Uncovering Evidence for Criminal Cases : County Investigators Dig Out the Details

It seemed like a trivial assignment: Call two television stations and find out when “Soul Train” and “The Munsters” were aired on Oct. 19, 1985.

But by making those phone calls, district attorney’s investigator Mark Gibson critically weakened the alibi of an accused robber, whose mother-in-law claimed that he couldn’t have committed the crime that Saturday afternoon because he was at her home while she watched the two shows on TV.

In concocting his alibi, however, the woman failed to take into account the capriciousness of television programmers. It seems that although “Soul Train” and “The Munsters” are now shown around midday each Saturday on Channels 5 and 11, “Soul Train” was being aired on the date in question at 8 a.m. on Channel 13.

Gibson subpoenaed the records from KCOP, Channel 13, and the prosecutor presented the documents to a Van Nuys Superior Court jury, punching holes in the alibi.

Although not quite the stuff of a “Mike Hammer” script, the episode typifies the often mundane, sometimes exciting, life of county investigators, who help prosecutors and public defenders prepare cases for trial.

Backup Police Detectives

The district attorney’s office employs 190 investigators countywide. Many are assigned to special units that investigate welfare fraud, consumer fraud, environmental crimes and major drug cases.

The public defender’s office has 60 investigators on its payroll.

Most investigators have backgrounds in law enforcement; their pay is comparable to that of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

The jobs differ considerably between the two offices.

Prosecuting investigators function as backup police detectives, interviewing witnesses to a crime as the case approaches trial, in an effort to clarify the incident beyond statements contained in initial crime reports.

As certified peace officers, district attorney investigators carry handguns and are empowered to arrest suspects accused of committing a crime.

Because police at the scene of a reported crime often have time to conduct only a cursory investigation, district attorney investigators frequently discover evidence that supports the defendant’s version of events and results in dismissal of charges, prosecutors say.

“Within 48 hours of the arrest, the police have to have the paper work here to charge the defendant or he has to be set free,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen Rizzo, who recently dismissed a Van Nuys assault case when further investigation revealed that the “victim” had provoked the attack.

No Time for Chateaubriand

“Police don’t have time to make chateaubriand. It’s sausage time.”

Defense investigators, on the other hand, are charged with locating witnesses to support the defense attorney’s strategy in the case, whether the accused is claiming an alibi, self-defense or that he was mentally troubled at the time. They are under no obligation to provide the prosecution with any evidence they uncover that further implicates the defendant.

“It’s really rewarding when you get the innocent guys off. There are a few of them out there,” said defense investigator Keith Hart, who was a sheriff’s deputy for six years before joining the public defender’s office.

A public defender investigator is not a certified peace officer, does not carry a weapon and has no more right than the average citizen to arrest an individual who commits a crime in his presence.

Because a felony case typically takes a year or two to reach trial, prosecuting investigators spend much of their day searching computer banks and public documents in pursuit of witnesses who have relocated. And some cases in which a conviction was overturned on appeal must be retried several years after the crime occurred.

Many witnesses forget they have a duty to testify; others purposely elude detection, preferring not to get involved.

“Finding people is kind of an art,” said Robert Perry, a district attorney investigator for 11 years. “You think of yourself as a sleuth.

“Most people aren’t hiding from us. But we’re a society on wheels. People move around a lot.”

Earlier this year, Perry was asked by a prosecutor to locate the victim of a 1978 burglary. A suspect had been charged eight years ago but fled before his trial and was arrested this year on the outstanding warrant.

The victim, however, had moved several years ago from her Burbank home and left no forwarding address. A review of records from the state Department of Motor Vehicles revealed that the woman’s driver’s license had expired in 1983, Perry said, suggesting that she had moved to another state.

Perry contacted the family who had purchased the Burbank home from the woman and asked to review their escrow documents. In those records, he discovered the name of the woman’s husband and traced him through bank records to South Bend, Ind., where the couple now lives.

Triumph of Diligence

Although each investigator can cite an example of the triumph of diligence, they acknowledge that serendipity also plays an important role.

Chuck Powers, supervising investigator in the district attorney’s Van Nuys office, recalled an incident 15 years ago in which he and his partner, while conducting surveillance on an extortion suspect, were shot at. News cameras responded to the scene and filmed the arrest of the shooting suspect.

Prosecutors lacked evidence on the extortion because the victim could not identify the suspect from police snapshots, Powers said.

But the case was sealed when the extortion victim watched the news that night and called investigators, exclaiming, “I saw him on TV,” Powers said.