Private Investigators and Crime Scene Investigations, Part I

Four years ago, my husband and I taught a series of classes for Kiss of Death, the mystery-suspense arm of the Romance Writers of America. We focused our workshop on private investigations, a field we know well after having being co-owners of a private investigations agency for years.

This post is part I of the class on crime scenes (with some information updated). A point we make throughout the class is that PIs mostly investigate crime scenes after law enforcement/others have finished their investigations and re-opened the crime scene back to everyday use.

You'd be surprised how much evidence can still be mined days or weeks later at a crime scene—for example, this last weekend we visited a former law enforcement crime scene and took photos of a strategically placed surveillance camera, not documented in the D.A.s discovery, that provided key evidence in a legal case. Years ago, we investigated a crime scene, 800-plus acres of ranch land, that the sheriff's office had investigated and returned to everyday use two months earlier. Our goal (as had been the sheriff's office) was to find 4 bullet slugs from a shooting, whose placement could prove a man's innocence. The next class discusses this case in more detail.

Let's kick things with the question...

Why Do Crime Scenes Matter?

In some crimes there are no witnesses and in the absence of self-incriminating statements by a suspect, the only means of obtaining a conviction may be through physical evidence (such as evidence with viable DNA, a blood sample or a fingerprint). In any crime, sharing knowledge of physical evidence with suspects may loosen tongues and stimulate confessions. DNA, fingerprints or serologic evidence are tough to debate and bring many criminals to a place where their lips move easily.

Note: A comment regarding an investigator sharing knowledge of physical evidence with a suspect. Interestingly enough, private investigators work under a burden created by ethical constraints that police detectives do not labor under. While courts have consistently held that police may lie to a suspect to stimulate a confession without tainting that confession (we once saw this in an episode of the TV series The Closer), very few private investigators can credibly present statements obtained by deceptive means. By “very few” we mean in the few instances where the PI has investigated an individual who’s extremely unsavory or has committed a particularly heinous act, jurors are more likely to trust that PI’s statements, even if the PI lied to obtain them. This is great fodder for a story.

In a crime scene, the area searched and the evidence sought will depend on the crime under investigation. In crimes of violence, the crime scene tells the detective what happened but the detective has to be able to read the signs left by the evidence (signatures of crime include fingerprints, blood stains, bullets, bullet holes, tool marks, fibers, hairs, glass fragments, fingernail scrapings, DNA samples, as well as items added, overturned, removed or displaced).

Bullet casings are one signature of a crime

Keep in mind that the suspect is also part of the crime scene. What does she leave at the crime scene and what does she take away from the scene? Such evidence helps to prove that she was there. If the police take her back to the crime scene after her arrest, the evidence of her presence at the scene, when presented in testimony in the courtroom, may serve only to prove that the police took her there. This may cause your fictional PI to think twice before taking a possible suspect to a crime scene.

It's important to make the distinction between what crime scene investigators for the police consider a crime scene and what the rest of us, including PIs, consider a crime scene. In the latter instance, a crime scene is really just the place where a crime happened, which has returned to everyday use. However, what police and crime scene investigators consider a crime scene is that area where, such as the space inside the yellow tape, careful protocols for evidence recording and extracting are followed.

Processing a Crime Scene

Let’s cover some important concepts about how the police process a crime scene. Your fictional PI might be called on to critique how a crime scene was processed in the course of his investigation, or he might be called on to process his own. 

The steps any investigator should follow, including law enforcement, are the following:

1. Check condition of victim and arrange medical treatment if necessary.
2. Secure and protect the crime scene (keep in mind the possibility of a multiple series of crime scenes).
3. Is further search legal? If not, need consent. If a law enforcement officer, obtain a search warrant, especially if a major felony.
4. Search, sketch and document. Precise measurements of the crime scene should include an accurate sketch containing a key, a scale and a legend noting the day, time, location and conditions (weather, lighting). Compass directions should be noted on the sketch. Remember that a measuring tape provides a wonderful standard of comparison especially when photographs or video are employed.
5. Document the crime scene and its physical evidence. In law enforcement, a videographer typically accompanies an assigned officer on the initial walk-through. Overall as well as specific photographs are taken of the crime scene.  Close-up photographs should be taken of important items of evidence (for example, footwear impressions).
6. Handle the evidence so as to not contaminate it.
7. Collect, mark and catalogue evidence.
8. Preserve the evidence in a central, organized location.

When Police Aren’t Available: What Might a PI Do?

 A PI investigating a major crime scene risks being charged with obstruction of justice and/or tampering with evidence.

