Association.

media, database

A Database of "Do Not Call" Numbers?

This is more musing than hard news. Check out the Do Not Call Registry site for telemarketers. Those folks access ALL the Do Not Call numbers, in order to purge their lists! It looks like a number of types of organizations can access this list for FREE. Commercial and political survey entities can purchase the lists by area code. Place your bets now on how long it'll take for these listings to be integrated into other databases.


Databases

State AG Withheld Evidence

A North Carolina lead prosecutor, for the Attorney General's office, Jim Coman, admits, then retreats, from the statement that it was office policy to withhold exculpatory evidence from the defense. Several prosecutors, in his office are under investigation, by the state BAR, for withholding evidence in two capital cases.

In September, the state's senior prosecutor was in an unusual place: the witness stand. And what he said has caused quite a stir among lawyers around the state.
Jim Coman said under oath that the state Attorney General's Office had a policy of withholding a certain type of evidence helpful to defendants. As he described it, the policy would violate 30 years of U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Read the article

Law enforcement, criminal defense, investigations

Database of the Day: US Mexico Border Deaths

The Arizona Daily Star database currently indexes border deaths, in the Tucson sector, from October 2003 to the present. Searchable by a missing person's name, age, or hometown. Search the database

Read a news story about the database in Editor & Publisher.

Free Search: Keywords in legal briefs

The various companies that maintain legal briefs must have different pools of document repositories they draw from because the same search, in different brief search engines, returns various results.
Briefserve.com, describes itself as "the ultimate brief and research engine". Okay. Whatever. It searches keywords, case numbers or titles from briefs filed in state and federal courts. How many, I don't know. Here are two different results, same phrase.

The term "investigator" returned these cases from Briefserve:
Docket # Case Name Term By Request
D028719 SAN DIEGO FRAUD INVESTIGATORS V. COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO 1997
B161523 Sarkis v. California Assoc. Of Licensed Investigators, Inc. 2003
2002-0899 Mark S. and Denise R. Fridley v. Walter Horrigs, Investigator, Special Service Investigation 2002

The Brief Reporter searches by keywords, including company names, by topic or attorney. This is not a complete list of cases but, rather, selective briefs submitted by lawyers. Brief Reporter describes its service as:

a legal research service dedicated to publishing top quality legal briefs from previously litigated cases in all state and federal jurisdictions. We obtain our briefs from leading attorneys throughout the country. We add new briefs every week to our growing online brief bank.

An example result from a search by the words "private investigator":

Lee v. Industrial IndemnityGerald P. SchneeweisDefendants-Respondents' BriefCalifornia Court of Appeal Fourth Appellate District Division One4th Civil No. D023757 BrfRep-C00036731997
Private investigator of a possible fraudulent workers' compensation claim who covertly interviewed the plaintiff claimant after videotaping him to verify the claimant's identity is not liable for the negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress. No preexisting relationship existed between the investigator and the workers' compensation claimant. The interview was not outrageous simply because the investigator failed to identify himself. The interviewer did not know the claimant had an attorney or that the claimant was psychologically unstable. Further, the interview was not so unreasonably intrusive, pervasive, or destructive that the investigator tortiously invaded the claimant's right to privacy or is liable for trespass. A trespass cause of action will support emotional distress damages only where there is either a nuisance or continuing trespass coupled with damage to real property.

HOT: Ca Sex Offenders, Now Online

The California Office of the Attorney General has joined the increasing collection of states that are posting, on the internet, names of registered sex offenders. This free database allows searching by name, zip code, address, parks and schools, within a specific county or throughout the state. An undesignated number of the 63,000 registrants also have photographs.

Other states have free searching of their registered sex offenders. The FBI site lists links to the various states' sites. A more current, complete set of links is at the publicrecordfinder site. The Vermont sex offender registry has some scary language to compel you to register your name and address, before you can get their secret list. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation, has a searchable database that includes photos. Go directly to the Idaho Bureau of Investigation to search sex offenders.

More specialty search engines

LawKT.com is a search engine of articles at law firm web sites that can be searched by keywords in the article. The phrase "probable cause" returned 50 sites where this appeared between 1998 and 2003. The Crowell and Moring firm has a pdf document on an Emergency Guide to Federal Search Warrants, for businesses that are faced with that unpleasant occurrence.

In another vein, there are blog search engines, perhaps not as refined as Google, but another resource. The blogcatalog directory has a search engine and blogs organized within subject folders. Blogpulse describes its site as"an automated trend discovery system". Okay. But the word "system", associated with any product, has the vague whiff of contemporary snake oil. Feedster does a respectable job of finding keywords in syndicated blog posts. If you don't know what that means, don't ask me. I can't even fake an answer.

