A con-artist's trail of deception
An investigative narrative by Justin Fenton of The Baltimore Sun explores the life and crimes of Cindy McKay who "was convicted in April 2008 of secretly stealing thousands of dollars from her boyfriend and stabbing him to death before his body was found burning along an Anne Arundel County road." A career criminal, McKay stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from employers and family over the course of more than 20 years. Two of McKay's sons were also implicated in the 2006 murder of her boyfriend. Included in the series is a map detailing her exploits throughout the mid-Atlantic region. [Parts one, two, and three of the series.]
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Exploits of rural prostitution ring exposed
A two-week series by The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, explores a human trafficking and prostitution ring that flourished in the small towns of eastern Iowa. "By poring over hundreds of court records and reports, and through more than two dozen interviews, The Gazette has pieced together over the last year and a half the story of how Robert Sallis and Betty Thompson were able in late 2004 and 2005 to operate a prostitution business right under the noses of police."
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Suicides in D.C. jail point to problems within Department of Corrections
Brendan Smith of the Washington City Paper reports on two suicides in the Washington D.C. jail that revealed widespread misconduct and inadequate mental-health monitoring by corrections personnel. For ten months, the Director of the Department of Corrections fought a FOIA request for the reports from the internal-affairs investigations into the suicides. The reports showed that numerous personnel made false statements in an effort to cover-up wrongdoings by the DOC and Unity Health Care, the company contracted to provide psychiatric assessment and care within the jail.
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Declassified memo reveals claims to president's unfettered wartime power
Dan Eggen and Josh White of The Washington Post report on the recently declassified 2003 Justice Department memo that was responsible for creating the "legal foundation for the Defense Department's use of aggressive interrogation practices" in the run up to the war in Iraq. The memo suggested that presidential power was nearly unlimited during a time of war and should override laws forbidding torture. The Post provides links to pdfs of the 81-page memo (part 1 & 2).
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"Free to Flee"
Fugitives can flee and don't have to hide, an investigation by Joe Mahr of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch showed. Mahr's three-day series reported that hundreds of thousands of felony arrest warrants from across the nation are not entered into the FBI national fugitive database, including warrants for violent crimes such as homicide, rape and robbery. He found that while all states check a national database to see whether an applicant for a drivers license or state ID has a suspended license, only six states check to see whether an applicant is wanted on a felony warrant. Other stories showed that even when fugitives are found, they frequently are not extradited, and that in St. Louis, officials don't seek warrants in thousands of cases.
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Nebraska fails to oversee death investigations
Karyn Spencer of the Omaha World-Herald discovered Nebraska has no state oversight and few standards to ensure quality death investigations by coroners or law enforcement. The lack of oversight and standards lead to murder cases remaining unsolved, coroners skipping autopsies to save money or guessing at the cause of death and bodies being exhumed to resolve questions from inadequate investigations. Throughout a two-week series, Spencer examined 15 cases that illustrated weaknesses in the system, including an in-depth look into the murder of Tara Russell.
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Tactical Response Unit sued for use of excessive force
The San Antonio Express-News conducted a three-month study of the Tactical Response Unit of the San Antonio Police Department, a unit created to reduce violent crime. "The unit used force to subdue only three of almost 1,000 Anglo suspects it arrested. By comparison, officers struggled with nearly six times as many minorities per 1,000 arrests, a disparity that a police expert called concerning." Lomi Kriel and John Tedesco used a use-of-force database, arrest and court records, and material from numerous public records requests to tell the story.
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Blacks arrested for obstructing police more often
Eric Nalder, Daniel Lathrop and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found in a three-part investigation that Seattle police's use of the "obstructing a public officer" charge leads to arrests of African Americans at a rate eight times higher than whites, and that nearly half of all obstruction cases are dropped before trial due to proof issues, no probable cause and other reasons. The investigation, a continuation of the Post-Intelligencer's ongoing "Strong Arm of the Law" series examining police misconduct and accountability, relied on more than six years of municipal court data, internal police use of force reports and other records.
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Former football star linked to double murder
Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne and other KIRO-Seattle investigators delved into the 18-year-old murder of two Seattle attorneys. They found that King County detectives were questioning Robert "Spider" Gaines, a former University of Washington football star, about his connection to the murders. "Gaines denies there is any evidence that links him to this crime," Halsne said. "We tracked down an old roommate of his who is telling a different story." The team interviewed Coffee Williams, who placed Gaines at the scene of the crime, and shot undercover footage of two detectives speaking with the former athlete in a parking lot.
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Former Florida prison boss ran a corrupt operation
An investigation by Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost of CNN revealed that the former head of one of America's largest prison systems ran a Mafia-like operation riddled with corruption. In an exclusive interview before he stepped down, James McDonough, secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, called his predecessor a "psychopath" who oversaw a system of corruption that included drunken brawls, kickbacks from a prison vendor, taxpayer funds used to pay for alcohol and prostitutes, and guards punishing coworkers when they threatened to report inappropriate activities.
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Former escort to be lead witness in US vs. Pellicano
Eric Longabardi of ERSNews.com is reporting that an Erin Finn, whose "resume runs the gamut from model to escort, house sitter, and Internet tech geek" is likely to be the lead witness for the federal wiretapping and racketeering case against Anthony Pellicano, a Hollywood private investigator. The Enterprise Report interviewed Finn over the last 18 months to detail how she went from relative anonymity to become the key witness in this federal case.
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"A Dangerous Business Revisted"
FRONTLINE revisits a January 2003 investigation of McWane, Inc., a pipe foundry company which proved to be "the most dangerous company in an inherently dangerous business." In A Dangerous Business Revisited, Lowell Bergman looks at what happened since the original investigation aired, including the Department of Justice's response which led to federal prosecutions at five McWane facilities. "The McWane investigations created a new template for protecting workers. By trying companies under environmental laws, which carry stiffer fines and prison terms, prosecutors were able to sidestep the lesser penalties set forth for OSHA violations." In the five years since the original broadcast, McWane, Inc. has made "a dramatic turnaround." The entire program can be viewed online.
