Stalking or Surveillance

Out on assignment, investigator charged
Working for man, he's accused of stalking

By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Monitor staff

November 04. 2005 8:00AM

In what could prove to be a tricky case, a Concord private investigator has been charged with stalking for trailing a woman on behalf of a man charged with assaulting her. State law allows licensed investigators to conduct surveillance, but it also can prohibit alleged abusers from contacting victims - even through third parties.

Brian Blackden, owner of New Hampshire Forensic and Detective Services on South Main Street, is fighting the stalking petition he received Wednesday. Yesterday, he also filed a complaint against the Concord Police Department because it was a Concord officer who told the woman that Blackden was watching her.

"My first argument is going to be that I have a right to conduct surveillance," said Blackden, a licensed private investigator for three years. "And second, what I was doing wasn't stalking."

The stalking law, Blackden said, prohibits intimidating and harassing people. He said he was only watching the woman's house from a distance.

The case is a complicated one.

Blackden said he was first hired to watch the woman about six months ago after she and her then-boyfriend, Eric Raymond, 26, broke up. Raymond asked for Blackden's help investigating the woman, although Blackden declined to say what information Raymond wanted because his contracts are confidential.

Raymond hired Blackden again late last month, after the police charged Raymond with assaulting the woman and refusing to let her leave her home. (It is at least the third time Raymond has been charged with assaulting the woman, according to police reports.) On Oct. 29, the woman awoke to find her bedroom light on and Raymond shining a flashlight into her face, according to a police report. Raymond had let himself into the apartment with keys he still had, according to the police. Raymond took autographed baseballs from the woman's room, yelled at her and restrained her on her bed, the police said.

The woman reported Raymond, and Oct. 30, he was charged with theft by unauthorized taking, simple assault, false imprisonment and criminal trespass. Raymond called Blackden.

"My client went to her house, and then she called the police to say she'd been assaulted," said Blackden, questioning the woman's account. "Subsequent to his arrest, he hired me again to find out her motive and to defend himself against her charges."

At Raymond's request, Blackden watched the woman throughout Tuesday. At 4:30 p.m., Concord police officer Steve Martel recognized Blackden, who was parked on Greenwich Street, and asked him what he was doing. Blackden told Martel he was conducting surveillance. According to Blackden, Martel said he knew who Blackden was watching and that he should "rethink" his activities.

Blackden continued his surveillance. Martel, meanwhile, contacted the woman and told her Blackden was watching her. The woman could not be reached yesterday, but on Wednesday, she requested a stalking order against Blackden, saying the police had told her Blackden had been outside her house watching her. She also said that she had seen Blackden herself the following day when she picked up her kids from school.

A judge issued a temporary stalking petition until the court could schedule the case for a full hearing.

Blackden isn't waiting for that hearing. Yesterday, he filed his own paperwork asking that the court drop the order. In his filing, Blackden said the woman had misrepresented the situation and that he is a licensed private investigator with a right to conduct surveillance.

The court is scheduled to take up Blackden's request next Wednesday. He also filed a complaint with the internal affairs department of the Concord police against Martel for telling the woman she was under surveillance. Lt. Bill Carroll, who oversees those investigations, said yesterday he could not discuss ongoing investigations or even confirm there was one in this case.

Private investigators contacted yesterday said they had not heard of a situation similar to this one. Carroll confirmed that and said there is a reason why.

"Most reputable private investigators will stop by the station when they are working a case in town and let you know they are there," Carroll said. "They will tell you what kind of car they are driving, so if you get a call about them, you know what is going on and you don't send a cruiser down and blow their cover."

John Healey, a Warner private investigator and president of the New Hampshire League of Investigators, hesitated to draw conclusions about this case yesterday without knowing all the facts.

"This makes no sense to me," he said when he heard that Martel had told the woman she was being watched. "In my experience, we are treated by the Concord police as what we are: licensed professionals. For the Concord police to come up and knock on the door of a person I am surveilling. . . . I've never heard of it."

But given Raymond's past arrests, he said the officer may have felt he was protecting the woman. That, Healey said, would be hard to dispute. He said he avoids these situations by taking cases only from attorneys, not private citizens. And he doesn't know any investigators who will watch one spouse or partner for another.

Steven Byers, a private investigator from Barnstead, considered Blackden's arrest an unusual application of the stalking law. He said stalking requires more than just watching someone. "It says you must terrorize or intimidate them, and that's not what we are doing."

Healey and Byers both said they try to notify a police department when they are working a case in a particular town. In crime watch neighborhoods in particular, Byers said, residents report suspicious activity quickly. Byers said it's unusual for a police officer to blow an investigator's cover, but not unheard of.

"In a small town, you tell the police you are there watching a worker's comp case, and they call their friend up on the hill and tell them you're there," Byers said. "They'll tell them to be careful what they do that day."

_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)

As always, there are 3 sides to a story. His side, her side and then the Truth. Even though I am licensed to conduct any type of investigation, I refuse to accept domestic investigations. For reasons that have been stated in this article. It is not worth the attorney fees.