If a private investigator was called on to process a crime scene for evidence of any nature, he/she would follow the same above steps. However, it cannot be stressed enough that a PI would call on police to handle a major crime scene, like a murder or arson. To handle, test and collect evidence could easily result in charges of obstruction of justice and/or tampering with evidence. For that reason, any PI who wanted to avoid jail would call 911, and would scrupulously avoid touching anything at the scene of a crime other than to assess a victim’s medical condition. On the other hand, having a sleuth character charged with several crimes after exploring a major crime scene would certainly bump up the story tension!

There are times when a PI does handle evidence, and the best protocol is to collect the evidence with gloves, place it in a plastic/paper bag, seal that bag with tape and initial the bag with the PI’s initials and the date it was collected. Your fictional PI may collect evidence for admission in court when that evidence was not collected by the police (or the opposing side in a civil case) and the evidence supports his client’s case.

For example, several years back Colleen and a group of PIs from other states worked together to trap a seller selling fraudulent products via an online marketplace. The evidence collected were the products being sold (and, in a sense, the online marketplace where this buyer sold his fraudulent products was the crime scene). After Colleen purchased the products (using another identity to not tip off the seller), she’d place the products in a plastic bag, initial the bag with her name, product name and date, then seal the bag and mail it to the attorney handling the case. These products were used as evidence in a court case against the seller.

This wraps up Part I.

Link to the next class: "Private Investigators and Crime Scene Investigations, Part II."

Happy writing! Colleen

All rights reserved by Colleen Collins. Any use of this content requires specific, written authority.

Litigation Stress: How It Can Affect Characters in Your Story

Maximillian Schell, defense attorney in "Judgment at Nuremberg"

Writing a story revolving around a lawsuit, or you have a scene or two set in a courtroom? People in litigation, especially those under the stress of being the defendant or even the plaintiff, are often portrayed as "stressed" in such scenes, but their reactions and symptoms are more complex than that.

In fact, there's a term, litigation stress syndrome, for the symptoms people might suffer from intense, especially prolonged litigation. But before that term was another, malpractice stress syndrome, that we'll look at first.

Medical Profession: Malpractice Stress Syndrome

Malpractice stress syndrome refers to the symptoms physicians, nurses and other health professionals have suffered after being sued for malpractice.

According to Karen Kohatsu, MD, she had been confident that she would prevail in a malpractice suit brought against her, but during the litigation process she experienced isolation, inability to sleep and other stress-related symptoms until the lawsuit was eventually dismissed. "Self-doubting occurs when you read the summons and depositions from the other side," Kohatsu said. "The other side makes it sound like you are a terrible person for missing a diagnosis. You feel really alone and have to turn everything inward because you don't have anyone to talk about it."

Litigation Stress = Stages of Grief, PTSD

Many of us have seen movies, TV shows or read books that depict people going through the upheaval of a lawsuit -- some psychologists compare those reactions and symptoms to the 5 stages of grief, others compare them to PTSD, or post-traumatic stress syndrome. "The feelings rank in intensity with the death of a loved one, going through a divorce or the onset of a life-threatening illness," said one physician.

Five Stages of Grief

These stages of grieving, as outlined by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, are:

1. Denial

2. Anger

3. Bargaining

4. Grief

5. Uncertainty

Outcome of Lawsuit

If the outcome of the lawsuit is favorable: renewal, rebuilding, and personal growth.

If the outcome of the lawsuit is unfavorable, denial, bargaining, depression, and other complications can result.

Legal Abuse Syndrome

Karen Huffer, a therapist, has coined another term, Legal Abuse Syndrome, that occurs when people suffer through long, protracted litigation where their Constitutional rights were violated. For example, in a recent case in our state a judge failed to read instructions to the jury. When defense noted that the judge had forgotten to read the instructions, the judge countered that the defense was wrong. Later, in a review of the court transcripts, it was seen that the judge had never read the instructions. Can you imagine how the defendant felt, watching his Constitutional rights being trampled on by a judge?

Huffer describes the symptoms of legal abuse syndrome as including:

• Feeling deeply disillusioned or oppressed by the legal system
• Frustrated with efforts to effect justice
• Experiencing nightmares, exhaustion, vulnerability

Family's Responses

Not Guilty" by Abraham Solomon, 1859, Getty's Open Content Program

It's not only the litigant who suffers from litigation stress, but also that person's family. Spouses and children can experience a deep sense of loss, devastation, and social awkwardness. Part of this is due to the restriction that no one can "speak about the lawsuit" to anyone else.

How Long Do the Symptoms Last?

