News gathering Video Technology and Guerilla Journalism!

Los Angeles, CA—Wherever you go in the City of Angeles doing news the paranoid public relations people and their security agents demand absolute control over anyone shooting video.   The equipment to shoot quality video was cumbersome and difficult to move around without attracting loads attention.  That’s changing faster than the speed of light.  They can’t seem to repress the journalist with the notepad but ejecting cameras from most real estate has proven all too easy.

Today you can shoot very watchable video with quality iPhone cameras and a host of small camera choices.  The somewhat new GoPro cameras are nothing short of incredible.   I have two of them now; the Hero 3 and a Hero 3+ are in my video gathering arsenal.

Any day now and I will take delivery of a Blade 350 Quadcopter that will zip right past security guards, police and fire lines.  It will instantly defeat even the tallest walls and fences to obtain exceptional HD GoPro camera video.

On the ground I’m looking for ways to conceal the little GoPro cameras so I can do interviews and get B-Roll without attracting any unwanted attention.  I am learning to do low profile scene stand-ups guerrilla style.  My goal is to get in and out of the scene before anyone knows I’ve gathered my needed video. 

Quality audio is important so as you see I will rely on a Zoom H4N recorder with lavalier or shotgun microphones.  As you can see below the onboard microphone does not cut the mustard!  As a freelancer there are really no equipment limits as long as I can bag the story.

The tiny GoPro needs some stabilization when handheld and there are solutions in the way of small Steadcam type devices that can be obtained and employed.  

Most mainstream news directors and editors are presently fumbling around with the lawyers, journalism ethics professors hoping to learn if they can embrace the technology for their own reporters and photographers.  In the meantime I will go out and get the story! 

The Blade 350 can be purchased from B&H Photo 1-800-221-5743

Police Booking Photos, Punishment Without Due Process?

Crown Point, IN—Arrest information and police booking photos are public record nearly everywhere.  If you’re accused of a misdemeanor or felony, you’ll get fingerprinted, photographed and often humiliated.  If it’s a high profile crime or you have a even a small bit of celebrity you can count on being put up at a garish public display at a Photo-op Perpwalk too. 

Cops and prosecutors love to brag about high profile cases and are allowed to release lurid details that are sure to become the topic of gossip everywhere.  This also interferes with the right of the accused to a fair trial.   Arrests are often newsworthy but the same is rarely true for vindication or an acquittal. 

The presumption of innocence goes out the window once the media finds an arrest to be newsworthy.  The rules regarding release of documents and information especially in the Information Age need serious revision.  High profile criminal trials have replaced gladiators and feeding people to lions as a form of entertainment.

Today the arrests that are not newsworthy, infamous or otherwise remarkable are just a click away on any search engine.  Routine traffic arrests for excessive speed, driving on a suspended license or DUI are now posted on the Internet for the personal gain of website owners.

Should you be accused of any crime usually there are very unflattering booking photos, fingerprints and probable cause information justifying the arrest are public record. 

Some website owners are demanding and getting the material and gratuitously posting it in the Internet long before there is a conviction related to the arrest.  If there is an acquittal the damaging material is left out there to keep you from getting, jobs, loans or a chance at a relationship with a cautious but desirable potential lover.

Whether you’re convicted or not the website owners offer to remove the damaging material for cash.  In some cases they operated three and for different websites sharing the same information.  Sanitizing the Internet of you booking information and photos could take a lot of money.  Frankly this scam borders on extortion. 

For those convicted of crimes I’m not really concerned that the guilty carry the Mark of Cain.  For the innocents I believe that there should be an effective legal remedy.  Thousands of people are arrested every year because they share similar names or physical characteristics with criminals. They are usually released after the mix-up is resolved through additional police investigation. 

The fix here is simple, to bar the release of the photos or information to the public unless or until there has been Due Process and a conviction.  This could be accomplished by a single federal law or at the state level. 

Web site operators should simply face criminal charges and their sites seized by authorities for displaying material of anyone not convicted of the crime for which they were charged. 

