El Scott Harrell

New Private Investigator Association

I've been approached by several people who are interested in forming the Gulf Coast Private Investigators Association.  They envision a regional association made up of voting members, mainly private investigators from the Gulf South, with an interest in the investigations industry primarily located in the coastal areas of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

It looks like a solid organization whose main focus will be promoting sensible legislation, private investigator continuing education and business networking opportunities.

I'm excited by the prospect since the Florida PI Association to which I currently belong and am on the board of directors is headquartered 10 hours from the office and it is not feasible for me to attend most of the events they are promoting.

I look forward to exciting changes on the horizon!

Bounty Hunters in Port Huron, MI

I heard something from my neighbors daughter about a bounty hunter situation that I found very disturbing. 

She was staying with a girl friend in Port Huron, MI.  A relative of this girl's had been kicked out of their house and was staying a couple of days with her.  The girl whom I'll call "Mary" was not aware that this individual, a young man, was wanted.

There was a knock at the door and when "Mary" opened it there were several bounty hunters with shot guns pointed at them.

"Mary and my friend's daughter I'll call "Kelly" had shot guns in their faces and they were threated with being shot and killed.  "Mary" who was pregnant, mentioned this to the officer and asked to get her little niece out of the house and her dogs and told the bounty hunters they could do whatever they needed too.  Apparently they were told to get everything and get out and they could still be shot including her dogs and it didn't matter if the girl was pregnant or not.  Fortunately the young man came out and surrendered. 

I want to know what happened to these girls rights under the constitution? 

Are bounty hunters allowed to threaten and shoot innocent people including women, pregnant women, children and pets?  If this is the case, I think it is terrible, and bounty hunting should be made illegal. People have rights, and bounty hunters still need to repect the laws of the constitution.  From this incident, I feel that bounty hunters are no more than glorified killers that need to be imprisoned themselves.

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If what you heard is actually the truth... then you were obviously dealing with some disturbed individuals who have no business in the profession and are obviously a danger to the public. 

Have "Mary" and "Kelly" called the police yet?  Have they called an attorney yet?

They should do both.

That is of course if this really happened the way you understand it... we have all played the "I heard it from a friend of a friend and it went something like this..." game before.

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U.S. Recovery Bureau- More Arrests Anticipated?

One of the things I do every so often is to check out what search terms lead people to the El Scott Harrell weblog.  Lately, and not surprisingly, I have been getting an enormous amount of traffic as a result of the owners of the USRB going down in flames for allegedly issuing fraudulent badges.  Most of the search terms have been simply "US Recovery Bureau" but in the last 24 hours I have seen "US Recovery Bureau Lawsuit" dozens of times, which leads me to believe that there is a movement under foot.  Rightfully so, I am sure that former USRB clients are some kind of pissed off.

I would be REALLY pissed off if I was issued a badge that landed me in jail for sure.  It would appear to me that civil litigation, suing the owners of the USRB, would be the obvious remedy if I was in this situation.

With all of the interest, I decided to do some more digging and I found these quotes in an article that seemed to insinuate that more arrests of US Recovery Bureau associates may be pending and even likened this situation to a threat to national security:

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"You have a lot of bad guys running around with [false] badges and credentials," said one source connected to the investigation of Neves. "It's a national security threat."

"What's the difference between that camp and an al-Qaida camp?" asked Al Petrocelli, whose 28-year-old-son, Mark, was killed on 9/11. "Knowing the damage this can do to the community ... it upsets me. We had a handful of people kill 3,000 people. Now we know of 3,000 fake, possibly federal identifications. The ramifications of this could be astronomical."   

Robert Neves -- who came to the door with a gun when agents came knocking yesterday -- was fired from his job as a city police detective in the mid-1990s, after being caught filing false police reports and tampering with records, a source said. Which precinct or unit Neves was assigned to was not immediately known and a police spokesman could not provide further details yesterday.

Authorities said that others, not yet arrested, also were involved in the U.S. Recovery Bureau, based in Union City, N.J., which offered three-day classes in bail enforcement training in Passaic, N.J., as well as Brooklyn and Manhattan. According to court papers, "well over 3,000" graduates who paid $860 left with false police and federal agent badges and credentials. More than 100 have been apprehended, authorities said.

A police source described the school as "totally fraudulent, not even incorporated in New York state."

Many of their students are apparently convicted felons and some foreign nationals who pose a security threat, the source said. There's also a concern about their boarding airplanes around the country, he said."