In "The Psychological Impact of Litigation," a 2006 article in the DePaul Law Review, authors Edward J. Hickling, Edward B. Blanchard and Matthew T. Hickling, wrote the following statistics on lingering symptoms of litigation stress, which they too equate to PTSD:

In our research, we found that about forty-eight percent will show an improvement in symptoms by six months so they no longer meet diagnosis for PTSD, and by one year about sixty-five percent will show improvement. After that, our data shows that without intervention, there are very few people who will improve any further. Other studies have shown that for as long as six years, even with treatment, over forty percent of the victims will remain symptomatic.

Symptom-Free Litigants

Then there are those litigants who are symptom free. Sandra Tunajek, in her 2007 article "Dealing with Litigation Stress Syndrome," states that while such non-symptoms "may be a form of denial, further research is needed...to determine the factors (i.e., available peer support, shared disclosure by peers, previous claims, successful defense, etc.) that may offer protection against litigation stress syndrome."

Whether you're writing about a defendant accused of a crime, a plaintiff seeking financial compensation, or how a litigant's family is coping (or not), hopefully this article provides some background, stats and ideas!

Happy writing, Colleen

“Put together with the user in mind, this intelligently organized handbook for practicing writers will make you sound like a practicing lawyer.”

— Warwick Downing, former DA and author "The Widow of Dartmoor"

Colleen Collins's current nonfiction book, co-authored with Shaun Kaufman, is A Lawyer's Primer for Writers: From Crimes to Courtrooms. 

#WritingTips Guidelines for Testifying in Court

I originally wrote this article for PI Magazine's December 2010 issue. These guidelines were written with private investigators in mind and provide handy info if you have a private eye character who must testify in court.

The section under "To be most effective when testifying" has tips for any character who's taking the stand at a trial. Or turn a tip or two upside down and make a more conflict-filled situation in your scene!
 

Ten Tips for Testifying in Court

by Colleen Collins, All Rights Reserved

The ultimate presentation of an investigation is testifying in court, either before a judge or a judge and jury. The idea is to make an effective, articulate and organized impression on the fact-finder (the judge or jury).

If, as a PI, you were hired by an attorney, together the two of you will most likely prepare your testimony directly from the investigative reports you authored. Keep in mind that the reports themselves are not presented as evidence because they meet the definition of hearsay; however, well-written, clear, and informative reports support the testimony and help the lawyer immeasurably.

If you were hired by a citizen, you need to make sure they read your reports. The burden is on you to make sure your client’s questions are organized, written down, and that they have rehearsed their direct examination of you.

To be most effective when testifying:

• Make eye contact with the jurors. If you look at the attorney when answering questions, it might look as though you’re unsure of what you’re saying or that you’re asking for help.

• Answer yes or no whenever possible.

• Never explain an answer, nor volunteer anything!

• Provide adequate detail, but scrupulously avoid being mired in too much detail

• Avoid equivocal or qualified answers.

• Dress professionally. Studies have shown that the colors blue (for men) and black (for women) make them appear more believable. (For more tips on attire, check out "Tips for What to Wear to Court")

• Use simple terms, common language.

• Be mindful of a jury's sense of fairness.

• Know the facts, but don’t repeat the testimony word for word as though it were memorized.

• (This tip applies specifically to PIs) Don’t bring your investigative file to court. Anything you have in your hand (whether you’re on the stand or in court) can be admitted into evidence at the request of opposing counsel. On the other hand, think how it could bump up the stakes if a file carried into court becomes evidence...even more interesting, what if the PI-character had planned that all along.

  Perhaps the most important tip is to remain respectful of the court, the judge, the opposing counsel, and especially yourself. 

#1000Speak Building from Bullying: Two True Stories

I learned today that tomorrow, March 20, is a blogging event for #1000Speak, an organization whose byline is "1000 Voices Speak for Compassion." Contributing bloggers are writing about looking at bullying from a positive viewpoint. My first reaction was, "Huh? How can bullying ever have a positive slant?"

I thought back to several incidences when my husband, or the two of us, dealt with bullies in our business life. After giving those experiences some thought, I realized that both ended up being constructive -- one in direct way, the other in a roundabout way.

Almost Caving in to a Bully's Demands

My husband practices criminal defense, and occasionally he will have a client who has a significant rap sheet. Sometimes Shaun isn't aware of the extent of these criminal histories until much later.

Mr. X was one such client. He wasn't happy that Shaun hadn't performed miracles in his case and demanded Shaun pay him back not only the full retainer, but three times that. We're talking extortion. Didn't matter that Shaun had worked many free hours above and beyond the retainer, Mr. X wanted money. A lot of it. Left a threatening message one day on my husband's car.

