In matters both private and corporate, private investigators can be invaluable multi-tools for individuals who are hoping to clinch crucial intelligence, or execute specific tasks. However, there are times when field operations can become extremely dangerous or even fatal, like the tragic fate of a Texas private investigator when he attempted to serve a warrant on a suspect of child sexual assault. The private investigator was shot by the subject of the warrant, prompting a response from the Garland Police, resulting in multiple fatalities.
On June 2, in the early evening, a group of private investigators were attempting to serve a warrant for Little Elm resident, Juan Carlos Lopez, 33, for “multiple counts of child sexual assault,” according to a release from Garland Police. The attempt to serve the warrant was made just after 7:30 PM at a motel in the 6200 block of Broadway Blvd.
As the Texas private investigator attempted to serve the warrant, Garland officers on the scene heard gunfire, subsequently getting word that the private investigator had been shot by the suspect. The Garland Officers made entry to the hotel room and pulled the private investigator from the scene. Three of the officers discharged their weapons, striking the suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the Garland Police’s statement on social media, “The three officers will be placed on paid administrative leave in accordance with departmental policy.”
The Texas private investigator was taken to the local hospital where he was also pronounced deceased. They have not yet been identified pending the notification of their family and loved ones. The investigation remains ongoing. According to the statement released by the Garland Police, “Garland Detectives and members of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Unit responded to the scene to investigate according to standard procedures.
Lauth Investigations International is honored to announce that we have been voted among the top three best private investigators in the greater Indianapolis area by threebestrated.com. Threebestrated.com is an independent online directory of local businesses all across the United States that utilizes a rigorous 50-point inspection criteria in the process of selecting the top three businesses in any given area. Some of the metrics that threebestrated.com use are a business’s history, reputation, and customer feedback.
Lauth Investigations International joins All In Investigations and Jordan & Associates as the cream of the crop in intelligence gathering services. With this new recognition, Lauth Investigations International is hoping to reach even more members of the Indianapolis community and bring our clients the clarified intelligence they require in uncertain times. After years of consistently receiving glowing reviews from satisfied clients and maintaining a strong A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, we’re thrilled to add one more accolade to the list of reasons why both corporations and private citizens can benefit from our suite of private intelligence services.
Lauth Investigations International is a family-owned and operated private detective firm that specializes in complicated corporate, financial, and individual inquiries. Our team of analysts and foreign-sourced investigators is comprised of veterans and specialists of various backgrounds. Our private investigators are trained to approach every case with objectivity & diversified methodology. If you are in need of one of the top three best private investigators in Indianapolis, feel free to give us a call for a free quote at 317-951-1100, or for more information, please visit us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com.
On any construction site, preventing the untoward is always a primary goal. However, with all the will in the world, even the most adept safety program will never be entirely infallible. Around 150,000 construction workers are injured on the job each year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that’s just one of the things can potentially go wrong. If you find yourself in the tricky situation of navigation the fallout of an incident—whether it’s an accident, injury, fatality, or even a heart-pounding near miss—you’ll want to have a dedicated construction site investigator in your corner. Time is likely of the essence, so let’s explore why bringing in a third-party professional is so important whenever construction work takes a turn for the worst.
The Role of a Construction Site Investigator
Whenever something serious happens in a construction setting, a prompt and thorough worksite incident investigation is a must. Why? Because if the conclusions drawn after such an occurrence are sloppy, inaccurate, incomplete, or show any sign of bias, the legal fall out can be substantial. If you want to mitigate potential liability, there can be no corner cutting. Bringing in a seasoned construction site investigator from a corporate investigations firm is the smartest move, because they will not only visit the scene and obtain the facts, but they will also be able to advise you on how to best protect the integrity of your company.
A corporate investigator tackling a worksite incident investigation will efficiently identify the cause of the incident, uncovering and documenting evidence as they go. They will interview all personnel involved, whether they are an injured party, a witness, or potentially those responsible for an error. Their goal will be to present you with an air-tight conclusion composed of the facts. One that paints a clear picture of the state of compliance, aids you in determining the cost of the incident, and covers you legally. They will also provide the necessary information to address worker’s compensation claims, and crucially, allow you to prevent the same happening again down the road—because if it was a near miss, you’d better bet that you won’t get that lucky twice.
Why You Need an Experienced Third-party Construction Site Investigator
If you’re weighing up whether you can handle your worksite incident investigation in-house, consider a word of caution. Even if yours is a large business and you have a substantial HR department, can you really assign a responsible person who is truly impartial? The chances are that your employees all know each other. In fact, your human resources team will have been along for the ride when your site team were recruited, promoted, and given raises, inevitably creating relationships along the way. It may even be possible that your support staff are going to be considered witnesses as the investigation progresses.
