I am sure as a result of our prior posts on the prohibition of Sangria in the Commonwealth, the General Assembly decided to make Sangria legal in restaurants–no doubt about it. See Prior Post
Senate Passes Bill to Throw Out Sangria Ban See Post Story
“The Virginia Senate passed a bill yesterday to allow restaurants to sell sangria that includes brandy, triple sec or a similar spirit, a mixture that is banned by state law.
Sangria, which is served at many Spanish restaurants, is generally made with wine and fruit but often includes a small amount of spirits. The Senate bill would change a law that prohibits the mixing of wine and spirits. A similar bill is advancing through the House of Delegates.”
A Loudoun County judge ruled yesterday that 48 horses had been cruelly treated by individuals at a Middleburg farm, and he signed court orders turning over custody of the horses to the county. This is another example of the expanding area of animal law, and the need for qualified animal law private investigators. Most animal cruelty cases are criminal prosecutions, but there are many civil implications that law enforcement or animal control officers will not investigate. Virginia law provides that owners must give adequate food, water, shelter space, exercise, care, treatment and veterinary. These issues are highly factual in nature and the facts in every case will be different. Investigators have to conduct a logical and thorough investigation to uncover the necessary facts to prove all the elements of a crime or civil proceeding. The Commonwealth Attorney’s office should pursue animal abuse cases, and make sure that proper penalties are considered if a person is convicted. Too often, charges are compromised, and defendants are not appropriately punished. See Prior Horse Posts
The Washington Post reported:
“A Loudoun County judge ruled yesterday that 48 horses seized by county officials last week were “cruelly treated,” and he awarded custody of the thoroughbreds to the county. General District Court Judge J. Frank Buttery Jr. signed an order giving custody of the horses to Loudoun County Animal Care and Control and ordered their owners to reimburse the county for food and medical costs incurred since the seizure, almost $8,000 so far. Dennis Danley, Donald Cutshaw and Pablo Cosme were named as owners. “Clearly the commonwealth has proved in this case that the animals . . . were cruelly treated,” Buttery said, after reviewing photos of the horses and conditions on the area farm where they were seized. ”Certainly not enough food or even water was provided for them.”
Under Buttery’s order, Danley is prohibited from owning agricultural animals in because of a prior conviction. Cosme and Cutshaw cannot own agricultural animals in the state for two years. Commonwealth’s Attorney Jason Faw said criminal charges are pending. See Washington Post Story Here
In addition, a prior Post story reported that last year “Dennis B. Danley, 55, a horse trainer from Charles Town, WV, was charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty in after authorities, according to news accounts, found 10 mares with exposed rib cages and spines among 60 horses at a farm south of Charles Town. Danley pleaded no contest to one count of animal cruelty in August. He was fined, received a 90-day suspended jail sentence and a year of probation, and agreed to give up ownership of horses for five years, said his attorney in the case, Harley O. Wagner. Under the deal, Danley was allowed to continue training horses, Wagner said.” See Story Here
From our British friends, a story about wayward “Bobbies” and private investigators doing alleged illegal things and getting prison time:
“A private detective who helped to spy on the Jimmy Choo shoe boss Tamara Mellon was jailed for 21 months today. David Carroll, 60, from Highgate, north London, played a leading role in a City-based agency operation, Active Investigation Services (AIS), which specialised in computer hacking and telephone tapping. London’s Southwark crown court heard that the company’s customers included the banking heir Matthew Mellon, who paid thousands of pounds to discover whether his estranged wife was concealing financial information in the run-up to their divorce.” Read Story Here
Latest news and happens in the Pellicano trial situation in Los Angeles. LA Times Story Pellicano is the infamous PI in Los Angeles sitting in jail for all kinds of alleged illegal activities. He was indicted by the USG on many alleged violations. Previously posted Here and Here
Thanks to Alt Search Engines for reference to this beauty.
They write: “Then I remembered hearing about Carrot2, an open source search-results-clustering engine, just recently out in beta. In a nutshell, it takes search results, analyzes them and, on the fly, creates groups of the most common concepts or terms from those results. Since this is all done by algorithms rather than by humans, expect the odd result every once in a while, but I found the clusters to be consistently useful.”
TAMPA - A 26-year-old Tampa woman was arrested this morning, accused of punching a police horse outside an Ybor City nightclub.
Angelica Rene Ayala
The incident started at about 3 a.m., according to an arrest affidavit. That’s when three police officers riding horses were trying to clear a crowd from around officers arresting people who had been outside Club Prana, 1619 E. Seventh Ave.
Angelica Rene Ayala grabbed the reins of a horse called “Buddy” and punched the horse on the neck, the report states.
Ayala was charged with an offense against a police animal, a first-degree misdemeanor, jail records state.
There were two other reports of offenses against police animals that happened Saturday night around Bayshore Boulevard and South Orleans Avenue, according to jail records.
Rick Keller, 46, and Sendhil Kumar Krishnan, 28, both of Tampa, were charged with offenses against police animals. See Tampa Online Story Here
The Federal Trade Commission is at it again. The FTC announced yesterday that a District Court ordered Accusearch in Wyoming not to pretext phone companies and sell the information. Folks, people or firms who get telephone customer information by pretexting the phone company are not within the law. Do not deal with them. See FTC Press Release Here. See PC World Story Here
Later I will post other misdeeds or trials for other wayward private investigators. If anyone wants to hire private investigators make sure they do the work legally and within the law.