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Flawed DNA testing in Ohio
A yearlong investigation by Geoff Dutton and Mike Wagner of The Columbus Dispatch found that Ohio’s DNA testing program for inmates seeking to prove their innocence is so flawed that police and courts routinely discard evidence after trials. The five-day Dispatch series found that nearly a third of the denials examined by the newspaper failed to cite a specific reason as required by state law. Presented with the findings, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland called for an overhaul that would speed up the review process, open up testing to more inmates and establish statewide standards for preserving evidence.
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Rearrest rate high in felons released on "shock probation"
Jason Riley of The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) found that many inmates granted "shock probation" were being re-incarcerated in Jefferson County, Ky. The program releases offenders after only one to six months of their sentence and was developed for "first-time, nonviolent offenders who, after getting a taste of prison life, would be so 'shocked' by their experience that they would be deterred from future crimes." Riley's analysis showed that last year, more than 45 percent of felons in this program were rearrested for violent crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery.
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Reporter's work leads to review of murder conviction
A report by Christine Young of the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, NY, in a special eight-page supplement and online multi-media presentation, suggests strongly that a New York City man who is borderline mentally retarded was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1989. Thanks to Young's reporting—and a bizarre set of circumstances that thrust her into the investigation 20 years ago— the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is re-opening the case and reviewing the conviction. Young's reporting raises questions about false confessions, sloppy police tactics and raises the prospect that police ignored evidence pointing to a serial killer of New York City prostitutes.
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Racist jokes, porn found on DA's office computer
Community leaders are calling for Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal to resign after Jeremy Rogalski of KHOU-Houston uncovered racist emails and sex videos on the D.A.'s county computer, along with evidence suggesting that Rosenthal used county time and resources in his political campaigns.
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"Coincidence or Cluster?"
A six-part series by Kevin Craver of the Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Ill.) looks into lawsuits facing two chemical companies after a cluster of brain cancer patients were discovered in a small town. Craver studied documents going back 30 years to investigate the site's regulatory history, inspections, claims and counterclaims about pollutants and human exposure. The 22 plaintiffs in the case point to the disposal operations of Rohm and Haas and Modine Manufacturing Co. and whether the company's practices allowed carcinogens, such as vinyl choride, to leach into groundwater.
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Some Houston banks more prone to ATM robberies
This investigation by KHOU-Houston used crime data to map the locations of ATM robberies. The analysis showed that some bank branches seem to be hot spots for robberies. Reporter Jeremy Rogalski spoke with police about why some areas are more vulnerable than others and how consumers can protect themselves from being robbed at an ATM.

The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism assisted in the data analysis for this story.
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Mysterious death of disabled resident leads to homicide investigation
An investigation by Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle has led to a homicide investigation into the death of a resident of Rainier School, a state facility for the disabled. KIRO obtained records showing that resident Peter Bohnke suffered a broken neck in August, but his death three weeks later was classified as natural and attributed to respiratory problems related to pneumonia. The death investigation was reopened after a whistleblower raised allegations of abuses by staff. Earlier KIRO stories about abuses at Rainer School have led to the arrest of three employees.
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Convicted killers in Texas receive probation
After a Texas man convicted of shooting an unarmed prostitute received probation, Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin of The Dallas Morning News decided to see whether his sentence was a fluke or representative of a larger trend. They analyzed thousands of government records, some of which came from confidential criminal files and interviewed more than 200 people, including police, attorneys, victims’ families and the killers themselves. The reporters found that in Dallas County, more than twice as many murderers get probation as go to death row.
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Whistle-blowers punished by system meant to protect them
A collaborative six-month investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting and Salon.com details the failings of whistleblower courts, which are intended to protect employees who speak out against corruption and abuses in government agencies. Instead, this forum is used to punish those who speak out for the public good. The investigation "found that federal whistle-blowers almost never receive legal protection after they take action. Instead, they often face agency managers and White House appointees intent upon silencing them rather than addressing the problems they raise...At whistleblower court, employees lose nearly 97 percent of the time."
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Demographic analysis shifts Dallas crime ranking
A database analysis found that while the city of Dallas is once again ranked among "the worst large cities for violent crime," the numbers change when the sample is more closely examined. Jennifer LaFleur and Tanya Eiserer of The Dallas Morning News used "statistical tools that correct for the effect of factors such as poverty, unemployment, low homeownership, family structure and racial composition" and found that the city ranked 58th in violent crime out of 436 cities studied. The story also reports that the Dallas crime rate dropped from 2005 to 2006.
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The assassination of Chauncey Bailey
The San Francisco Chronicle published a two-part series beginning with a profile of murdered Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. His suspected killers are linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery, the subject of his last, still unpublished, investigation."Bailey, 57, became the first journalist assassinated in this country since 1993 — according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — his death the likely result of a chance encounter between two of his sources and a careless journalistic slip." The second story looks at the violence and corruption surrounding the downfall of the bakery's empire.
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Casino licenses granted without adequate background checks
Matt Birkbeck and Christina Gostomski of The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa) report that the Gaming Control Board is giving out casino licenses to owners and suppliers of Pennsylvania's casino industry without checking each person's complete criminal background. Though the original plan was to have the Pennsylvania State Police control the investigations because only law enforcement agencies can gain access to sensitive information, "such as whether an applicant has ties to the mob or is being looked at by the FBI." However, the background checks were instead left to the responsibility of a "new investigative bureau that doesn't have the authority to obtain nonpublic protected criminal and intelligence information." The full report details the history of this controversy and what problems have arisen as a result of it.
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A matter of life and death
Citing arbitrary and unfair practices in Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court disbanded the death penalty nationwide thirty-five years ago. The death penalty was ultimately reinstated with promises of reform but The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says application the application of the death penalty remains "as predictable as a lightning strike." Reporters spent two years investigating the reasons for the inconsistencies.
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Fugitives evade Tennessee authorities
Tennessee has let more escaped fugitives slip through its judicial cracks than almost any other state. In fact, convicts on the run have murdered at least nine people during the past 30 years, all due to a system not equipped to handle fugitives who get out of state custody. In a series, bolstered by in-depth multimedia, The Tennessean finishes the investigation that staff began last December. They track the stories of more than 200 men and women who escaped from the state prison system since the 1930s. The articles relate personal stories of victims, explore the failure to bring fugitives to justice, and explain the issues facing the prison system.