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Wow.  This is obviously a much larger issue than originally suggested.  Basically, Mr. Petrocelli associated the US Recovery Bureau with the terrorist organization, Al Qaeda.  Ouch.

Perhaps this is a cautionary tale to the rest of us who provide bail enforcement education.  "No," is certainly the best answer I could possibly give when I have a prospective student ask me if I issue badges or credentials upon completion of my bounty hunter class.

I noticed that the USRB's website is down once again "for maintenance."  That's probably best.

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Texas Process Server Continuing Education

US Recovery Bureau (USRB) Owners Arrested for Fraud

US Attorney Reports Men Arrested For Allegedly Distributing Fraudulent Law Enforcement Badges & Credentials

LAWFUEL.com - Legal Announcements / Press Release:

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JOHN A. ULIANKO, Regional Director for the Federal Protective Service ("FPS"), Region 2, announced that RALPH RIOS and ROBERT NEVES were arrested today by agents of the Federal Protective Service on charges that they distributed hundreds of false law enforcement badges and credentials.

According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:

NEVES and RIOS are the principals of the U.S.Recovery Bureau (USRB) (the “School”), which offers monthly classes in bounty hunting and in how to restrain people.

The classes regularly take place in Brooklyn and Passaic, New Jersey, and in other locations, including one in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. Despite its name, U.S. Recovery Bureau is not a governmental organization.

The School provides graduates of its course with badges and credentials that give the impression that they were issued by actual government law enforcement agencies because, among other reasons,

(a) the badge is in the same shape as a New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) Detective badge;

(b) the badge bears a seal with a bald eagle that is a facsimile of the great seal of the United States;

(c) the badge reads “U.S. Recovery Bureau” and under the seal is the word “Agent” and a badge serial number;

(d) the badge is in a leather wallet that also holds credentials that are the same shape and size as federal law enforcement credentials and identify the graduate as a “Special Agent” of the “U.S. Recovery Bureau”;

(e) the credentials bear an emblem in the center of the card that is a facsimile of the great seal of the United States; and

(f) the credentials lack any clear indication that they are not issued by a governmental organization.

The United States Recovery Bureau also sells other materials, including clothing that says “Fugitive Task Force,” handcuffs and batons.

Law enforcement authorities have arrested multiple graduates of U.S. Recovery Bureau for using the credentials issued by the School.

On some occasions, students have used their School-issued credentials to try to avoid tickets and other law enforcement actions.

In other cases, students have used the credentials to try to access secure government buildings.

In at least one case, students have used the School-issued credentials to impersonate law enforcement officers in order to effectuate robberies.

Of approximately 943 students who received credentials from USRB, at least 78 were convicted felons at the time they took the U.S. Recovery Bureau course.

NEVES, 49, is from Staten Island, New York, and RIOS, 49, is from Homestead, Florida.

They each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

NEVES was presented this afternoon in Manhattan federal court before United States Magistrate Judge DEBRA FREEMAN; RIOS was presented in the Southern District of Florida.

Mr. GARCIA praised the investigative work of the FPS and the Police Impersonation Unit of the NYPD in this case, and thanked the United States Marshals Service, the New York Office of the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their roles in the arrests.

Assistant United States Attorney WILLIAM J. HARRINGTON is in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

For further information, see my post on the US Recovery Bureau here, read the comments and follow the included links in that post too.

http://www.lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=18511

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Pursuit- A Private Investigator Magazine is Online for July

The July issue of Pursuit Magazine for Private Investigators is posted and available for download.

Just click on the "Current Issue" button located on the left side of the page.

This issue is about technology and its application to the investigation industries.  We've lined up a few great authors, like Tom Slovenski of CellularForensics.com and James M. Atkinson of the Granite Island Group & TSCM.com, who provided extremely interesting articles which I am sure you will find enlightening.

I would like to ask you a favor.  Would you please tell a colleague (or two) about Pursuit Magazine? 

If you are in an association or in an online newsgroup, perhaps you could mention it to other members?

We could toot our own horn all day but the power of "word of mouth" advertising cannot possibly be understated and it would be a huge help for us in attracting a diverse group of readers and building a community magazine!

Pursuit is a magazine for bail enforcement agents, fugitive recovery agents, bail fugitive investigators, bounty hunters, bail agents and bondsmen, paralegals, legal investigators, skip tracers, judgement recovery professionals, collateral recovery agents and repo men and other professional investigators.

Thanks!

July Pursuit Issue

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