Court questions DUI testing device

The Vermont Health Department is being accused of withholding evidence that could establish the innocence of DWI suspects.
At issue is the Datamaster:
the high-tech machine that police use to document the blood-alcohol levels of DWI suspects.
For 14 years police in Vermont and many other states have documented the blood-alcohol levels of DWI suspects using this high-tech machine called a Datamaster. Read the article

Database of the Day: Farm Subsidies

Okay, I don't know if any investigator out there will find this relevant to their work, but I have a weakness for searchable databases. That doesn't sound very exciting. The Environmental Working Group has developed interactive maps of irrigation districts, searchable by state and county, that show how much water is delivered to virtually all project farms.
The EWG reports that

Sixty percent of all farmers and ranchers do not collect government subsidy payments, according to USDA, mostly because the crops and livestock they produce do not qualify for subsidy programs (see state breakdown). Among subsidy recipients, large farms collect almost all the money. Nationwide, ten percent of the biggest (and often most profitable) subsidized crop producers collected 72 percent of all subsidies, averaging $34,424 in annual payments between 1995 and 2003. The bottom 80 percent of the recipients saw only $768 on average per year.

Search more and better

The find.com is a Beta test business search engine that trolls the business news and business web, retrieves your keyword results, and organizes the results into folders.

Identify search engines within specialty fields using the uncluttered FinderSeeker. This site is the search engine of search engines. The category of Legal returned more than 100 sites, from public records proprietary databases to government codes. Narrow your search for professionals on the internet at Ziggs, which claims to have 1.7 million names.

Single topic search engines, such as this free trademark database, which catalogues both U.S. Federal and Canadian records, are handy for targeted research.

Fossick.com is a meta search engine that pulls search-term results from many search engines. Searches can be grouped by search engine source.

Then, if you need to validate the information you found on the Web, go to these fact-checking Web sites: Spinsanity.com, for urban legend by topic. Political misrepresentations can be corrected at Factcheck.org or at the Spinsanity blog.

Earth to PI - Must have databases of the present and future

The San Diego Superior Court has yet to rule on the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse lawsuit against Albertsons and various pharmaceutical companies, related to selling customer lists. Obviously, this could be a valuable marketing tool but not as good as the Walmart database, reported to have more information than Google. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that:

For many years, Albertsons has made a profitable business of marketing access to its consumer database to drug companies, which use the information in marketing campaigns intended to increase medication sales. Your prescription information personally identifies you by name, phone number and address, as well as showing the drug prescribed by your doctor and your likely underlying medical condition. More

Melissa Data offers National Change of Address (NCOA) batched services, designed for updating mailing and subscriber lists. A freebie adjunct is their lookup service. Find schools and businesses within a state, county or zip code, and get contact information. Demographic statistics, weather, home sales, carrier routes and more are trackable by a variety of filters, including zip code.

Here's a commentary on the limitations of the upcoming USPS revision of the NCOA.

The National Library of Medicine has just released the interactive online map, TOXNET, that pinpoints toxic releases in the air and water. Designate all releases or narrow search by place, chemical or company. A search for Benzene/Richmond, Ca returned the following list, with a corresponding map. 1. CHEVRON PRODS. CO. RICHMOND REFY. 2. CONOCOPHILLIPS RICHMOND TERMINAL 3. BP RICHMOND TERMINAL 4. CHEVRONTEXACO ENERGY RESEARCH & TECH. CO. Selecting a list item returns the amount of the release and the specific plant from which the release occurred.

Cal Supremes: Truth Matters!

Los Angeles Deputy DA Steven Ipsen presented two conflicting sets of facts to the separate juries for each defendant.

Bringing killers to justice is one thing, but doing so by knowingly
presenting false evidence is another. That seemed to sum up California justices'
feelings Tuesday during oral arguments in a case in which a prosecutor is
accused of arguing contradictory theories in separate trials to win death
sentences against two men. More

The case briefs are available at the California Courts site.

Crimes by the State - Police not playing fair!

The Southern California case of a man who was falsely convicted, on the testimony of a jail-house snitch, and the withholding of exculpatory evidence by the District Attorney, was overturned. After 24 years of incarceration, Thomas Goldstein was released earlier this year but has filed suit accusing the police of arresting him without probable cause, and Long Beach of violating his civil rights. more

Jailhouse informant Glen McCormick, who testified in the 1994 trial of Kenneth Wyniemko, recently told Wyniemko's lawyers that a police detective left him alone in an interrogation room with the police report. From the report, he said, he concocted a lie about Wyniemko boasting about the rape in jail. more

Recent PI profiles, accolades and techniques in the news

Bay Area PI, Nick Cannon's educational software debuts.

Florida gumshoe gets acquittal for criminal defendant.

Reconstituting trash from garbage hauls is a source of competitive intelligence.

It's not illegal to fake your own death but this PI uncovered the insurance fraud that went with it.

Modesto, California surveillance PI (on a motorcycle?)

Indiana investigator is interviewed about employment misconduct.

Sacramento PI hunts down identity thief .

The Iowa Secretary of Agriculture is shutting down a kosher slaughterhouse, for inhumane treatment of animals, based on a video surreptitiously filmed by a PI.

Birth family and adoptee are happily reconnected by Tennessee investigator.