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Officer's record leads courts to re-evaluate misconduct policies
Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mined court records to find ten similar cases alleging that Jason Mucha, a Milwaukee Police officer, had beaten suspects or planted drugs. Despite the claims of misconduct, Officer Mucha had never been disciplined. Instead, the department promoted him to sergeant. After reviewing the cases, a state Court of Appeal issued a groundbreaking ruling that has changed the way Wisconsin courts consider police misconduct cases.
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Hotel security linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery
Robert Gammon of East Bay Express investigated the private security officers at the Oakland Marriott and found links between their firm and the Black Muslim clan believed to be responsible for the murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. Despite initial denials from the Mariott's spokesman, public records revealed a history of connections between UD Security, the firm employed by the Marriott, and Your Black Muslim Bakery founded by Yusef Bey nearly forty years ago. East Bay Express's Chris Thompson reported extensively on the troubled history of Yusef Bey's corrupt empire in 2002. Thompson's coverage was recently discussed on On the Media.
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Fugative fundraiser has been hiding in plain sight
Chuck Neubauer and Robin Fields of the Los Angeles Times report that Norman Hsu, a fugitive for over a decade, has been hiding in plain sight as a prominent Democratic fundraiser. Fifteen years ago, Hsu pleaded no contest to charges of grand theft agreeing to serve up to three years in prison. His identity was confirmed this week by his lawyer, who claimed Hsu had no recollection a plea that included prison time. As a top-tier fundraiser, Hsu "is credited with donating nearly $500,000 to national and local party candidates and their political committees in the last three years" and has been a significant contributor to Hillary Clinton's campaign.
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No prosecution for prison guards accused of sexual misconduct
Ruth Teichroeb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on sexual misconduct by employees at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center. "At least 20 sex-related incidents involving correctional staff and inmates have been reported at the prison in the past five years, according to Department of Justice records obtained through public disclosure. The allegations ranged from groping during pat-downs to forced sex. Yet not a single Bureau of Prisons employee at the facility has been prosecuted for sex-related crimes during that period." Federal statistics show that sexual abuse by corrections personnel is the most common complaint issued by inmates nationwide.
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Police department plagued by internal discipline problems
Top city officials in Denver are calling for a complete overhaul of the discipline system of the Denver Police Department, reports Christopher N. Osher of The Denver Post. "At least 25 officers remained on the force from January 1997 through September 2006 after they were punished for what the department calls "departure from the truth." In some other police departments, such a complaint, if sustained, can lead to immediate dismissal because it can be used by defense lawyers in criminal cases to challenge an officer's court testimony."
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Justice Department knew of abuses in Texas juvenile prisons
In an ongoing Dallas Morning News investigation, Holly Becka and Jennifer LaFleur found that the private contractors housing juvenile inmates in Texas have lost their contracts in other states after abuse and neglect were discovered. In addition, Steve McGonigle and Doug J. Swanson report that records show U.S Justice Department attorneys have been aware of the horror stories within the Texas juvenile prisons for four years, but they declined to act, citing lack of evidence.
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Undue Influence
Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found "cops confronted with a drunken-driving arrest fare better than the average citizen," according to an investigation of seven years' worth of internal discipline records, arrest reports, accident reports, license-suspension files and court documents from around Washington state. The P-I's findings also determined Washington's police disciplinary system is "broken, illogical and unevenly applied."
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Trashing the Truth
A four-part Denver Post investigation found that the loss and destruction of DNA evidence nationwide has stalled the pursuit of justice in thousands of cases, including undermining efforts of prisoners to prove their innocence. In the absence of governmental statistics, reporters Miles Moffeit and Susan Green compiled data and cases from lawyers and government records across the country to tell the personal stories behind the loss of tiny truth-bearing biological specimens. Included in the package are a series of investigative web documentaries that accompany each segment.
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Chicago's drug war toughest on minorities
A Chicago Tribune analysis of federal data shows that enforcement efforts in the the war on drugs hits minorities far harder than whites. Darnell Little reports that inner-city dealers are hit much harder than the more discrete dealings in suburban areas. Prison populations also reflect harsher penalties for minorities. Analysis of Chicago's predominantly African-American neighborhoods revealed that "97 percent of East Garfield Park, 99 percent of West Garfield Park, 98 percent of Woodlawn, 96 percent of Englewood and 82 percent of Austin fall within 'safe zones'" — designated areas that are covered by mandatory sentencing rules.
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Abuses at Texas state schools go unpunished
A Dallas Morning News investigation into disciplinary records of employees at state schools for the mentally retarded " found hundreds of cases of abuse at the hands of those charged with caring for the mentally retarded – everything from extreme physical violence to flagrant neglect." Yet records are not kept regarding criminal charges filed as a result of abuse. Emily Ramshaw reports that while many reports of abuse find their way to county DAs, very few are considered serious enough to prosecute. "Little fear of criminal punishment, combined with low-paid staffers who receive only cursory training, appear to create an environment in which abuse can thrive, advocates say."
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Overtime tops $500 million in California state prisons
Inmate overcrowding and the increasing number of staff vacancies in California's prisons are spiking overtime costs for the state's corrections department, which spent more than half a billion dollars last year on overtime pay, according to analysis of payroll records by the San Francisco Chronicle. Tom Chorneau and Todd Wallack report that the surge -- a 35 percent increase from the agency's overtime bill in 2005 -- comes as the department prepares for a major expansion of the prison system. The Chronicle analysis found that almost 15 percent of the department's 56,000-member workforce earned at least $25,000 in overtime in the last calendar year -- more than eight times the amount paid to the average state worker over the same period.
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Revisiting a conviction
Denver Post reporter Miles Moffeit investigated the "the largely unnoticed months-long battle over DNA testing and evidence preservation" created by efforts to overturn the murder conviction of Tim Masters. The Post will follow up with a four-part series on the loss and destruction of DNA evidence by authorities nationwide and how it's undermined justice for thousands of victims and more than 100 possibly wrongfully convicted prisoners. It's accompanied by documentary footage, including from inside evidence rooms that resemble dumps.