Simultaneously, your HR staff are paid by your company, giving them an obvious motive to be bias in your favor. While there is nothing wrong with any of these realities, if your worksite incident investigation should ever result in litigation, they may begin to stack up against you. The solution is a third-party construction site investigator who can lift that burden from your team, and get the job done fairly and quickly without taxing your labor force resources. Getting morale back on track, your team will find confidence in knowing that you’re taking the matter seriously—while you can enjoy peace of mind that the conclusions drawn will be bullet-proof. Are you looking for a corporate investigator with the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to mount an efficient and effective worksite incident investigation? A construction site investigator from Lauth Investigations International will transform a chaotic and stressful situation into a proactive course of action. Don’t leave your business vulnerable to the consequences of handling a construction incident poorly. Reach out to our team today.
Private investigators may have found a new niche in field operations. Civil unrest from both sides of the political aisle has inspired a great deal of public protests. Violence that broke out during protests across the country, including the recent siege on the nation’s Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Employers across the United States are becoming more concerned that their employees might be connected to radical groups, and could therefore pose a risk to their companies. That’s where a private investigator comes in. Employers everywhere are hiring private investigators to confirm whether or not their employees will pose either a security threat or a public relations threat to their company.
It’s impossible to have escaped coverage of protests across the nation in 2020. Protests about racial injustice and interference in the democratic process have already set everyone on edge. As tensions continue to rise it’s becoming more difficult to separate personal politics from the workplace. With the ubiquity of social media, people’s political rhetoric is on display for all to see. As the phrase goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. When employers see alarming posts on their employees’ Facebook pages, depending on the post, there might be reason to believe they could be involved in riskier activities that would pose an embarrassment, or compromise the corporation. Luckily, private investigators have the tools and experience necessary to provide crucial context in murky situations.
Through their licensure by the state, private investigators have access to secure, verified databases that allow them to view an employee’s extended background. This includes their detailed criminal history. If an employer feels there is a risk to the company, an employee’s detailed criminal history can shed some light on what they might be capable of. Private investigators can bring crucial context that might prevent liability to the company, or even threat of bodily harm to the rest of the workforce, like an active shooter event.
Private investigators can run surveillance on employees and determine if they are involved in extra-curricular activities that pose a risk to the organization. They can document their movements and determine if they are associating with radical or militarized groups. With their diverse experience, private investigators are good with risk assessment, and can determine whether or not these extracurriculars are a threat to the company.
Terminating an employee who has been deemed to be a risk can be a tricky business, particularly if they’ve not violated their terms of employment. Many companies have some form of morals clause that they are free to enforce at their discretion, but it doesn’t mean a wrongful termination lawsuit isn’t in the future. Should the company be threatened with a lawsuit, a private investigator is one of the best multi-tools to have at your disposal. A comprehensive report from a private investigator detailing the employee’s actions will be necessary evidence. A private investigator is also an independent contractor with no ties to either the organization or the employee, and their evidence will be scrutinized less in court. If necessary, they can also serve as expert witnesses during any legal proceedings that take place.
A private investigator can determine if your employee is a risk to your company and help you mitigate any losses that might occur. When the situation is murky, you’ll depend on that crucial context to prevent further losses and make informed decisions.
Private investigations can be a great way to find answers when law enforcement or other investigating bodies cannot provide answers. Both corporations and private citizens turn to private investigators to get to the unseen details in their cases and provide clarification in crucial matters. Given the ubiquity of information technology the lines between private investigations and personal investigations can blur very quickly, and it’s important to know when the line has been crossed in getting to the truth.
Private investigations require a great deal of informational tools in order to generate leads and find answers. With the growing sophistication of the internet, access to public records, and thousands of television shows about investigative procedures, it’s easy to see how a layman could view private investigations within their capability. The internet has already connected millions of people who call themselves “armchair detectives.” Armchair detectives are private individuals with an affinity for mystery and intrigue who use their free time examining the evidence of existing cases and attempt to find answers by collaborating and comparing notes online. Researching and discussing cases online is a great way to pass the time and keep the mind occupied, but when the investigation moves offline and into real life, that is where things can get dangerous.
When there is no justice through the proper channels, it’s not unheard of for private citizens to take up the mantle of finding answers. Parents of missing children often pick up where law enforcement left off when they have exhausted all existing leads in their child’s case. The story of Miriam Rodriguez, the woman who tracked down every one of her daughter’s killers one by one and handed them over to the authorities. Despite her success in this mission, her story ended tragically when she was shot in her front yard by members of the cartel who had kidnapped and killed her daughter as another act of revenge. The dangers posed by private investigations is why you should always seek the help of a professional, licensed private investigator. They can provide the same methodology as law enforcement, with similar tools and more freedom.
Many police officers and law enforcement officials turn to private investigations when they retire from their department. Law enforcement officials by nature are typically doers, and sometimes have difficulty enjoying the great deal of down time in retirement. As a result, many make the decision to get their private investigator’s license so they can continue using their skills to serve the community. However, some former law enforcement officers never take this crucial step, but still avail themselves of private investigations in retirement. Not on the internet mind you, but in real life.
