Intravaia Investigations LLC in Piccadilly Circus

Washington Defense Association

Intravaia Investigations LLC, Seattle, WA is now a part of Washington Defender Association.  We will be assisting the association in many ways, preparing training and networking opportunities.  They provide exceptional forensics/investigator training as well. http://www.defensenet.org/

Freedom 2015

At the beginning of March, we received a case from the public defender's office.  The defendant was currently in jail.  He had been there for three months and bail was one-hundred-thousand-dollars.  The case involved multiple serious felonies involving the use of a shotgun.  The defendant's options were, plead guilty and take a ten year sentence or risk going to trial and if found guilty, face a sixteen year sentence.  I reviewed discovery and had numerous immediate questions.  First step, was I needed to locate and interview the victim and separate "witness."

Back in the early years of my law enforcement career, I had the forever appreciative opportunity to be mentored and work with some of the best and talented veteran narcotics detectives with SPD.  One of the things, I learned was how to locate people that did not want to be found.  I located the victim and interviewed him.  His comment was: "How the fuck did you find me."  The other important step I learned, was when trying to locate and interview a homeless person and/or drug addict, was to put on a pair of tennis shoes and walk to every homeless shelter in downtown Seattle, which is what I did.  I left my business card and a handwritten letter for the witness at each shelter.  I also checked the motels on Aurora Ave N.  The very next day, I received a call from the witness and he agreed to meet me.  I also followed up on information learned during the case by LE, which lead me to Snohomish County where I interviewed another subject.  His information paramount and no LE had ever telephoned him.   

You would think it would be easier to get into contact, schedule a date and time, to interview a detective and/or officer, but that is not the case.  There was a total of seven to eight LE involved in this case.      

After two weeks of investigating this case and reviewing case law, we made our recommendation to the public defender.  On Tuesday morning, the senior deputy prosecutor office signed the order for release, by the afternoon the defendant, an innocent man, walked out of jail a free man and into the arms of his family and children. 

Besides the obvious, our investigation coupled with the extraordinary talent and dedication of the public defender, we saved the tax payers a costly trial and the cost to incarcerate an innocent man.  Washington State tax payers would have ultimately paid the cost to incarcerate the defendant, which is approximately between $23.00 and $26.00? a day, times 365 days, times 16 years: $151,840 total.  

Social Networking Searches

Today we had a meeting and was given a demonstration by a large records management company that the U.S. Government and other law enforcement agencies use.  One of the assets of the database is global social networking, which instagram and twitter companies voluntarily are integrated into. We ran Andreas Lubitz the co pilot of Lufthansa that killed all those people.  Social media records instantly came up raising instant red flags going back two years indicating he should never have been operating a plane, not even a model airplane.

Google location reporting utilizing your gmail account

We had been wondering where the tracking information on smartphones was going and how it was being retained.  If you have a gmail account and smart phone, you can log onto the google website and locate your movement history. 

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/4388034?hl=en

Judge orders USPS to pay damages to whistleblower.

Even though the evidence is overwhelming, USPS supervisors would look you straight in the eye and deny each and every allegation even after a federal judge made their ruling.  This is what public employees face every day from tiny public agencies to large ones such as USPS.  The unfortunate aspect is only a fraction of the time does an employee win their case.  The other issue is, USPS, will continue in a practice of harassment and retaliation because the odds of getting caught is so minimal.  USPS stacked the policy violations against the employee, made changes to his work environment, and created a confusing paper trail against the employee.  This is a classic example which should be taught in law school, but it is not.  

SEATTLE (AP) - A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to pay a worker almost $230,000 in damages for the retaliation he suffered when he helped a co-worker with her workplace health concerns.

The worker had started with the Postal Service as a mail carrier in 1995 and worked his way up to safety specialist. But in 2008, everything changed and he found himself in a hostile work environment after he advised his co-worker to report her concerns to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency said in a statement.

He was transferred to another office, forced to work in an unheated storage room, demoted, publicly humiliated and refused a promotion, the agency said. He filed a whistleblower complaint with OSHA in Seattle, and an investigation confirmed his complaints. The man's name was not released because OSHA does not release the names of whistleblowers.

After a five-day bench trial, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez found that the worker's actions were protected by a federal act that prohibits managers from retaliating against workers.

Martinez said the worker is entitled to $229,228 in damages and said the Postal Service must promote him to the same pay rate he would have now, had he not been denied a promotion. The judge enjoined the Seattle-area Postal Service from discriminating against employees who complain to or cooperate with OSHA, and from failing to take action against managers who interfere with employees exercising their rights under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

In a statement, the Postal Service said it was disappointed in the ruling and disagrees with the conclusions. The agency said it was "reviewing the decision for possible post-judgment relief and/or appeal."

"This 20-year veteran Postal Service employee is a true hero, and we hope that this court decision will be of some comfort to him for the retribution he suffered and a lesson to those employers, large or small, believing that they can act with impunity and without consequences," said Janet Herold, the Labor Department's regional solicitor in San Francisco.

Capital Hill Assault Case

http://q13fox.com/2015/02/19/family-asks-for-publics-help-in-finding-man-who-attacked-son-outside-bar/

This is our case, and I was able to get Q13 Fox and Komo4 to cover the story.  I had the composite sketch done by a LE forensic sketch artist and put together the bulletin.  My hopes in raising the reward from $1000 to $5000 would cause one of the suspect's friends to come forward.  Four of his friends witnessed the assault and did nothing to help the victim.  Suspect's girlfriend was also there and witnessed the incident.  Hopefully, the coverage will reach the suspect as well and he shows up at a Seattle Police Precinct with an attorney.