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Taser use on the rise in Utah
The Salt Lake Tribune's Jeremiah Stettler looked at the rise in use of Tasers by Utah's police force and found that they are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice to subdue aggressive suspects. More than 4,200 Tasers have been distributed to officers in Utah's law enforcement agencies. Anaylsis of 180 cases where Tasers were deployed, showed that they are most frequently used upon those who resist arrest or struggle while in custody; fleeing suspects ranked second.
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Juvenile sex offenders pose problems to schools
A report by Anna Song of KATU-Portland, Ore. reveals that juvenile sex offenders often go right back to school after being charged.. Due to their status as minors, school administrators cannot disseminate this information beyond the staff. The story exposes the inconsistency of local school policies when it comes to such offenders: Some schools tell all staff members, some tell just a few. Ultimately, it's up to the principal and can vary by school, not just by district.
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Investigation leads to arrest of tow truck operators
An investigation by the Gilroy (Calif.) Dispatch led to the arrest of a father and son who operated a tow truck company. The two had filed more than 2,000 small claims lawsuits against people from all over California and were arrested last week for allegedly abusing the small claims court system. Previous Dispatch investigations revealed questionable legal and business practices which ultimately led to the charges leveled against them.
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Paris Hilton: The true Hollywood CAR story
The Los Angeles Times found that, if hotel heiress Paris Hilton serves 23 days out of a 45 day sentence for her DUI-related charges, she'll do more time than 80 percent of people convicted of similar offenses. In L.A. County, such offenders are routinely released early due to overcrowded jails. "Because of the high media interest, Hilton was one of only a few inmates whose premature release received publicity — and the judge who originally sentenced her noticed. She is believed to be the first inmate in years who actually was sent back to jail to serve more of her term," the Times reports.

An analysis by Doug Smith and Sandra Poindexter looked at similar cases in county booking and release records from 1999-2005. "The Times analyzed 2 million jail releases and found 1,500 cases since July 2002 that — like Hilton's — involved defendants who had been arrested for drunk driving and later sentenced to jail after a probation violation or driving without a license."
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Police chief misrepresents crime report to city council
Will Carless of voiceofsandiego.org reports that San Diego's Chief of Police delivered misinformation in his report to the City Council. "The chief's statements were made at the height of contract negotiations between the police department and the city. While the chief was painting a rosy picture of crime rates before four city councilmen, the police union was busy trying to convince the city that it was in dire straits."
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Speeders more deadly than drunk drivers
While alcohol-related accidents and deaths may receive more attention, speed-related accidents kill more people — about 10 each week — in North Carolina, according to a The News & Observer report by Pat Stith, Mandy Locke and David Raynor."But while state legislators and court officials have gotten tough on drunken drivers, they have eased up on speeders." Database editor Raynor analyzed 3.4 million speeding cases from the state court system, plus a decade of highway patrol citations and state motor vehicle data.
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Eurasian crime syndicates set up shop in U.S.
Los Angeles Daily News staff writer Troy Anderson reports that Eurasian crime syndicates have continued to scam the government since the 1970's. The crime syndicates, which come from a dozen republics in the former Soviet Union as well as Eastern and Central Europe, systematically exploit government funded programs for personal gain. "A recent report by the California Attorney General's Office estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 criminals - including former inmates of KGB prisons - were among the immigrants."
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Assault Zones
Lisa Fletcher of ABC15-Phoenix reports on crime zones in four Arizona cities. By examining "tens of thousands of aggravated assaults between 2003 and 2006" they mapped the cities of Chandler, Glendale, Phoenix and Scottsdale to find the hot-spots for these crimes. The maps of these areas can be found online.

IRE and NICAR assisted with the data analysis for this story.
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Sex offenders dwell near St. Louis area schools
Leisa Zigman of KSDK-St. Louis reports on sex offenders living near schools in the St. Louis metro area. KSDK's investigation found that, despite stringent laws, more than 100 sex offenders were living within 1,000 feet of schools because of failure to enforce existing laws. "According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, from 2004 through 2006, only 12 sex offenders were prosecuted and found guilty for the violation of living within 1,000 feet of a school. Not one of those cases originated from the St. Louis region."

IRE and NICAR performed the data analysis and mapping for this story.
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Internet adult entertainment business busted in residential neighborhood
An investigation by WTVJ-Miami reporter Jeff Burnside and investigative producer Scott Zamost led Miami city officials to move in against an Internet sex operation in a residential neighborhood. In "The House Next Door," NBC 6 revealed live sex shows were being broadcast online from a home in a family-oriented neighborhood. Until last year, the company had operated the same business in Chicago, where the health department found a "significant" number of sexually transmitted disease cases. Miami city officials said it was illegal to operate an adult entertainment business in a residential neighborhood.
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NFL arrests consistent with general population rates
Brent Schrotenboer of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports on an investigation into hundreds of news reports and public records since 2000 to compile an unofficial list of 308 arrests and citations involving NFL players for all offenses except speeding tickets. The paper "found that the league's biggest problems with the law are in many ways just as ordinary: drunken driving, traffic stops and repeat offenders. In addition, contrary to public perception, the arrest rate among NFL players is less than that of the general population, and fueled by many of the same dynamics, analysts say."
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Parole failures go unpunished
Brendan J. Lyons of the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., obtained documents from an internal investigation revealing parole managers had incorrectly allowed convicted felons to remain free and commit new crimes. Despite these findings, the state agency's leaders took no action against those found responsible for parole errors and instead pursued charges against the people they suspected of leaking information to the paper. The whole affair unfolded after a July 2005 Times Union report revealed how parolees who violated the terms of their release remained free and went on to commit crimes such as rape and murder.