One example in which such private investigations went to far is the case of former Houston Police captain, Mark Aguirre. Like many, Aguirre had been plagued by baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, convinced that fraudulent voting had taken place that would benefit the Democratic party in the outcome. Despite the fact that these claims have been refuted by a series of judges in multiple states and the amount of illegal votes cast by imposters or deceased persons was under 50—which amounts to a statistical anomaly. However, Aguirre remained convinced.
This undated photo provided by the Houston Police Department shows Mark Aguirre. Aguirre is an ex-Houston police officer who was arrested on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020, for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for an incident on Oct. 19 in which he pulled over an air conditioning repairman and held him at gunpoint believing the man had 750,000 fraudulent mail-in ballots in the back of his truck. Police say there were no ballots in the truck, only air conditioning parts and tools. (Houston Police Department via AP)
With many states allowing their citizens to vote earlier than normal in the election due to the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of votes were already theoretically en route to be counted through the mail. Aguirre and a few of his friends and associates had set up what he referred to as a “command post” at a hotel in Houston. They had been running surveillance on individuals who they believed to be transporting illegal votes, one of whom was an air conditioning repair man. On October 19, about two weeks before Election Day, Aguirre placed a call to Lt. Wayne Rubio in the Texas Attorney General’s Office and asked him to conduct a traffic stop for the repairman’s truck. When Rubio refused, Aguirre responded that he would take care of the traffic stop himself and “make a citizen’s arrest.” In an interview with police, Aguirre said that he ran the man’s truck off the road, got out of the vehicle, brandished a firearm and forced the repairman to the ground with a knee on his back. Fortunately, no one was hurt in this confrontation, and when law enforcement responded, a search of the truck yielded no evidence of transporting illegal ballots. The truck only contained equipment and parts relevant to the driver’s business. Aguirre was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. If he is convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
While no one was hurt in this incident, it is a perfect reason why taking private investigations into your own hands can be dangerous and ill-advised. If private citizens feel there is a problem that is not being properly investigated, it is recommended they seek the expertise of a licensed private investigator to find answers. They are professionals with the tools and access to get to the bottom of murky situations. Despite their toolchest of experience in law enforcement, former police officers do not have the same resources in retirement as they did on the force. While their expertise could assist in a private investigator’s case, it’s best to leave it to the professionals.
2020 is already going down in the history books as one of the strangest and most devastating on record. On New Year’s Eve, as most of the world looks forward to bidding this awful year goodbye, many are waking up to bizarre news of Casey Anthony having filed paperwork to open a private investigation firm in Florida. Under Anthony’s name, the company will be called Case Research & Consulting Services LLC. Florida private investigators and Floridians alike are stunned by the news, reaping the tragic irony of a woman with Anthony’s backstory working in search of truth. The idea of “private investigator Casey Anthony” is garnering mixed reactions, from the mystified to the enraged.
It’s hard to find a person in the United States who is not aware of Casey Anthony. The entire nation was outraged when she was acquitted by a Florida court in the 2008 death of her two year-old daughter, Caylee. The case received a figurative flood of media coverage, with the public obsessing over the story. When the family realized the daughter was missing, Anthony led Florida investigators on a wild goose chase involving a story about a nanny who refused to return the child to her family. Despite a strong case against her, a Florida jury acquitted her in 2011. Following her acquittal, Anthony disappeared from public life. She started a photography studio that closed in 2018. She told the media around that time that she had recently begun working for Patrick McKenna, the lead investigator on her defense team who was also on the defense team for O.J. Simpson. She had begun doing some online investigation work, such as social media investigations for McKenna’s firm. An address associated with McKenna is listed as Case Research and Consulting Services’ business address.
This move has arched eyebrows throughout the nation, as many cannot forget the alleged lurid details of how Anthony’s defense team operated during the trial. Private intelligence and private investigations are operations that demand a high level of integrity on behalf of the investigator—a quality that no one would immediately associate with Anthony. When she was released from prison on lesser charges associated with the case, there was a steady stream of bizarre details about the defense that continued to mystify followers of the case. Following her acquittal, another private investigator on her defense team, Dominic Casey, said in an affidavit that on more than one occasion, he observed non-ethical behavior between Anthony and her attorney, Jose Baez. He visited Baez’s offices outside of business hours and was shocked to find Anthony there so late, and observed her running naked through the hallways of the offices. He told the media that she was sleeping with Baez in order to cover her attorney’s fees. Dominic Casey also reported that after he was hired, Baez told him that Casey had told him that she had in fact murdered Caylee, and Baez instructed Dominic Casey to find the body before someone else does, according to the affidavit. These are the allegations of one Florida private investigator against a celebrity defense attorney, but like the photography studio, it’s possible that this is another endeavor for Casey Anthony that will eventually fizzle out.
