Investigation process and environment

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Investigation process and environment
\wrongful...\efren cruz.wmv 311...\eric
rudolph.wmv 303...\richard jewell.wmv 152
\michael jackson\\two jurors interview
517...\legal expert interview.wmv 300
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Two simple questions withthe same simple
answer...

• What is the purpose of a criminal investigation?
• What is the goal of a criminal investigator?

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To discover the truth!

• NOT to meet a legal standard, such as beyond a
  reasonable doubt
• NOT to please superiors
• NOT to get the public off the agencys back
• NOT to satisfy victims or exact retribution

The investigation process is full of pitfalls
your only goal is to discover the truth!
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Course objectives

• To become informed about methods and practices
  used by police to conduct criminal investigations
• To learn the pitfalls and limits of these methods
  and practices
• To become informed about problematic issues that
  can adversely affect the investigation process

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Investigation system

• Input?Process?Output

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Systems theoryA way to analyze the police

• Input ? process ? output
• Output is input for other systems
• Prosecution
• Courts (adjudication)
• Social services
• Systems are not linear some processes take
  place simultaneously (in parallel)
• Investigation may continue until trial begins
• Police successful only if output leads to a
  social gain

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Input for criminal investigatorsInformation,
investigative leads

• A crime has been, is being or will be committed
• Sources (one or more)
• Ordinary citizens
• Participants in a crime
• Victims of a crime
• Informants
• Patrol, dispatch, detectives, other agencies
• Always question witness motivation and accuracy
• Hidden agendas
• Observation and recall

• You are dispatched on a shots fired call. The
  only information you have is that two gangs were
  fighting on the second level of a downtown
  parking structure, multiple shots were fired
  andtwo persons are down.
• You arrive at the garage almost immediately.
  Driving into the parking structure you find Efren
  Cruz dazed and wandering around the ground level.
  No one else is present.

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ProcessPreliminary Investigation

• Determine if there is a strong likelihood that a
  crime has been/is being/will be committed
• Determine whether the situation is sufficiently
  serious to warrant government intervention
• Determine the nature and degree of attention that
  will be given
• Law enforcement?
• Other agencies?
• Preserve evidence for follow-up investigation

• You detain Cruz and drive one level up, to the
  bar entrance. There are two persons down one
  is dead from gunshots, the other wounded. Both
  are known gang members. You search the area and
  find a .38 caliber revolver on the ground.
• There is no one else to detain. There is one
  witness, Kenneth Freese, who was pulling out of
  the garage and thinks he might have seen the
  shooter. He cant tell whether it is the person
  in your patrol car.

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Process Follow-up investigationOutput Criminal
case

• Determine whether a crime has IN FACT been
  committed
• Identify the perpetrators, other participants and
  all victims (may be more)
• Acquire and assemble evidence using available
  tools and techniques
• Must be admissible as proof in a criminal
  proceeding
• Must be gathered in a legal way
• Assist the adjudication process

• The bar has a surveillance camera. The
  videotape, which is grainy and indistinct, shows
  Cruz and several companions earlier that evening.
  Cruz has no police record and is not a known
  gang member. His companions, including his
  cousin, Gerardo Reyes, are members of the Colonia
  gang, rivals of the victims.
• You show this videotape to Mr. Freese, who
  identifies Cruz as the shooter. Cruz has gunshot
  residue on his hands. He also has an illegal
  dagger and a small amount of cocaine.

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Adjudication system

• Input?Process?Output

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Arrest
Complaint
Preliminary examination

• Misdemeanors
• Felony waive preliminary exam
• Grand jury indictment

Trial
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InputArrest (Calif. P.C. 836)

• Always requires probable cause that
• A crime/public offense was committed
• Accused is the perpetrator
• Without a warrant
• For any public offense in officers presence
• For any felony, whether or not in presence
• With a warrant
• For any public offense

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ProcessComplaint (849) (859a)

• Must be filed by arresting officer in court
• Without unnecessary delay
• Once defendant has an attorney, he/she enters a
  plea
• If pleads not guilty, process continues
• Misdemeanor directly to trial
• Felony preliminary examination

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ProcessPreliminary examination (861-866)

• One-day mini-trial led by the prosecution
• Full cross-examination
• Purpose determine whether there is probable
  cause that defendant committed a felony
• Generally no testimony by the defense
• Only at judges discretion
• Only if likely to establish innocence or impeach
  prosecution witness
• Usually only officers testify
• Bring in statements of others through hearsay

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ProcessTrial

• Opening statements not evidence
• Prosecutions case in chief
• Defense case
• Rebuttal by both sides
• Closing arguments not evidence
• Judge charges jury

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OutputVerdict

• Must prove the actual charges
• Juries are very picky
• Propensity is not enough
• Its not about the person its about the
  conduct
• Smearing suspects with allegations of past
  behavior is a poor substitute for evidence that
  they committed the acts charged
• Witness credibility is crucial

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Investigation environment
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Investigations are affected by many issues other
than evidence...