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Arizona developer's checkered past
Mark Flatten of the East Valley Tribune in Phoenix completed a series on Jim Rhodes who has become in the most influential developer in Arizona's East Valley. In December of 2006, he purchased over 1,000 acres of state trust land. The $58.6 million purchase gave him the right to "master-plan 7,700 acres in the area and set the tone for development of 275 square miles of state land extending from the eastern edge of Maricopa County to Florence." State officials claim they did not know of Rhodes' checkered past, which includes charges of fraud and theft, prior to the land purchase. The entire series can be viewed here.
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The politics of life and death
Dan Horn of The Cincinnati Enquirer analyzed the 6th Circuit court's death-penalty decisions since 2000 to show that 6th Circuit judges consistently voted along partisan lines, and that "a federal death-penalty appeal can be a game of chance." A review of every 6th circuit death penalty decision since 2000 found that judges appointed by Republican presidents vote to deny inmate appeals 85 percent of the time, and judges appointed by Democrats vote to grant at least some relief 75 percent of the time. That means life-and-death decisions often hinge on the luck of the draw: A panel with a liberal majority gives the inmate a far greater chance of avoiding execution than one with a conservative majority.
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FBI's terrorism mission leaves white-collar crime unpunished
A story by Paul Shukovsky, Tracy Johnson and Daniel Lathrop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on a profound shift in the FBI's mission. Due to a shift in focus to national security following 9/11, the FBI has failed to pursue thousands of white-collar crimes. "Five-and-a-half years later, the White House and the Justice Department have failed to replace at least 2,400 agents transferred to counterterrorism squads, leaving far fewer agents on the trial of identity thieves, con artists, hatemongers and other criminals." Lathrop built a database from the records the P-I collected for their investigation and "the newspaper was able for the first time to fully measure the dramatic decline in the number of cases and convictions resulting from the FBI moving resources to terrorism and walking away from areas of criminal enforcement. Copies of the analysis were given to federal officials in Seattle and in Washington, D.C., who did not dispute the newspaper's findings but wouldn't make database experts available to discuss the analysis."
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Conflicted Justice
Following a six-month investigation, Alan Maimon of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on the "conflict system" in Clark County, Nev., in which private attorneys are assigned to poor defendants whom the public defender's office cannot represent due to conflicts of interest. An examination of every case the 30 contract defenders took to felony court in a recent 12-month period showed that the system suffers from a severe lack of standards and oversight that yield uneven justice and questionable government spending. In response to the newspaper's findings, a committee of judges has proposed dramatically overhauling the system. The entire series package can be viewed here.
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Journalist's investigation helps lead to woman's murder conviction
Nancy Badertscher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on the conviction of Lynn Turner. Turner, already serving a life term for the murder of Randy Thompson, was given a 2nd conviction for the murder of her late husband, Glenn Turner. "Turner and Thompson initially were thought to have died of heart problems. But several months after Thompson died, questions raised by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution led authorities to investigate the deaths as homicides, with the common link being their love for Lynn Turner." Read a Q & A with Jane Hansen, the AJC staff writer who helped to unearth the facts of the case.
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Recognition of judicial inequities lead to man's release
Brooks Egerton of The Dallas Morning News covered the release of Tyrone Brown "17 years after a single positive marijuana test while he was on probation led a Dallas judge to sentence him to life in prison." Brown's story drew national attention last year after The News ran a story on the inequity of justice in Texas courts. The story was picked up by ABC's 20/20 spawning a web campaign which led to Dallas County officials and the Texas parole board to recommend his sentence be terminated. As a result, Texas Gov. Rick Perry granted his first ever conditional pardon to Brown.
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Texas Youth Commission investigation
The Dallas Morning News has posted a page dedicated to its continuing investigation into sexual abuse at Texas juvenile detention centers. Records obtained by the paper showed that young inmates were being sexually assaulted, and nothing was done to stop it, despite complaints and reports by staffers at the West Texas State School. Included on the page is Web-only video and documents from the Texas Youth Commission's report on the West Texas State School.
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Ballooning cost of senior judges
Brandon Ortiz of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader analyzed court records to show that Kentucky's judicial retirement system will pay out at least $1.57 million this year to compensate retired judges who work part-time to ease court backlogs. That's far more than the $420,000 agreed to seven years ago. "That revelation raises questions about whether the program will hurt the judicial retirement fund's long-term health, thus requiring larger subsidies by the state in the future." The retirement system's director denied theHerald-Leader's request for detailed records of service credits that determine the judges' pensions. The paper is appealing the decision.
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Sex offenders found in school safety zones
Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle used a computer analysis to locate more than 900 known child rapists and molesters living inside "school protection zones." Using mapping software, KIRO Team 7 Investigators plotted addresses of every school and every registered sex offender convicted of violating a child. Despite the fact that last June, state lawmakers ruled that convicted pedophiles must live at least 880 feet away from a school, the investigation located at least 100 convicted pedophiles living near schools. (IRE and NICAR contributed to the data analysis for this story.)
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Unpoliced use of force plagues Milwaukee police department
Reporter John Diedrich of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed the Milwaukee police department is inadequate in its tracking of the use of force. The article documented the record of an officer who was with the department for just three years but racked up a record of using force and attracted complaints far in excess of fellow officers. In three of the cases, the officer hit people with a flashlight. The department says it knew about this officer but did nothing. The story also showed Milwaukee’s use of force rate was far higher than a national average.
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Punishment for child porn charges lax
A computer-assisted investigation by Steve Daniels of WTVD-Raleigh, Durham and Fayetteville (N.C.) compared data from the state court system with data from the state prison system to find that "only 30 percent of people facing child pornography charges in North Carolina between 2003 and mid-December have been sentenced to prison time. Twenty-six percent have been sentenced to probation only." The Attorney General of North Carolina blames lax child pornography laws and has called for the legislature to pass more stringent legislation.
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Houston burglary hot spots mapped
Dave Fehling of KHOU_Houston reports on the city's burglary trends. "Analyzing raw numbers from the last two years, a special mapping program found five hot spots." Further analysis of the data showed that the hot spots covered a higher concentration of apartment complexes, where it is easier for unfamiliar faces to move around unnoticed. The IRE and NICAR Database Library assisted with data analysis and mapping for this story.
