The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Criminal Investigative Unit" ...
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Grim Reapers
Maricopa County, Arizona, has faced economic hurdles in paying for representation of indigent defendants charged with capital crimes. In recent years, the county supplanted other jurisdictions as the unofficial “death penalty capital” of the United States. “Grim Reaper” describes how a prominent capital criminal-defense attorney committed serious ethical and potentially criminal violations over a period of five years, during which time he collected more than $2.4 million from the county, including payment for work that he never had performed. in the wake of publication, law enforcement initiated a still-ongoing criminal investigation (as did the State Bar of Arizona), and the county's presiding judge announced sweeping and immediate changes in how criminal-defense attorneys representing indigent clients would be vetted, selected and paid.
Tags: Crimes; charges; criminal justice system; capital crimes
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Criminalizing Cartoons
The investigation exposes a police chief's desperate attempt to acquire the name of an anonymous cartoonist, mocking his department on the Internet. A person going by the moniker MrFiddlesticks (and other names) was airing internal affairs dirty laundry in the form of parody. To find out who, the city prosecutor, police chief and a local judge teamed up to craft a criminal search warrant. KIRO-TV's investigative unit not only uncovered questionable legal tactics (like prosecutor shopping), but later caught police shredding hundreds of records related the case. First Amendment and FOIA issues are central to this ongoing investigation.
Tags: cartoonist; search warrant; shredding
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Military Gangs
This story reveals the growing problem of military gangs in the U.S. Armed Forces. It focuses on a soldier who died after being beaten to death by fellow gang members in Germany.
Tags: Gangster Disciples; Marine Corps; Criminal Investigative Unit;
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Shriners Hospitals for Children Investigation Series
Freelance reporter Sandy Frost investigated a tip from Shriner Vernon Hill that there were irregularities in the way the fraternal Shriners organization and the charitable Shriners organizations were handling their money and not complying with Standards For Charitable Accountability.
Tags: Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine AKA Shriners; Standards for Charity Accountability; 2001 Criminal Tax Manual; Hershel Gober; Philanthropic Research, Inc. AKA Guidestar.org; Second Avenue Partners; Mike Slade; Aquantive; Nick Hanauer; Shriners; Masons; Knights Templar; Royal Order of Jesters; National Sojourners Order of Quetzacoatl; Mike Severe, Imperial Officer, Shrine of America; compensation; real estate transactions; excessive benefit transactions; charitable donation fraud; HIPPA; Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; Vernon Hill; Suite101.com; Paul Dolnier; 501c10 non profit fraternal corporation; 501c3 non profit charity; Better Business Bureau; Charity Watch Center; Pennsylvania's Charitable Special Investigation Unit; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; good old boy system; U.S. Senate Committee on Finance; whistleblower retaliation; Charles G. Cumpstone Jr., Potentate Stewart W. Lewis; Charities Review Council of Minnesota; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; GAAP; Independent Sector; SLAPP: strategic lawsuits against public participation; Cabiri Royal Order of Scotland; International Order of Demolay
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Justice on the Grass
Temple-Raston investigates the events leading to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and how Rwanda has fared in the aftermath. She details the United Nations' trial of three Rwandan journalists charged with inciting the murder of Tutsis. She follows their convictions for helping to start the RTLM hate radio station in Rwanda. She conveys how ordinary Rwandans felt during the three month-long genocide. She refers to her study as "the most notorious media trial since Nuremberg."
Tags: genocide; Rwanda; United Nations; Tutsi; RTLM; Hutu; prejudice; UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; journalist; freedom of the press
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Chasing Shadows
Baltimore's Eastern District is barraged with shooting cases. Wilber follows around the head investigator for the shootings unit for Baltimore PD
Tags: crime; shootings; murder; attempted murder; guns; cops; courts; criminals
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Tobacco Companies Linked to Criminal Organizations in Lucrative Cigarette Smuggling
This nine-part investigative report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, reveals "how Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and British American Tobacco became enmeshed with organized crime worldwide as they fought to expand markets and increase profits through cigarette smuggling." While corporate officials were pleading ignorance in explaining how one-third of the world's exported cigarettes end up on the black market they were in fact working closely with companies and officials directly connected to organized crime in the United States, Canada, Italy, China, Taiwan and other countries, the investigation reports.
Tags: Sicilian Mafia; Latin America; Cocaine barons; crime; smoking; smokers; business; government; tax evasions; Third World countries; money laundering; financial crimes; customs; witness protection; transit trade; exports; imports; racketeering
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Of Human Bondage
NBC News Dateline investigates a "startling and disturbing new criminal trend: the buying and selling of women for sexual slavery in developed countries like the United States." The story "follows the trail of women from rural Ukraine to the Czech Republic and finally to brothels in the United States," and identifies "entire communities and villages where brothels were stocked with enslaved girls as young as 14 years old." The story "profiles a handful of the estimated 2 million women who are illegally trafficked out of their home countries ..." "The report visits bogus employment offices and documents exactly how recruiters entice young, educated women with false promises of lucrative jobs abroad."
Tags: TAPE; NO TRANSCRIPT; California Public Records Act; prostitution; women; slavery rings; Eastern Europe: Ukraine; Czech Republic; Poland; Bulgaria; Bosnia; INS; FBI; INTERPOL
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No Room for Justice
WXYZ-TV reports that "In Wayne County, Michigan, prisoners walk free from the local jails nearly every day. They are not escape artists; they are simply benefiting from overcrowding. (WXYZ) wanted to see just how many prisoners had been released in 1999, and which types of criminals were walking free. Through the state Freedom of Information Act our investigative unit obtained data on thousands of prisoners who had been let go. (results showed): ..releasing violent criminals...serving only a fraction of their sentences ... types of crimes...."
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT CAR criminal justice system victims probation system truth-in-sentencing guidelines
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The Kosovo Connection
The Montreal Gazette investigates the criminal connections of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Albanian rebel group defended and entrenched in power by NATO's campaign in Yugoslavia. The report exposes the KLA's links to heroin and prostitution rings that have flourished throughout Europe and North America largely through its help and contends that the group's profit from crime has continued since the war.
Tags: Italian Mafia; drug-smuggling; tycoons; United Nations; FBI; Switzerland; Germany; FOI; Royal Canadian Mounted Police; underworld