• Quality of policing
• Ignorance, laziness, jumping to conclusions
• The usual suspects
• Pressures to solve cases
• Cooperation from witnesses and victims
• Fear of reprisal
• Lack of cooperation, esp. in consensual crimes
• Mistakes, lying
• Legal constraints
• Probable cause requirements
• Exclusionary rule
• Restrictions on interrogation
• Agency resources
• Time, manpower
• Material (money, equipment)
• Limitations on science

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Pressures tomake arrests

• Generalized pressures to reducecrime
• New York City - Pressures ofaggressive
  bureaucratictechniques such asCompstat on
  managers andsubordinates, leading
  tounder-reporting
• Attributing excessive clearances to one suspect
• Pressures to solve or clearhigh-profile cases
• FBI Atlanta Olympics bombing
• FBI Arrest of Muslim attorney in Oregon

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Efren Cruz went to trial He denied shooting
anyone and saidthat he didnt see the shooting
take place The witness did not identify Cruz.
But,he testified that the person on the video(a
grainy view of Cruz) was the shooter Gunshot
residue was found on Cruzs hands Cruz also had a
dagger and a small amount of cocaine The found
revolver was the murder weapon.It could not be
connected to anyone

• Vote Innocent or guilty of murder?

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Efren Cruz was innocent the eyewitness was wrong

• Gerardo Reyes, a hard-core gangster, admitted the
  shooting in a secret tape.
• Cruz did not snitch on Reyes because he was his
  cousin
• Cruz was released after serving 4½ years in
  Pelican Bay prison. His lawsuit against Santa
  Barbarawas settled.

Santa Barbara News-Press, 11/2/04
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Jeffrey Scott Hornoff In 1996
Hornoff, then a detective with the Warwick,R.I.
Police Department, was arrested and convictedof
murdering Victoria E. Cushman in 1989.
OnNovember 6, 2002 Hornoff, who was serving a
lifesentence, was released after Todd Barry, a
self-employed contractor, admitted he was
responsible.Barrys brother confirmed that Todd
had confessed to him many years ago. Hornoff
was convicted because the victim, with whom he
had an affair, wrote a letter refusing to break
off their relationship, and demanding that he
divorce his wife. Hornoff lied about the affair
during the investigation, and the lies came back
to haunt him at the trial. Supposedly the letter
was a motive for murder. But there was
absolutely nothing else tying Hornoff to the
crime. Todd Barry, who was well acquainted with
the victim and her family, had never been
investigated.
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Soon after the 1996 Olympics bombing, the FBI
searched the home of Richard Jewell, the
securityguard who discovered the bomb in
AtlantasCentennial Park before it went off.
Lacking a suspect,FBI agents tried to get Jewell
to waive his rights by claiming that the
interrogation was merely a training exercise.
But Jewell refused to confess. Monthsafter
searching his home the FBI finally backed
off. Two years later, in 1998, persons who
witnessed thebombing of an Alabama abortion
clinic followed the bomber and got his license
plate number. The vehicle was registered to Eric
Rudolph. In 2003, after hiding in the woods for
five years, Rudolph was arrested by a rookie cop
who caughthim rummaging through a supermarket
dumpster. He pled guilty to the Olympics bombing
and threeabortion clinic bombings, including one
that killed anoff-duty police officer. Rudolph
got four life sentences. The FBI issued a
half-hearted apology to Jewell and disciplined
four agents. Jewell sued several news
organizations for defamation and received
substantial settlements. He is now a police
officer in a small town.
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Florida Detective Fired AfterCharges of False
Reports (AP, 4/10/2005)
A sheriff's detective was fired after being
charged withfalsifying documents in police
reports. He is the third officialcharged in the
state attorney's 17-month probe into
allegationsthat Broward County sheriff's
deputies closed cases by attributingthem to
people who could not have committed the
crimes. Joe Isabella, 34, was fired Thursday
after he told investigators he had improperly
cleared cases and falsified reports. He was
charged with a misdemeanor count of falsifying
documents and is scheduled to be arraigned on
Monday. He blamed pressure from supervisors who
wanted to lower crime statistics. If
convicted, he faces up to a year in jail, but is
not expected to serve time because he does not
have a record. The two other deputies were
arrested in December and suspended with pay. They
have pleaded not guilty.