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Wisconsin judges hear cases despite conflicts
Geoff Davidian of Milwaukee Magazine identified Wisconsin judges who frequently try cases involving companies in which they hold investments. Davidian analyzed all civil cases in Milwaukee from the beginning of 2004 through the first eight months of 2006 and checked them against the financial interest statements filed by the judges with the Wisconsin Ethics Board. The results show 202 cases in which judges had a financial conflict, including 54 cases involving Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Dwyer.
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Iowa drivers dodge high fines, license penalties
The Des Moines Register used data on driving-related offenses in Iowa to identify 78,000 people who owe at least $500 in fines. Reporter Lee Rood and data analyst Michael Corey found "The outstanding debt that all Iowans owe for everything from overdue speeding tickets to drunk driving fines to law enforcement surcharges is at a record high: $438.7 million." With stiff state penalties, the rate of sanctions against drivers' licenses have nearly doubled in 10 years. The online package also includes video and a searchable database of drivers who owe fines.
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License to Carry
In a four-part series, Megan O'Matz and John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examined Florida's concealed weapons law and found that licenses have been issued to hundreds of people who, due to their criminal histories, wouldn't stand a chance of getting them in most other states. Courts have found them responsible for assaults, burglaries, sexual battery, drug possession, child molestation - even homicide. The newspaper obtained a database of 443,425 names of licensees before the state passed a privacy law last July 1 closing the records.
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No Defense: Shortcut to Death Row
Stephen Henderson, Supreme Court correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, evaluated the quality of defense lawyering in four states, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia in a three-part series based on in-depth review of 80 cases from 1997 to 2004. By failing to investigate their clients' histories, lawyers in these 73 cases fell far short of the 20-year-old professional standards set by the American Bar Association. Their performances also appear inconsistent with standards that the U.S. Supreme Court has mandated several times."
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Email reveals Port of Seattle police scandal
Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer expose an explicit email and Internet scandal within the Port of Seattle Police Department. The reporters used public records requests to obtain internal investigation documents and personnel records showing that nearly one-third of the Port's police force sent, received and exchanged racist, sexist and explicit emails over a 16-month period. Through other documents and interviews, the P-I discovered the inappropriate use of public computers and similar questionable actions by officers has remained unchecked and part of the department's culture for years.
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Estate laws in Texas easily abused
Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman reports on short-comings in Texas estate laws which make it easy to defraud the deceased. "State probate laws don't ensure that a deceased person's assets actually get to heirs — or require executors to tell the heirs they're named in a will." With little to no oversight, executors in Texas can easily mishandle the assets of the deceased.
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Sexual misconduct problem for Oregon officers
Ian Demsky of Willamette Week in Portland, Ore., investigated the records of law enforcement and corrections officers in Oregon who had their licenses revoked. Since 2002, about one third of the revocations stemmed from sexual misconduct.
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Texas law hog-ties defense attorneys
Jeremy Rogalski and 11 News Investigates of KHOU-Houston exposed an open secret of the Texas justice system: Texas prosecutors are not letting defense attorneys see basic documents, such as police reports, witness statements, and even DNA lab results, before trial. A Texas state law practically eliminates pretrial discovery often leaving defense attorneys unable to prepare for court. Rogalski found that this has resulted in at least one innocent man going to prison for 13 years.
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Conflict of interest in sealed guardianship cases
In the on-going series "Your Court, Their Secrets" investigating closed court records, Cheryl Phillips, Maureen O'Hagan and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times uncovered conflicts of interest in sealed guardianship cases. "Only a small circle of lawyers practice in the guardianship field. Some say that to make a good living they cannot limit their practice to one side or the other: They must represent guardianship companies as well as the people subject to those companies' control." This leaves wards vulnerable to guardians who profit by working both sides of the system. This vulnerability is compounded by the fact that these court records are sealed. Since 1990, 398 guardianship files have been sealed in the state of Washington. The Times reviewed sealing orders for 376 of those files to find that 97% did not adhere to the proper legal standard for dealing a case: "A judge must find that "compelling circumstances" exist for secrecy; determine that they outweigh the public's right to open courts; and explain the reasoning in a written order."
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Clocking the Cops
Tisha Thompson of WMAR-Baltimore found that police officers in Baltimore continuously broke speed limits, sometimes by over 10mph, even in the absence of an emergency. The investigation revealed that in an emergency, fifty percent of the police cars drove at more than 10 mph over the speed limit.Armed with hidden cameras, the investigators also found that 8 out of 10 police vehicles without lights and sirens were breaking speed limits while driving in residential neighborhoods.
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Violent crime in Houston on the rise
Mark Greenblatt of KHOU-TV looks at a surge in violent crimes in Houston - an increase of 22% in the last 2 years. For the story, Greenblatt used Access, Excel, ArcGIS, and CrimeStat to first look for trends in rise in specific crimes, then mapped them out to find further trends. Included in the report are interactive online tools that allow you to search violent crime incidents by neighborhood and zip code.
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ABC 15 investigators take a fresh look at the Bolles murder
ABC 15 investigator Abbie Boudreau looks at the murder of Don Bolles murder 30 years after his car was bombed. Bolles died 11 days later. With new evidence and questions about the killing of Don Bolles, ABC 15 calls into question whether an innocent man, Max Dunlap, was framed for one of Arizona's most infamous murders. Included online is video of Dunlap explaining how he believes he was set up; his description of life behind bars; a pdf of his letter to investigative reporter Abbie Bourdreau; and several more pieces of supplimentary coverage.
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Criminals make big money on eBay
Debbie Dujanovic and Kelly Just of KSL-TV (Utah) uncovered an organized ring of thieves who cased neighborhoods, stole property and then unloaded it on eBay. eBay provides an easy outlet for the stolen goods, as it does not have a policy of doing background checks on sellers or policing individual transactions.
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Sexual misconduct rampant with Utah peace officers
Nate Carlisle and Lisa Rosetta of The Salt Lake Tribune report on sexual misconduct by peace officers in the state of Utah. "It is the most common reason - more than excessive force, falsifying reports or driving under the influence - that Utah officers lose their certifications or are suspended from their jobs, according to a Salt Lake Tribune review of Utah Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Council records."