The Washington Post ran an interesting story today about scammers that entice people to “work at home” for their company. The story goes that you are solcited to “work from home” for a company. They get your pay pal account, send you money, asking that you transfer to other accounts and keep your 10% fee or whatever. Anyway, you lose. Read Post Money Mules
How many times have you stumbled across hidden cameras and other video spy stuff in your place? Well, thanks to PI Gear, you can find’em first courtesy PI Magazine
“Detects all types of cameras, wireless and hardwired! This new generation of detector combines two types of the most popular detector we sell an RF detector and an IR laser light detector creating the most advance countermeasure device available in a handheld. Lightweight and easy to use this detector is sure to find any bug out there.” See Here PI Gear
Imagine, you are out late one night. You slowly drive into Alexandria, VA, and slowly, even furtively, look down darken alleys and back streets. You are looking for the right person. You see that person skulking near a Spanish Tapia Bar. You pull over the car. Nervously, he comes over to your window. You whisper, “Hey, ya got any Sangria?”
Now you can read about the old Virginia law that outlaws mixing and serving of Sangria. Yes, that fruity cocktail of wine and brandy that is a “must” at Spanish restaurants. Serve it and you can go to jail for a year, whoa!
A New Haven Advocate story tells of private investigator Gerald O’Donnell’s investigation that may prove two men not guilty of a New Haven, CN, murder committed in 1993.
”The families of Taylor and Gould say that none of this would have happened if it weren’t for the “brilliant mind” of a private investigator named Gerald O’Donnell. O’Donnell, a retired Cheshire police officer and former inspector with Dearington’s office, is a workaholic with an obsessive attention to detail. He worked at the State’s Attorney’s office during the Vega murder investigation but, near retirement, was on the periphery of the case, he says.
O’Donnell was hired by Taylor’s defense attorney to look into the case and for three years has compiled news accounts, scoured records and tracked down witnesses never interviewed by the police. O’Donnell became convinced that Taylor and Gould had not committed the crime and compiled a 400-page binder of evidence that, he believes, will free them. In early November, O’Donnell handed the binder over to Dearington’s office.” Click here to read whole story
PIAVA Tool Guy says two things to help you be more productive and secure:
Metadata removal from you documents–a swell tool Metadata Removal
And you know all the emails you get and people put there signature information at the bottom consisting of name, address, phone etc. Now you can capture that and put it straight into Outlook or some other contacts information program. It will also put meetings on your calendar. You really need this. anagram
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An excellent program is scheduled for January 22, 2008, on Frontline, PBS TV, 9 p.m. EST. Learn about impact of the computer and internet enveloping the social culture and life of many people. Great research and learning for all professional investigators.
In Growing Up Online, airing Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about just how radically the Internet is transforming the experience of childhood. “It’s just this huge shift in which the Internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, and now it’s something that really is the province of teenagers, “ says C.J. Pascoe, a Ph.D. scholar with the University of California, Berkeley’s Digital Youth Project. “They’re able to have a private space, even while they’re still at home. They’re able to communicate with their friends and have an entire social life outside of the purview of their parents without actually having to leave the house.”
Have you ever been interrogated? Ever told the police what you think they want to hear? Did you get convicted based on the confession? Oh, you say, never happened to me. It can happen. Criminal defense investigators should be vigilant about the “false confession.” Learn more Click Here and Here
These articles survey selected web-based resources and publications that shed light on the psychology and interrogation practices behind false confessions, as well as highlighting notable educational and bibliographic materials.
So, you need to know about searching court records. There are many commercial databases that provide access to court websites for search records electronically. There are also many free sites that allow access to court records, sometimes direct to court’s index of records.
With some trepidation, I suggest to look at Court Reference. If you can get past the advertisements, you can find information about courts in every state, the records online and what is available. Check it out.
The Richmond Times has the latest update on the efforts in the Virginia General Assembly to pass changes in Virginia’s animal law. The primary change would increase penalties for animal fighting and include cock fighting as a crime. Under the present law, people caught attending a dog fight or cock fight are not “breaking the law.” New legislation will change that. Click Here to read story You can see yesterday’s news conference here also.
Summary of the legislation:
The legislation also deals with the care of any seized animals and provides law-enforcement officials with more effective tools to fight the problem. In addition to charging spectators: Cockfighting would become a felony. Under current law, it’s illegal only if gambling is involved. All forms of animal fighting would be illegal and considered a felony. Searches regarding animal-cruelty cases could be conducted after sunset without more authorization. Now, a search warrant expires at sundown, and a new one must be obtained before officers can step onto the property in question. Seized animals won’t be held for years without a resolution to the case. Oftentimes, the animals are kept in cages, which add to their detriment. Bond would have to be posted if an owner contests the forfeiture of fighting animals.
Enforcement of Virginia’s animal laws is increasing. This is a future investigative field for astute private investigators.
Sangria Allowed