My husband grew concerned about our safety. I suggested he contact our good friend, a lawyer, and talk it over. This lawyer has practiced law nearly 40 years, just as his father had before him. After Shaun told him the story, the lawyer said, "He's bullying you. One thing about bullies, you need to call him on his bluff, not run scared and give in to his demands. Calmly agree to set up a formal mediation over the money he's attempting to extort. He won't like a reasonable, professional venue to air his threats because he likes working in the dark. Do this and he'll go away."

Which is exactly what happened. Just goes to show, no matter how old you are, you can still learn valuable life lessons.

Slipping, Sliding Toward a Bully

This is a lighter story, one that started out with what appeared to be a bullying situation.

My husband loves his cowboy boots. Wears them with his suits to court. One day he and a judge sang a Merle Haggard song together -- Shaun in his suit, the judge in his black robes -- both of them in their cowboy boots. Wish I'd been there to hear the song and to see the looks on people's faces in the courtroom!

A month or so ago, Shaun was walking downtown through snow and ice in his cowboy boots when he saw a police officer shove a man to the ground. Shaun didn't think twice, just starting running toward them, yelling "What's going on?" and waving his hands. He was on a mission to stop perceived violence. Problem is, those cowboy boots have slick soles.

He hit a patch of ice and and started sliding toward traffic, just as several police units squealed around the corner, lights flashing. Shaun kept slipping and sliding toward the busy street, unable to stop, his heart pounding, realizing he was going to be run over...at the last minute, he grabbed onto a parking meter...and fell face down in a pile of snow between two parked cars, the whoosh of cars and crunching tires a foot or two from his head.

Strong arms helped him to his feet. It was the police officer who'd shoved the guy.  "You okay?" he asked. As Shaun brushed snow off his face and clothes, they talked. Shaun learned that the guy who had been shoved was a felon with an outstanding warrant. He'd turned violent, resisted arrest, and the officer had been trying to subdue him, not abuse him. Meanwhile, in the background, the felon was handcuffed and being placed in the backseat of one of the units.

Then, to Shaun's surprise, he learned the officer is a sergeant in the police department of a nearby jurisdiction where Shaun is moving his law practice. Even more small world, the sergeant is a former private investigator who worked for the lawyer whose office Shaun is taking over! Their paths will be crossing even more in the months and years to come.

Shaun ran to halt what he perceived to be bullying, but instead ran toward a valuable connection in his future. 

To read more stories with positive outcomes and lessons regarding bullying, check out the hastag #1000Speak on Twitter.

Before You Copy & Paste an Image, Think Copyright!

Last month, I commissioned a graphic artist to create a logo for my writing career and paid him for his talent and skill. To your left is the logo he created, for which I own the copyright. 

I don't think anybody would want to copy and paste this logo as my name is on it. If anyone was curious as to who owns the copyright, they could run a reverse image search via Google to see where the image pops up -- after matching the words on the logo (Colleen Collins Books) to the website name (colleencollinsbooks.com), they would likely assume that I own the copyright, but to verify they could contact me via this site to ask. This is one example of locating a copyright holder. There's a free ebook link at the bottom of this post, written by a business attorney, which explains other ways to research copyrights among other topics about legally using images.

The Point Being...

Don't copy and paste without first checking if there is a copyright.

Otherwise, you might be violating copyright laws. I know, lots of people copy and paste stuff off the Internet, but sometimes people get caught and end up paying lots of money to lawyers and the copyright holders. That happened to romance writer Roni Loren a few years ago, and she wrote a blog about it: Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued for Using Pics on Your Blog - My Story.

People Copying & Pasting A Copyrighted Image

A few years ago,I worked with another very talented graphic designer who had a background creating images for video games, comic books, TV and movies. Such a talented guy, and I was honored that he was willing to create a logo for me (a private eye sitting at a computer, an image I wanted to use for my book How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths). 

He and I brainstormed the image and worked together on several revisions -- one of our brainstorming sessions is shown in his sketches on the yellow piece of paper to your left.

I paid him for his expertise, and I now own the copyright for the final black-and-white image, located below the yellow page of sketches.

Unfortunately, people started freely copying and pasting the image into blogs, articles, books, Facebook pages, as avatars on forums, and other online places. I didn't know this until one day I ran a reverse search on the image, and oh boy...it showed up in several dozen Internet sites! I didn't work with a professional illustrator, and pay him for his services, for it to be an Internet freebie!