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Freedom for sale in Florida
Carl Jones of Miami New Times reports on corruption in the justice system in southern Florida. The series [See:Part 1 and Part 2] explores the story behind a now disbarred defense attorney, Isreal Perez, Jr., who promised to get the prison sentences of convicted felons reduced - for a price. "If there's any truth to Perez's claims about working with rogue DEA agents, the case raises serious questions about the propriety of drug investigations and prosecutions in South Florida, and about why Perez was never charged with a crime. It could mean there is again a "For Sale" sign on badges in Miami."
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BALCO saga continues: The SF Chronicle held in contempt
Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the paper has agreed to be held in contempt of court for refusing to disclose its reporters' [Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams] sources of grand jury testimony in the BALCO case. This could result in fines of over $500,000. "The Chronicle's editor, Phil Bronstein, said, 'While this latest filing is largely about legal procedure, it again speaks to our unqualified support for these two great journalists, their work and their commitment to standing by the confidentiality of their sources.'"
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Texas sex-offender registry plagued with problems
In a two-part series Emily Ramshaw of The Dallas Morning News reports on the state of Texas' sex offender registry, which is ladden with inaccuracy. Some experts blame an ever-increasing database without the manpower to maintain the information. " The result? Vigilant parents and community groups are relying on faulty or incomplete data to protect themselves. Some homeowners are targeted as sex offenders because their addresses mistakenly appear in the database. And hundreds of the region's sex offenders are avoiding registration or filing false information with law enforcement agencies - some to hide in the crowd, others to re-offend."A graphic of their findings can be found here.

In the second part of her series, Ramshaw looks at the unintended consequences of Texas' zero-tolerance sex offender registration laws. "They're working to design better risk-level assessments to help police departments distinguish between sexual predators and high school boyfriends. And they've passed legislation to allow some young offenders with negligible recidivism rates, particularly those in consensual-sex scenarios, to be removed from the registry."
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SF Police spied on jounalists to find source of internal leak
A.C. Thompson of SF Weekly reports on a scandal within the San Franciso Police Department, "a cloak-and-dagger investigation that may have transgressed the department's own rules - and definitely torched the careers of a pair of ethical police officers who dared to air their criticisms of the SFPD." Following the 2003 leak of an internal memo pertaining to a highly publicized police scandal, officers within the department responded by "covertly opening a vigorous criminal probe dedicated to discovering who leaked the Stansberry memo to the media. And during the course of the probe, a secret team, helmed by Morris Tabak, then head of the Special Investigations Division, gathered up a fat stack of documents: the records of more than 2,400 phone calls to and from journalists working in the Hall of Justice press room. "
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Abuse of law rampant in NY's village and town courts
A series by William Glaberson of The New York Times exposes the gross abuse of power by "part-times justices" across the state of New York. The New York Times did a one-year investigation of these town and village courts presided over by judges who have no legal pedigree - including some with no more than a high school education. "Officially a part of the state court system, yet financed by the towns and villages, the justice courts are essentially unsupervised by either. State court officials know little about the justices, and cannot reliably say how many cases they handle or how many are appealed. Even the agency charged with disciplining them, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, is not equipped to fully police their vast numbers... people have often been denied fundamental legal rights. Defendants have been jailed illegally. Others have been subjected to racial and sexual bigotry so explicit it seems to come from some other place and time."
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Records reveal extensive White House access to some of Abramoff's cronies
Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press reports that recently released Secret Service visitor logs reveal extensive "inside access" to presidential aides by Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, both of whom are linked to Jack Abramoff. The records indicate at least 115 appointments since 2001, some lasting upwards of 12 hours. The release of the records came about in a settlement of an open records lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee. "Questions about Norquist's and Reed's access to the Bush White House surfaced after congressional and criminal investigations of Abramoff found evidence suggesting the lobbyist and his team gained White House access through the conservative activists."
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Prison conditions deplorable for mentally ill
Michele Gillen of Miami's CBS4 exposes the inhumane conditions of mentally-ill accused criminals being held in the Miami-Dade pre-trial detention center. The conditions are "morally incomprehensible" - multiple inmates share cells intended for a single prisoner; people sleep on floors covered in urine and feces; inmates are allowed out of their cells for only 30 minutes per week. Prison insiders refer to the 9th floor - which houses the mentally ill accused - as "the forgotten floor."
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"Capitol Crime"
Chitra Ragavan, Chief Legal Correspondent for U.S.News & World Report, has written "Capitol Crime," a detailed piece about MZM, a defense contractor implicated in the Rep. "Duke" Cunningham briberies. "Based on a review of hundreds of pages of court documents, private internal MZM records, and detailed interviews with a dozen key officials, shows how [Mitchell] Wade used his connections on Capitol Hill and inside the Pentagon to gather inside information and turn his company into a moneymaking juggernaut." The article focuses on the corporate side of Congressional corruption; the anatomy of bribery; and the rise and fall of a company built on hand shakes and favors.
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Investigative coverage of mafia at U.S. News
Dave Kaplan kicked off his new Bad Guys blog on USNews.com this week with two entries on what the Mafia's been up to since 9/11. Part One reveals its involvement in a new "Pizza Connection" case that links up the Sicilian and American mobs. Part Two reports on how the Mafia remains active in a half-dozen US cities, and is moving from murder and extortion to Internet and stock fraud. His blog promises a steady stream of investigative columns on terrorists, mobsters, war criminals, drug dealers, embezzlers, crooked cops, scam artists, bureaucratic bunglers, and abusers of the public trust."
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"The Long Shadow of 9/11"
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is running a series entitled "The Long Shadow of 9/11" in which they've localized the big-picture security issues facing the nation. The stories include an examination of how local police have poured vast resources into anti-terrorism policing; how the FBI has sent national security letters to casino-hotels to access guest information; and how Nevada and Utah have had among the most cases per capita in the nation categorized as terrorism-related.
