We recently conducted a case that was a bit out of the ordinary. We were not requested to conduct surveillances, research assets or verify someone’s background. We were hired to assist an attorney in proving if his Client, James, who had previously conducted his case Pro Se, was guilty of aggravated assault and rape. His Client, Our Client’s son, thought he could defend himself in the court of law to prove his innocence. When he did not appear for a court date, he was arrested for contempt of court and from that point on remained in jail until the trial. Of course, our Client, his father, immediately retained the services of an attorney, but the court date was approaching, so the Client also retained to assist.
James had no legal background and strongly believed in not only his innocence but “Google” to prepare and present his case. Failing to properly file documents and be present at the hearings, he had proved to himself he was not capable of self-representation. James was accused of aggravated assault and rape against his girlfriend of less than one year and the father of his newborn child. She was considered a deceptive woman and portrayed herself as a “Wounded Bird” to get help in whatever manner she could. She had stolen items from James’ friend and neighbor, she snuck into the neighbor’s bathroom and had taken a bottle of a controlled substance prescribed for the neighbor’s back injury. When confronted, she denied taking them and when James found the bottle and tried to return it his neighbor he was accused of the theft, because his girlfriend told the neighbor James asked her to do it.
James returned home one day from work and found her half-naked in the Dining Room, she had cuts and scrapes on her body and was talking to someone on her cell phone. After her call ended, James tried to speak to her, she screamed at him and they got into an argument. James then called his sister a little later for advice and during that call his girlfriend ran out the back door half naked and over to the neighbor’s house. The neighbor immediately called the police and James was arrested. Knowing he had not touched her, and their altercation was only verbal, James thought he could handle the situation himself.
By the time we got the case, James had been incarcerated for over 5 months. He was assigned a court-appointed attorney which he fired, but not before his girlfriend’s phone records were subpoenaed by the court. We were provided the phone records and pictures of the scene. We also conducted a forensic extraction of James’ cell phone. The extraction provided previously deleted text messages from her to James. Although the information from the carrier provided times and dates, they did not provide the content of the messages.
We then created a graph of the time spent by James and the girlfriend on their phones (James’ time, his girlfriend’s time and when neither were on the phone) showing the attorney that there was only a 13 minute period when neither of them was on their phone, which made it nearly impossible for James to have committed the acts he was accused of. The graph became an important exhibit in the case for the attorney along with the threatening text messages she sent him.
No matter what type of services you may require, having an experienced Investigative Company such as ours, , available to assist can be an important asset for your case.
~, Brenda J. McGinley, CEO