Copyright 2011 Colleen Collins - Do not copy or distribute without prior written permission.

I Wrote a Cease and Desist Letter

My husband is a lawyer, so he helped me craft a cease and desist letter. I didn't want to play the heavy...I simply asked that the person credit the graphic. But if they did not wish to add a credit, then please remove it from their site.

Free Images in the Public Domain

There are numerous sources for professional images and illustrations that are free and within the public domain, and copying and pasting these images do not violate any copyright laws. Below are a few of these images. The two Japanese prints, the orange flowers and the man and goldfish, are via the Public Domain Review; all other images are courtesy of the Getty Museum Open Content Program:

Free eBook on How to Legally Use Images

The below ebook has more links to public domain images, plus it provides all kinds of useful information about types of copyrights, sources for researching copyright owners, even a sample permission-request letter to send to a copyright holder. Author is Helen Sedwick, a California business attorney and author:

HOW TO USE EYE-CATCHING IMAGES WITHOUT PAYING A FORTUNE OR A LAWYER (by Helen Sedwick and Jessica Brown)

Have a great week, Colleen

#writetip Witness Interviews: Tips from a Private Investigator

Interviewing is more than asking a set of questions. It’s an art. Even with all of today’s whiz-bang technology, people’s words are still the most powerful declaration of where they stand – and what they know. Even the words a person chooses not to speak can still speak volumes to his/her motive, who they might be protecting, and what they're hiding.

Interviewing People Who Don't Want to Be Interviewed

Maybe a person is angry to be dragged into somebody else's problem, or frightened to give testimony in court, or even scared that what they know will hurt someone they care about. There's also the possibility that the individual is nervous about being subpoenaed to court because he/she has failed to show up in the past for their own court date, and therefore might be taken into custody for their own issues, right there in the courtroom, which is a very real concern. 

Which means a private detective must be attuned to people and skilled at persuading them to share what they know. We've all seen the private eye movies where the PI rants and threatens or even slams some guy into a wall to get him to open up. In real life, if a PI wants someone to open up and spill the beans, the investigator needs to be part shrink, part confidante, part actor -- all with the goal of gaining that person's trust.

"I Don't Care That He Said No -- Get the Interview!"

Years ago, I worked for a tough-taskmaster defense attorney who taught me that my job was to get the interview. Period.  Didn't matter if someone had just slammed a door in my face.  Didn't matter that I was nervous about interviewing a subject who had possible ties to organized crime and who also had a pit bull for a pet, I was never to say, "I couldn't get so-and-so to talk," because he'd snap, "I don't care -- get the interview."

Of course, I could have simply stopped working for this lawyer, but he remains to this day one of the top defense lawyers in the state and I didn't want to lose my spot as one of his investigators just because I was too chicken to nail an interview. As to the guy with the pit bull, we made arrangements ahead of time that the pit bull was to remain in the backyard, and although the dog stared at me the entire time through a window, the interview itself went quite well.

Several years ago, I wrote a column titled "P.I. Confidential" for Novelists, Inc.'s newsletter NINC that offered tips to writers crafting sleuth characters/stories. Below is a link to one those articles about interviewing witnesses that covers such issues as:

• What might a PI do if the interviewee later claims the investigator misrepresented his story?
• What does the interviewer do if the recording device decides to die just as the interview starts?
• What if the subject starts talking about something that is seemingly off-topic?

Article link:

The Art of Interviewing: The Pitfalls, Pratfalls, and Shortfalls

Valentine's Day Articles: Private Eyes, Lawyers and Nick & Nora

"Lovers - Richmond CA 1942" photo by Dorothea Lange, Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program

During the decade when my husband and I worked full time as private investigators, Valentine's Day, and the days surrounding it, were some of our busiest. Girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands would call, wanting to hire us (typically for surveillance) to catch evidence of their significant other or spouse cheating. A few years ago The Journal of Private Eyes reported that 80 percent of cheaters spent at least part of the day with someone who was not his/her spouse/significant other.

Happy to say, however, that sometimes our clients' worries were unfounded. 

Valentine's Day Articles

Below are several articles my husband and I have written over the years about Valentine's Day, from how to avoid turning your romantic date into a court date, to real-life private eye couples whose romance stays alive despite chasing cheaters for a living. Click on the link to read the article.

Valentine's Day Checklist: Candy, Flowers & a Background Check

Valentine's Day Date...or Court Date?

Private-Eye Couples in Fiction and Real Life

Current-Day Nick & Nora's: Married Private Eye Teams

Wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day, Colleen