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Sex offenders loosely monitored in Delaware
Andrew Tangel and Mike Chalmers of The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal found that sex offenders in the state of Delaware have been inadequately monitored. By mapping "the addresses of more than 1,200 moderate- and high-risk sex offenders, 1,900 child care centers and 350 public and private schools", Tangel and Chalmers found hundreds of instances where sex offencers were living within 500 feet of day cares - but day care centers don't count as schools under Delaware's lax version of Megan's law. They also found that 40% of sex offenders do not keep their addresses up-to-date in the system. Included in this report are details on how this investigation was done.
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Fundraising fraud by Texas state troopers
Amy Davis of KPRC-TV (Houston) exposed a telemarketing fraud being operated on behalf of Texas police. Calls being made by the Texas State Troopers Association (TSTA) were actually being made by a telemarketing firm. Recipients of these calls were told the money raised would go to help injured or killed officers and their families. In reality, the telemarketing firm was keeping 60% of the money raised, and the other 40% was going to political lobbying groups in Austin.
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Post-Katrina fraud
Joel Grover of KNBC-TV(Los Angeles) investigated FEMA fraud after Hurricane Katrina. Following an initial investigation by Channel 4 last October, fifteen residents of the Los Angeles area were charged with theft after they made false claims to FEMA saying that they'd been left homeless in the wake of the storm. They made their claims to FEMA using fake New Orleans addresses. The seven defendents who pled "no contest" to the charges must reimburse the government for the payments they fraudulently received. Arrest warrants have been issued for the defendents who failed to appear in court.
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Police abuse power to extort sex
Nancy Phillips and Craig R. McCoy of The Philadelphia Inquirer report on the troubling trend of police officers in Philadelphia using their status to extort sex. "Most police departments do little to identify the offenders, and even less to stop them. Unlike other types of police misconduct, the abuse of police power to coerce sex is little addressed in training, and rarely tracked by police disciplinary systems. This official neglect makes it easeir for predators to escape punishment and find new victims."
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Behind the mask of the Mo. execution doctor
Jeremy Kohler, of the St. Lousi Post-Dispatch, uncovered the identity of the doctor responsible supervising Missouri's lethal injection procedure. Banned from practicing in two hospitals in the state, charged with malpractice over 20 times and having received a public reprimand in 2003 by the state Board of Healing Arts, Alan R. Doerhoff has overseen lethal injections since 1995 for the Missouri Department of Corrections. Troubling is the fact that the Attorney General Jay Nixon's office not only signed off on Doerhoff's reprimand, but simultaneously protected him by fighting to keep his identity hidden in death penalty appeals. In a recent case questioning whether the state's lethal injection protocol was consitutionally humane, Doerhoff "described it in terms so troubling to a federal judge that he ordered it halted. The doctor testified anonymously that he is dyslexic. That he sometimes confused names of drugs. That he sometimes gave inconsistent testimony. That the injection protocol was not written down, and that he made changes on his "independent authority.""
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"Conduct Unbecoming" Continues
Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer uncover more police abuses in a continuation of the "Conduct Unbecoming" series. In their latest installment -- focusing on a specialized King County Sheriff's unit assigned to police the Metro regional transit system -- Nalder and Kamb, with assists from P-I beat reporters, turned out a quick-hitter investigation off a daily news story involving officers' controversial arrests of demonstrating bicyclists. In three weeks, the reporters used personnel documents and arrest, incident and complaint reports to supplement interviews with whistleblowers and other resources for this one-day package. Computer-assisted reporting specialist Daniel Lathrop complemented the print package with interactive online maps showing the most troublesome security spots along Metro's transit routes.
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"Teflon Don"
The Times Herald-Record's Michael Levensohn conducted an exhaustive investigation painstakingly detailing how a local businessman, Donald Boehm, looted an estate of millions of dollars and has become the focus of a police investigation in the most notorious unsolved killing in the region. The reporting for this story began in April 2004 with the bankruptcy filings of three of Boehm's companies. In the two years since, Levensohn conducted dozens of interviews and reviewed thousands of pages of court filings, contracts, property and bank records, correspondence and other documents to report this story.
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Death at Memorial Hospital
Following the announcement of murder charges against a New Orleans doctor and two nurses on duty in the wake Hurricane Katrina, CNN continues its Emmy-nominated investigative series, "Death at Memorial Hospital" with exclusive interviews with siblings of the accused Dr. Anna Pou, who maintains her innocence. "In October, CNN reported exclusively that after deteriorating conditions -- with food running low and no electricity -- some medical staff openly discussed whether patients should be euthanized," says a CNN.com report by Drew Griffin, produced by Kathleen Johnston.
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Mistaken identity questions raised in 1989 Texas execution
Maurice Possley and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune reviewed thousands of pages of court records and found that Texas may have executed an innocent man in 1989. "" There is no definitive DNA or crime-scene evidence to clear De Luna, but reporters uncovered serious flaws in the investigation that were never presented to the jury.
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Murders cost Tenn. more than $110 million annually
Melvin Claxton of The Tennessean has a three-part series on the price of murder in Tennessee, finding that "homicides cost state and local governments more than $110 million each year. The bill for Nashville alone, which has accounted for 17 percent of the state's homicides over the past two decades, exceeds $18.7 million annually." The paper's analysis of police and judicial costs puts the average murder case at $626,648.
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Sex offenders live close to children
Tony Rizzo and Laura Bauer of The Kansas City Star studied court records and found that "roughly three in 10 sex offenders did not live where they were supposed to." Additionally, "Many of the missing were the kinds of sex offenders parents most fear. Rapists. Child molesters. Repeat offenders. " There are offenders who readily and repeatedly ignore registration laws and evade authorities. The investigation also found that children remain vulnerable in Missouri, where 1,000-foot residency restrictions became law nearly two years ago. "Hundreds of offenders in Jackson County alone live closer than that to a school or day care." In Kansas, sex offenders can live wherever they want — even if that's right next door to a school.
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Judicial conflicts of interest in Nev.
Michael J. Goodman and William C. Rempel of the Los Angeles Times analyzed court and campaign records and found that in Las Vegas, "some judges routinely rule in cases involving friends, former clients and business associates — and in favor of lawyers who fill their campaign