The booking photo above was a prank.  This was taken at the old Lake County, Indiana Jail Museum.  The slate was re-created for the Michael Mann film Public Enemies.  Check the date and it reflects the arrest of John Dillinger well before I was born.   Johnny Depp wore that infamous slate for the film.

Why Aren’t These Trespassers Marching in Mexico City?

Phoenix, AZ—I had to visit a client in the Maricopa County Jail who is charged with two unrelated murders of women.  When I got to the jail it was in a full state of lockdown because of a demonstration by as many as 4,000 illegal aliens and their families.  I had to wait for this foolishness to pass before the jail would reopen.

There was strong labor union sponsorship of this group’s presence on the downtown streets of this city.  The group was peaceful as the passed by with their signs and chants.  There were some glaring observations that I made of this group that threaten the economic status of America.

Our entire healthcare system has all but shut down because some 11 uninsured million illegal aliens can and do walk into any emergency room and demand full medical care.  We cannot afford to provide medical, educational, service for our own citizens but our politicians have forced us to pay a massive debt of Mexico and Central American trespassers.

If you look closely at the women of child-bearing age and you will see that nearly all of them are pregnant and have two or three children in tow.  They are not paying their own medical care costs.  These 4,000 demonstrators are sucking up millions of our tax dollars and now our some of our politicians want to give them every kind of welfare entitlement.  That will simply insure that the USA becomes a Third World Nation.

Communism can only survive with a massive population of ignorant, poor and miserably needy people.  That’s how they keep power to enslave the productive citizens.

Mexico has every natural resource of the USA.  They have two beautiful coasts and should thrive as well or better than we have done.  That’s impossible because they have a corrupt government that generates crime, poverty and ignorance.  Of course they export as much as they can to our nation as their upper educated a nd privileged society contributes nothing to their own poor.

If we really cared about these Mexican economic refugees we’d keep them out but support them in efforts to overthrow their own despotic government. If they did that right they could recreate Mexico with a Constitution like our own.  Within a few decades they could achieve greatness as a nation.  Soon they’d have to put up walls to keep us Gringo’s out of Mexico.  

Our illegal Mexican aliens have a problem.  Not only can’t they properly read and write English they are also illiterate in Spanish!  The Mexican government evades all responsibility for that human tragedy.  

By the way the Maricopa County Jail has a huge population of illegal aliens for very frightening violent crimes. Murder, rape, robbery and narcotics trafficking is what the misguided generosity of our politicians has imported.  That is both wrong and un-American.

Watch the hordes pass by.  This was about one third of the group. 

Obama’s Targeting of our World War Two Heroes with Arrest for Resistance Backfires!

Washington, DC.—Today the men are well into their 80s and 90s.  A charity group called, Honor Flights, brought them to The World War Two Veteran’s Memorial.  Once they were proud, strong and brave young men.  Today their physical strength and youth has left them but not their courage or determination. 

We’ve enjoyed over six decades of not being dominated by the Nazi’s and Japanese because of these heroes.  The only threat to our freedom and Constitution now are the Communists and Socialists within the Obama Administration.  They have nothing but utter hatred and contempt for our military veterans. 

With the government shutdown they ordered metal barricades put in place blocking access to the memorial. These men don’t need or want government employees helping them, just simple access to the real estate! 

In effect Obama was holding the monument hostage for political gain in order to protect their Obamacare Socialized Medicine train wreck.  The Obama Administration has always shown its total commitment and zeal to victimize anyone that resists its political dictates. 

The message from cops and DC bureaucrats was threats of arrests for any of these men that dare walk on their own monument property.  The old soldiers broke through the barricade defying the Obama loyalists just as they did the Nazis and Japs long ago. This time the old heroes were in wheelchairs, toting oxygen bottles walkers and canes.

In the end the cops could not stomach their orders to make arrests and the heroes achieved yet another victory over fascism.  That left Whitehouse officials seething with anger.  That also gave one last victory to these fellows who are responsible for whatever freedom we still possess. 