_________________
Steve Hedrick
Hedrick & Associates INVESTIGATIVE GROUP
Nederland, TX
TX PI LIC #A-09665
(409) 284-1895
http://360.yahoo.com/ftachaser357
"For every DEFENDANT that fails to appear in Court, there is a VICTIM seeking Justice"

We do alot of Domestic cases, with that said the number one rule is to check and see if there is a protective order in place most protective
orders that are issued here in Allen county state and/or his/her agents
if such an oder was in place the PI could be charged. I know it may be hard to belive but ones client have and will lie.(HA,HA) I don't know if this is the case here but if it is the PI is in the wrong. As far as the police droping a dime on the investigator i feel it was wrong and should have been handled in a different manner , We don't have that kind of problem here in Fort Wayne as we work very close with our Law Enforcement as a PI. We are working a theft case right now that was given to us by Fort Wayne PD.

_________________
The Rose Investigations LLC
Collection Agency
Security & Investigations Consultant
Retired Private Investigator & Bail Enforcement
NAM VET 1969- 1975 US Army (RECON)
Office 260-220-3877
1-888-631-5520
Fax 260-456-6062

Seems like a case of an investigator that will do anything for a buck.

I'm not sure what the stalking laws are there, but seems to me it could be a restraining order violation against the boyfriend. Investigators should be very careful before taking a case, particularly in the circumstance of someone who may be using the information to harm another individual. I remember a case a few months ago where a person hired a PI to locate an "old friend" and then killed the guy for some supposed racial slight that had happened at work years before.

Whether the officer was right or wrong in notifying the girlfriend, he was probably doing what he thought best in trying to protect her from the ex boyfriend. And, that's probably why the charges were filed, using whatever law they could use to keep the boyfriend and his agent away from her.

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

Kathy, That is why I decide not to do domestic cases myself. You seem to never win on those types of cases.

About 90% of my PI work is domestic related..cheating spouses, child endangerment, child custody, unfit parent, etc etc.

For example: Here in Alabama it is technically illegal to committ adultery, it is a misdemeanor. If a person can prove adultery, the convicted person can do up to 6 mos. in jail. So how does a person prove this ?..by surveillance, hidden cameras, wire taps, expense reports, credit cards, credit reports, etc.

I can basically prove a case of infidelity within 10 man hours of investigation. There is a formula for it..follow those steps and you will know one way or the other.

Another example for surveillance: Alabama's standard verbage in a divorce decree is partially this: "that niether party shall entertain a person of the opposite sex for an overnight visit or sustained cohabitation in the presence of a minor child(ren)"

In other words, if you get divorced and then 6 mos. later you move a new lover into your home in front of any children, and I get evidence of this, you have just committed civil contempt of court and for each 24 hr period that I can prove you can be sentenced up to a maximum of 5 days/count.

My long winded point is this: Surveillance is neccessary and crucial to my profession. Without it, I am out of business. My overall objective with gathering as much evidence against the offending party is so that my client's attorney can overwhelm them into submission to agreeing to the divorce or custody terms..either sign the papers or go to jail.

All of the cases I have been involved in so far only 2 actually went to trial, and both of my clients won thier cases.

Di cases are very similar to military recon: You covertly observe, notate, report. that's it.

It is fast, easy, and fairly profitable.

Take care and God Bless,

Ruffin.

_________________
River City Associates
Decatur, Al. 35601

Here we can be charged with stalking while conducting an investigation that we have been hired to perform. We do have a defense against such charges as long as you are performing a investigation that you have been hired to perform. I guess the best way to put it, if you get charged the law says we have a justified defense of such charges if we have been hired to conduct an investigation. This defense works for both Private Investigators for domestic work or Bail bondsman hunting fugitives.

As the one being discussed here I thought I'd drop a note. I am a former Detetctive Sgt in an Internal Affairs Bureau, now PI who was investigating a domestic matter. NH has no law protecting PIs from stalking. It will soon. Now as it stands one can merely challenge a PI and threaten stalking and create havoc.

History in this case is apparently not known. The officer who dimed me out was friendly with my targets sister insofar as he actually came to my office, kicked my client out and asked me "as a friend" to leave the case alone. I refused and was then blatently told, "If you don't listen your business will suffer."

Well, I don't play well with others when given rules like that. I am now going to disclose publically, the two minute plus tape of my target threatening to kill my clients girlfriend and their unborn baby.

Not that it will matter to the Court as it was left after filing, but it will show that in their attempt to protect a "poor female victim", they were actually manipulated by a vicious criminal instead, and I and PIs are the actual victims. Be that as it may, But not for the actions of Officer Steve Martel of the Concord NH Police Department, she would have never known I and my team was watching her anyway.

Stay tuned for more press on this issue in NH.

Stay Safe,

Brian Blackden

"For not is the power of law to abuse and be untouchable, for power is to see the law and balance the actions of lawmen."

By the way, After 12/14/06 our new office number will be 603-415-0911.

I thought it appropriate.

BKB fubni@worldpath.net