Phoenix, AZ --The Name Jodi Arias provokes a lot of emotion from TV court watchers and alike. Unfortunately the TV only covers the trial and not the evidentiary issues of evidence and its admissibility that was hashed out away from the cameras at pre-trial hearings. Often the rulings judges make are destined to become the basis for new trials in that the jury should have heard relevant evidence excluded by the judge. I have found that many women in particular hate Arias and want to actually kill her themselves. More men seem to be sympathetic but I'm sorry but it's difficult for me to gauge innocence or guilt based on what's shown on TV or even to a trial jury. On it's face the killing of Travis Alexander seems to be at best justifiable and at worse a lesser degree of murder or even manslaughter. I cannot see this as a death penalty case.  By conventional standards the fatal injuries themselves seem to show incredible anger and passion. None of us were there and...

 Carice van Houten and Laura Linney Los Angeles, CA — THE FIFTH ESTATE is a  Dreamworks film based on real events and deeds of blogger Julian Assange and the Wikileaks organization.  They are responsible for mass Internet release of data, videos and sensitive government cables.  The deception and intrigue by various governments is as bad as it gets.  Today Assange is a wanted man in many nations right now.  He’s a hero to many and a traitor to many more.  One thing for sure Assange has exposed massive corruption that continues because the apathetic public does not seem to care.  We will have to wait and see whay kind of light be shown on Assange and his cohorts by the authors of this film I must say I’m absolutely thrilled to see Carice van Houten and another favorite actress Laura Linney staring in this production.   It was filmed in Berlin along with several locations in Belgium.  I have met Linney at a SAG funct...

Phoenix, AZ —A jury convicted Jodi Arias of Capital Murder.   She now faces sentencing and her lawyers are frantically trying to save her life.  I have gotten several requests from sincere readers to reinvestigate the Arias case.  None of them have come with the necessary retainer to allow me to help out.   The case is somewhat problematic since Arias had changed her story to police and juries rarely will forgive what they believe to be lies, especially by the accused.   I can tell you that many innocent defendants fib to police all the time out of absolute desperation.  It is more about fear and the instinct for survival that anything else.   I know that the trial was beyond troubling because the jury was bombarded with outrageous outside influences from the massive media circus.  Her trial was a lot of things but fair was not one of them.  Members of the Mormon community pulled out all the stops in effort...

Image courtesy of Colleen Collins, owner Guns, Gams and Gumshoes:  http://writingpis.wordpress. com/ Los Angeles, CA —A lot of people have little knowledge of what private eyes do beyond what they see on TV.  That’s often a distorted image conjured up by a screenwriter based on perceptions obtained from yet other entertainment sources.  Private eyes do a lot of different things like cheating investigations, accident investigations, and bodyguard work.  They are often involved in efforts to prevent theft and investigate the numerous ways people take what’s not theirs.  They do lots of interviews and interrogations and often serve court orders, subpoenas and such. I wear two investigative hats.  One is doing various investigations for lawyers and their clients usually involving litigation.  The other is producing and or reporting news stories primarily for television news or documentary filmmakers.  The better private eyes really unders...

Los Angeles, CA —Chicago area native Stephanie Stanton does TV news.  I worked with this reporter in Phoenix where she covered the entire gamut of local TV news.  Whether it was covering a shooting or some fire or accident Stephanie always shined. These days Stephanie is reporting for Al Jazeera America’s new cable news network venture.  I caught up Stephanie today in the middle of a hectic and boisterous anti-War demonstration.  With the demonstrators pushing yelling and acting up right behind her Stanton never missed a beat.  She got her interview and despite the heat and I never saw her sweat.  I shot this somewhat wide view video below with a little GoPro camera that shows what TV viewers never see at home.  The audio from my camera got the overall noise from the demonstrators.  Imagine if you will the challenges the photographers must meet in order to give you crisp clean audio under the worst possible conditions. Demonstration...

Blade 350 QX  Quad-Copter with a GoPro Camera Mounted  Los Angeles, CA —As a PI, TV news producer and filmmaker I’m always looking for new, quick and effective ways of quality image and video making.  Arial shots were always expensive because rotor or fixed wing aircraft was necessarily involved.  You got a one-time look for a lot of cash.  Satellite imagery was available but not on the Internet.  You had to buy expensive and often incomplete stock images from NASA.  The first game changer was Google earth that provided great images from most areas of dry land in the world.  The photo resolution was kind of so-so and the images are not regularly updated. Now there is the latest Gee Wiz video-making device ever!   It’s the Blade 350 QX offered by B&H PHOTO 1-800-221-5743  when combined with the popular GoPro cameras is amazing .  They are those new and rather small, easy to operate Quad-Copters that are...

Los Angeles, CA —Aside from being a licensed private investigator I’m also a freelance investigative TV news field producer.  I was drafted into TV news because of my investigative skills and advanced knowledge of courts, cops and public records.   I’m proud to say I never failed to hose the competition on the various news stories I worked on over the years.  That’s all changed now because the shrinking budgets have greatly reduced ability news directors have to hire freelancers.  Todays local TV news is no longer competitive and it has be reduced to sending a two person crew out to cut a mediocre one minute, 30 second package or slap together a quick broadcast live shot.  By accident I had a second role with my TV clients and that was dealing with security matters.  For example I would be assigned to deal with some of the more aggressive stalkers that pursued some of the more popular anchors and reporters.  I served lots of restrainin...

Washington, DC —It’s déjà vu, all over again!  Let’s see, they lied to us about that that attack on the Benghazi compound, that took the life of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others in Libya.   Absolutely knowing otherwise, they audaciously claimed the slaughter was instigated by an obscure YouTube film trailer  that was somehow offensive to Muslims. The Benghazi lies continue even though they’ve been exposed for nearly a year.  Today they call it a, “ phony scandal .”  Impeachment and criminal trials are long overdue however Obama controls the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Then there is the Fast and Furious Gunrunning Scandal designed to fabricate an American Gun Control Crisis.   That fiasco needlessly took the lives of two U.S. Border Patrol Agents along with that of hundreds of Mexicans. Next there is the targeting of Conservative political groups and individuals for special IRS intimidation, extortion and harassment...

Nuremberg, Germany —When the Third Reich collapsed and surrendered in 1945 those Nazi military leaders that could be found were rounded up, jailed and tried by a special tribunal of those victorious Allied Nations.  To a one the accused military suspects cited as a defense that they were only following orders and that had they disobeyed those orders they would have been shot or hanged. The international precedent was established that eliminated that defense and the defendants were held to a standard the precluded Waging Aggressive War and Crimes Against Humanity .  Nearly every defendant was found guilty and most of them were hanged. Now Barack Obama has put our military leaders at a crossroads similar to the Nazi regime.  Hitler engaged in starting war after war and Obama is doing precisely the same thing.  Our military leaders must not allow themselves to be taken down the war crimes path by our psychotic Commander and Chief. This is not about p...

Washington, DC —As a military veteran I’m well aware of the failings of criminal investigations conducted by company commanders, Military Police and the CID.  They do the best they can but there are serious issues with investigative training and the military’s poor use of assets to find the truth. I’ve expanded my services to the United States military members accused of serious crimes worldwide.  Family members of accused servicemen and women need to dispatch me to the alleged crime scenes and to the military defense lawyers as quickly as possible because very often I can make a difference.    Once there is an allegation of a crime a decision is made as to pre-trial confinement for the accused.  If it’s a serious crime the stockade or the brig is the next stop for the charged member.  An Article 32 Hearing is scheduled and this is a magic window of sorts for me as a criminal defense investigator.  If I can gather enough helpful ...