Every day Americans learn more about Obama and his minions.  Obama and his henchmen are dangerous to America and they eventually will be punished for their treason and other serious crimes.  It’s only a matter of time and they will be cowering on the scaffold awaiting their just fate.

  

Was Kenya’s Westgate Mall Attack Just a Rehearsal for an American Mall Massacre!

Los Angeles, CA—I’ve said it was only a matter of time before Muslim extremists would exploit our grand shopping malls.  Ours are as soft of a target that any terrorist would beg for. 

American mall operators shunned armed or trained security personnel and frankly they think a visible police presence is bad for business.  They also go out of their way to post silly “Gun Free Zone” signs everywhere.

Our mall operators have really only placed a target on the butt of every man woman and child that can be found inside any large mall.

Kenya was better prepared to respond to mall attacks there.  They are used to urban terrorism unlike our nations police forces. 

Imagine L.A.’s magnificent Beverly Center Mall.  On any given day thousands of shoppers are strolling through without a care in the world.  Among them behind sunglasses and hats are A list celebrities.  Of course there are children, toddlers, and even infants everywhere. 

In the Westgate attack the thugs took hostages.  The victims were savagely raped, tortured and soon beheaded.  The orgy of violence was unimaginably horrific.   Imagine what they’d do to any of our more popular movie stars?

The death toll could easily exceed 2000 before a siege by just ten terrorists may end.  Terrorists could quietly enter as workmen pushing weapons, fuel and bombs on carts from their cars.   The mall floor plans are available to everyone including terrorists. 

Perhaps as hundreds of happy little Christian children are waiting to see Santa Claus some perverted Muslims may unleash the unthinkable.  

The LAPD would be minutes away and reluctant to enter the mall at all until they can amass with a large police presence and that may take an hour or more.   

I’m simply asking how would this style of attack be ended?  I remain convinced such an attack would face minimal resistance and melt Los Angeles to its core.

  

Jodi Arias and The Public Opinion True Crime Train-wreck and Reinvestigation

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 we can't know for sure. I also refuse to rule out justifiable homicide until I can investigate this mess.  The redundant stabbing seems to me to be an act of wild passion or a really fierce fight.

The trial was a shameful,media driven farce.  TV pundits were presiding over the case rather than Judge Sherry Stephens. The Prosecutor, Juan Martinez was a wannabe celebrity basking in the footlights of the courtroom that was transformed into a theater.  Ive seen this before and it was a disgraceful example of American justice.

The interest in this sad case was off the charts and people without apparent lives took up sides and verbally battled like gladiators.  The high emotion and bizarre behavior by court watchers cheering for a death penalty sentence was particularly sickening at least to me.

Many of my blog visitors want me to reinvestigate this.  I do believe that a new defense investigation may well be worthwhile.  What I find shocking and sad is the hateful court watchers that can't stand that idea.  I ask, what if new evidence is found that discredits the conviction?  Is that somehow a bad thing?

I don't know if funds will be raised by Arias' supporters.  I have to ask is it anybody's business if the case get's reinvestigated and new evidence is found but the court's?

Reinvestigation of the Arias case will take exhaustive work and I'd expect to have to deal with many hostile and angry people.  I have no emotional reaction to this mess.  If I investigate the chips will fall where they may.  Either evidence will be found or not. Is looking for evidence to get to the truth somehow a bad thing?

If funds are not raised believe me I won't feel deprived because I'd expect this case to be more challenging and difficult than most. I have agreed to take it on only if retained to do so and that would obligate me to do what I do best, criminal defense investigation. 

The Fifth Estate Film will be in Theaters October 18th

 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 function and I'm looking forward to meeting van Houten.  

This is the Dreamworks created storyline:

The story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world's most legendary media organizations combined. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society-and what are the costs of exposing them?

This film was the talk of the recent Toronto International Film Festival.