Desert acres is the place to be; Las Vegas, investigations and thou

The booming construction trade and a change in Nevada state rules, finds Los Angeles law firms setting up satellite offices. Growth areas include construction-defect defense, litigation, real estate and professional liability, land use and planning, health care, environmental law and estate planning.

The Private Investigator Occupational Survey

It's that time of the year when the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics tells investigators our work prospects, the pay scale, the characteristics of the PI business, and more. Apparently, 1/3 of us are self-employed.
Particular temperaments succeed in this varied, demanding business that requires many oppositional qualities: patience and persistence, ability to respond to cues (from both our clients and witnesses) and yet, take initiative. Investigators I respect are demanding thinkers who consider the permutations of their actions and techniques, the possible outcomes, for their client and the case success. Creative thinking should be applied to every familiar task, as well as the unknown ventures. Otherwise, we make assumptions, which is a deadly state in this business.

The Most Comprehensive Media Index

The MediaFinder database catalogues 72, 000 publication titles, providing publisher contact and publication information. It is searchable by title, theme and keyword. Free searches are only available through libraries. My local public library provides remote access. This company claims to maintain the largest database of periodical information in North America.

A keyword search in publications' descriptions, by the term "fraud", returned the following result on the first page:

31 publications matching your search criteria were found. Displaying matches 1 to 10 Title (publication type)Hide Summaries
Fraud and Theft Information Bureau Catalog (Catalog) Fraud and Theft Information Bureau Catalog (Catalog) Specialist in credit card and check fraud control and loss prevention for businesses, banks and consumers - manuals, fraud-blocker databases and consulting services. National Council for Reliable Health Information (Newsletter) National Council for Reliable Health Information (Newsletter) Information about health fraud, quackery and misinformation. BIN Number Directory of All Visa & Mastercard Issuing Banks (Directory) BIN Number Directory of All Visa & Mastercard Issuing Banks (Directory) Lists 16,650 Visa & 15,400 Master Card issuing banks.
Bank Fraud Bulletin (Newsletter) Bank Fraud Bulletin (Newsletter) Covers fraud and risk management topics.
Focus on Fraud (Newsletter) Focus on Fraud (Newsletter) Educates consumers regarding fraud in telemarketing and how to prevent it.
Health Care Fraud Litigation Reporter (Newsletter) Health Care Fraud Litigation Reporter (Newsletter) Provides coverage of federal and state prosecutors' civil and criminal actions intended to reduce health-care fraud.
Health Care Fraud Report (Report) Health Care Fraud Report (Report) Takes a closer look at health care fraud and abuse issues.
White-Collar Crime Fighter (Newsletter) White-Collar Crime Fighter (Newsletter) Includes inside information about the latest frauds, scams and schemes, fraud-fighting tools, techniques, and technologies around.
Bank and Corporate Governance Law Reporter (Journal) Bank and Corporate Governance Law Reporter (Journal) Provides detailed information involving corporate control, fiduciary duties, securities fraud, and professional liability to both corporate counsel and litigators on suits by shareholders and....
Banker's Hotline (Newsletter) Banker's Hotline (Newsletter) Current trends, issues and regulations in bank insurance and risk management.
[Next] [Bottom Go To Match Number: of 31">

HOT - Search for Cases by Attorney Name

This Findlaw search mechanism draws from the Westlaw database. A free registration will give you access to case names, but any case details require subscription. Only a last name is required to access a list of cases, or enter a full name. Records can be searched nationwide or limited by state. The attorney's name is also searched across the internet.

Disgruntled ex-employees or record discrepancies?

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse claims that records maintained by The Work Number may not be accurate. The PRC says that they've received complaints, from current or former employees of reporting companies, about job detail discrepancies.

...job titles have been misreported, indicating that an employee had a lesser job title than indicated on their resume and inaccuracies specifically with Johnson & Johnson noting employee "termination" rather than separation. Possible inaccurate records may affect the ability for employees noted in The Work Number records to gain employment with job prospects due to perceived inflated job titles and indications that a previous employee has been fired. More

FTC Issues Final Summaries And Notices Under FACTA

Federal Trade Commission has issued final summaries of identity theft and general consumer rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA).

The general consumer rights summary provides that:
- active duty military personnel have additional rights under the FCRA and FACTA

The identity theft rights summary states that:
- a consumer may request that a consumer reporting company block any information, not just account information, in the consumer's file if the information is the result of identity theft.

- fraud alerts can be requested by the consumer over the telephone

Annual Death Row Population Count Released

This report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics provides demographic characteristics on the death row population through 2003.

Highlights include the following:
At yearend 2003, 37 States and the Federal prison system held 3,374 prisoners under sentence of death, 188 fewer than at yearend 2002.
Of those under sentence of death, 56% were white 42% were black, and 2% were of other races.
Forty-seven women were under sentence of death in 2003, up from 38 in 1993.

Online Databases with opt-out provisions

Websites that sell or provide free, public and non-public personal information, allow listed individuals to opt-out. A sampling of some of these very familiar companies is listed at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The obvious problems attend for locate and background investigations. There's no way to know if someone has opted-out. But if you rely on one of these companies, you may miss your target.