The Stars of this film:

  

             Benedict Cumberbatc--Julian Assange

             Daniel Brühl--Daniel Domscheit-Berg

             Carice van Houten--Birgitta Jónsdóttir

             Alicia Vikande--Anke

             Stanley Tucci            --James Boswell

             Laura Linney            --Sarah Shaw

            Anthony Mackie--Sam Coulson

Can Jodi Arias be Helped Through a New Defense Investigation?

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 efforts to influence that poor excuse for a trial.

For those that would ask why would you investigate for someone like this?  My answer is simple every American that is accused has a constitutional right to an effective defense and investigation is part of that.  The chips will fall where they may. 

Saying that,  I don’t know what the truth is about the actual innocence of Arias.  In the end her defense was self-defense.  I specialize in those kinds of cases and won 14 out of the last 14 I’ve handled for the defense.  Saying that I can’t make a promise of a particular result for Arias.

Lawyers can only do so much with what they are given in the way of evidence and witnesses.  My job is to give defense lawyers more evidence to work with.  Accordingly the defense investigation often becomes more important than the legal work by defense counsel.  Of course the lawyers have to get that evidence before the jury and sometimes that's very difficult.  

Too often the defense investigation is not done well.  Sometimes lawyers constrain the investigators too much or they are unable to suggest creative ways of gathering evidence to the investigators.  Far too many defense investigators are simply not creative and only follow suggestions of the lawyers. 

The investigator must be sharp, creative and must discuss his ideas with the lead lawyer.  The reality is that the lead lawyer is the captain of the ship.  The defense team is not a democracy but a dictatorship with the lead lawyer as a single dictator.  

Like all of us I have to pay the mortgage companies, utilities and the daily costs in a miserable economy.  There is no way for me to do this pro-bono.  The reinvestigation could easily run $50K before it’s over.

It is substantially easier to win a case at the initial trial level that to overturn an existing conviction.  However convictions are overturned all the time.  I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t predict how this will end.

A proposition

I’m willing to begin a reinvestigation this case for $20K.  That would essentially allow me to get up to speed on the facts and give me the various directions to move forward.  In it self this may somehow be enough to find the evidence that could make a difference.  I can’t possibly know until I have spent a couple of months on this case where it will go or what it will cost in the end.  If things begin to look promising we can worry about the additional costs later.    

Arias’s supporters seem both convinced and vocal.   Through our social media funds can be raised and if my minimum retainer can be met I am willing to take this case on.  Perhaps Kickstarter or some other Internet fundraising scheme may be the way to get funding.  I won’t get involved with the solicitation of funds myself.

The other side of this coin is the media  and social media has made Arias a pariah especially within the ranks of the fans of TV legal bomb thrower, Nancy Grace.   Nancy Grace however could be the biggest fundraiser as she agitates the supporters of Arias.

There is just one thing more Ms. Arias must consent to my intervention.  The ball is now in the court of Arias and her supporters.  This  game does not have to be over.

UPDATE:  I just got a reliable tip in Phoenix about the Arias case.  Apparently the defense has found a new witness and is filing a motion for a new trial so that this witness may be allowed to testify.  I don't know the details yet and of course I'm not going to look too hard until I am retained.  

The Role of A Private Investigator in a Criminal Defense Case

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 understand government record keeping and knows where to find documents that will make or break the cases.

As for criminal defense work, it’s somewhat like the fictional investigator Paul Drake that worked with Perry Mason.  However the PI is absolutely vital when someone depends on getting a fair trial when they may lose their life or liberty because of an over-blown or phony allegation. 

I have seen countless foolhardy lawyers work without an investigator.  They lead clients to believe they are performing that function when by law they really can’t.  If a lawyer discovers anything important while investigating for his client then he becomes a witness.  Once a lawyer becomes a witness he can no loner represent his client.

Lawyers all know that good investigators are really rare.  Then there are those that simply dictate what they want and stupidly refuse a PI’s suggestions.   That’s perhaps because they never found a competent investigator before.

A criminal defense team is like a football team.  There is the lead lawyer, clerical staff and in anything serious, expert witnesses must be found, vetted and brought inside the case.  Then there is the investigator.  The lead lawyer is the running back and the PI is the quarterback. 

If the accused is lucky enough to bring the PI early he can gather information and evidence while the cops are still investigating.  Crime scene examination, searching for surveillance camera video, witnesses and physical evidence is much more effective if done quickly rather than months later. 

Cops and prosecutors usually tell their witnesses to not talk about cases or give interviews before the court tries the accused.  A competent investigator can usually get interviews despite the best efforts  made to prevent that. There is usually no law preventing witnesses from talking to anyone but prosecutors want to keep the defense attorneys in the dark but there is a larger problem. 

If the prosecution witnesses are lying their stories will crumble quickly because they can’t remember their earlier fibs.  They will make inconsistent statements.  The PI can lock in witnesses’ stories before cops and prosecutors that want to spin these tales in a better light improperly influence them.

I called the PI the quarterback because he somehow gets some evidence.  He must pass the evidence like a football to the lead lawyer so that the football can be rushed to the goal line.  If the quarterback never gets the football to pass to the running back the team will never score.

A good investigator will investigate the state’s witnesses looking for any kind of impeachment material. That includes criminal and civil court records, business license records, and psychiatric histories along with the use of prescription drugs, street drugs or alcohol.  Friends, enemies, ex-spouses and lovers usually can provide a treasure trove of impeachment material if the PI bothers to do his job.

A decent investigator brought in early enough can often derail a prosecution right in its tracks.  Evan a lawyer can’t do that! Of course the lawyer must present that crucial evidence to the prosecutor before he has obtained a Grand Jury indictment.

If a criminal case is headed for trial PI and the lawyers need to argue the merits of the evidence among themselves.  The benefit is that the evidence is tested.  If you can’t win the defense argument in the office it will be even more difficult before a jury. 

Frankly I’ve never seen a criminal case where so-called victims or government witnesses don’t lie about some aspect of the case.  Exposing lies is really what defense investigation is all about.  The sad truth is that too often cops also lie.  That happens even when it’s a fellow cop who has been accused of a crime.  In our world lies roll off people’s tongues routinely even while they are under oath!

There are those people that lie even when there is no advantage to be made.  If the could achieve the same result by telling the truth they would rather lie!  It’s a significant reality of human behavior.

Another sad truth is when prosecutors discover that their witnesses have lied in pursuit of the conviction of an innocent accused perjury prosecutions are nearly non-existent.

On the other hand if defense witnesses get’s caught in a lie there is a perjury indictment issued well before sundown.   

I’ve also seen innocent people lie or try to arrange phony alibies in desperate efforts to avoid wrongful convictions.  Once any defendant gets caught in the tiniest of lies juries are unforgiving. 

For any citizen under investigation by the police they should simply not say a word and ask for a lawyer.  Remember Martha Stewart’s debacle a few yeas ago?  Rather than ask for a lawyer she talked to the FBI.  In the end they only thing they could prosecute her on and put her in prison for was for lying to the FBI during her interview!

The last thing I will mention is cost.  Hiring a lawyer for a serious felony will financially destroy most people.  Paying for a PI in addition to the lawyer seems like a luxury but imagine what your lawyer will be up against if someone is not tossing him evidence to win the case? Too many layers only seem to care that they get their fee and then they don’t lose sleep over not having a PI. 

Below is a video that takes you to my world.  Watch the courtroom scene and you may recognize my client Danny Bonaduce who was in court over a nasty event with a transvestite.

 

On The Red Oscars Carpet or in The Combat Zone, TV Reporter Stephanie Stanton Shines

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.

Demonstrations in every city are somewhat peculiar.   In my experience as a cop and a newsman I don’t care what the cause is it’s always the same people mugging for the cameras holding signs and such.  It appears that for some people attending demonstrations is a hobby and a way to socialize.

It was fun visiting with Steph today.  She can always be found right in the middle of the heavy action!