Arrested private investigator says he 'can't even sleep' after shootout with wrong guy

 

Arrested private investigator says he 'can't even sleep' after shootout with wrong guy

By Damali Keith
Published January 25, 2021
News
FOX 26 Houston

CYPRESS, Texas - A shootout in a Cypress neighborhood at 8:00 on a Saturday morning leaves one person shot, three men arrested and it’s all because of a case of mistaken identity.

For years, Frederick Randle Jr. has been a private investigator at UMMC Investigations, the company he owns, arresting fugitives who jump bail but this time he was the one arrested and charged.

"It is a nightmare," says Randle. Now the business owner who typically works with attorneys is finding himself in need of one.

"My client is sincerely apologetic. He has hired me and my team of attorneys to represent him," explains Attorney Wilvin Carter.

You see, the night before the shootout Private Investigator Randle was hired to arrest a fugitive child predator. After running surveillance and confirming with a neighbor the man lived there, Randle and his two employees went to the Cypress home, finding the homeowner outside.

"We saw him by the driveway. Then he went into the garage. My employee followed him in and my other employee followed him in and all of a sudden the garage closed on them and it trapped them inside. Then from that point, I heard gunshots," Randle explains.

Randle says the homeowner opened fire on his two employees, Licensed Private Investigators Frederic Siddique and Angel Galvan. He says Siddique ultimately shot back. Galvan was shot in the arm.

"They were behaving in a manner in relation to their training and policy provided to them by the state of Texas," says Carter.

The bounty hunters thought they were in a shootout with their fugitive but the 'wanted man' actually no longer lives there and the homeowner thought he was being robbed.

"I didn’t know that until the police department told me afterwards that it was the wrong guy and my heart just fell out the window. I really feel bad. I can’t even sleep because I’m thinking about the family, the trauma they endured, the children," says Randle.

The three private investigators were arrested.

"The charges are very serious. He, as well as, his employees are charged with Burglary of a Habitation with the Intent to Commit Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon," Carter explains. The punishment ranges from two to twenty years in prison. "We didn’t have any intent to commit any malicious act against anyone. That’s not what we do in our business. That’s not who I am. I’m a well-respected person," says Randle.
     
The homeowner, his wife, and three grandchildren who were in the house were not shot in the incident. The private investigator who was shot in the arm is expected to survive.
    
Randle’s attorney says they want to "make the family whole somehow" and they're hoping the DA’s office will review the case, realize this was not a robbery attempt and dismiss the charges.

https://lsisinvestigations.com/blog/f/arrested-private-investigator-says-he-cant-even-sleep-after-sh

Judge Rejects Attempt to Immediately Block CDC’s Latest Eviction Moratorium

 

 The EPOCH Times

US News
Judge Rejects Attempt to Immediately Block CDC’s Latest Eviction Moratorium
By Zachary Stieber
August 13, 2021


A federal judge on Friday announced she will not immediately block the Biden administration’s latest pause on evictions.

The pause is an extension on the previous moratorium, which Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh deemed an overreach, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump nominee, said in her 13-page ruling.

That viewing of the ban enables the judge to block it, but she said she’s prevented from doing so by previous orders from other courts, including the nation’s top one.

Friedrich in May vacated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction pause, finding the CDC lacked the legal authority to impose a nationwide moratorium. But she quickly stayed the order on the request of the government, pending appeal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit the following month upheld the stay, asserting the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, was likely to succeed when the case was ultimately decided.

The Supreme Court followed by refusing to overturn the ban in place at the time, in a narrow 5-4 decision in which Kavanaugh was the only justice to offer his thoughts regarding how he voted.

Kavanaugh decided to uphold the ban, but said in his concurring opinion that the CDC “exceeded its existing statutory authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium” and Congress would have to act when the ban expired.

The CDC’s nationwide eviction pause expired on July 31. The agency soon issued a new moratorium, which applies to around 90 percent of the U.S. population, after Congress failed to pass an eviction pause.

Combined with the four justices who would have vacated the stay, Kavanaugh’s opinion was enough to establish that the Supreme Court would rule against any future CDC action on evictions, plaintiffs, including real estate groups, argued in their emergency motion on Aug. 4 and in court earlier this week.

Friedrich sided with the government defendants in disagreeing.

“Because the four dissenting Justices did not explain their votes, it is impossible to determine which proposed disposition—theirs or Justice Kavanaugh’s—is the ‘common denominator’ of the other,” she wrote.

While several other courts have cast doubt on the CDC’s authority to ban evictions, the Circuit Court’s upholding of the stay, taken with the Supreme Court’s decision not to end the ban, means the judge’s hands are tied, she added.

“These intervening decisions call into question the D.C. Circuit’s conclusion that the CDC is likely to succeed on the merits. For that reason, absent the D.C. Circuit’s judgment, this Court would vacate the stay. But the Court’s hands are tied. The Supreme Court did not issue a controlling opinion in this case, and circuit precedent provides that the votes of dissenting Justices may not be combined with that of a concurring Justice to create binding law,” she stated.

To lift the stay, plaintiffs must seek relief from the D.C. Circuit, she concluded.

The National Association of Realtors, which is one of the plaintiffs, told The Epoch Times in an email that plaintiffs are planning an appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court.

“We are confident in our position that this unlawful eviction ban will soon come to an end. Federal and state governments should be focusing all energy on the swift distribution of nearly $50 billion in rental assistance available for struggling tenants,” a spokesperson said via email.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration “believes that CDC’s new moratorium is a proper use of its lawful authority to protect the public health.”

“We are pleased that the district court left the moratorium in place, though we are aware that further proceedings in this case are likely,” she said in a statement.

 

 https://lsisinvestigations.com/blog/f/judge-rejects-attempt-to-immediately-block-cdc%E2%80%99s-latest-eviction

Private investigator arrested for January child abduction: officials

Private investigator arrested for January child abduction: officials

ABC 12 News Channel
Sydney Basden
3/15/2021

A licensed private investigator in North Carolina was recently arrested on charges of abducting an infant earlier this year, the Onslow County Sheriff's Office said Monday.

Officials said they received a report on January 11 that an infant had been taken from the child's grandmother in Holly Ridge. During the investigation, the sheriff's office said deputies learned a couple had hired an attorney to assist in gaining custody of the infant, and the infant had been taken by Melanie Keene, a licensed private investigator hired by the attorney.

According to officials, Keene, 60, took the infant to the couple, reportedly doing so under the pretext that an Ex-Parte Hearing for Temporary Emergency Custody was scheduled for January 12. They added that Keene also told the couple to turn off their phones and not speak with law enforcement to prevent the child from being returned to its mother.

On Wednesday, March 10, warrants were obtained for Keene, and she was arrested March 11 in Brunswick County. The Onslow County Sheriff's Office said she has been charged with the following:

    Felony Abduction of Children,
    Felonious Restraint,
    Felony Obstructing Justice,
    Misdemeanor Resisting Public Officer.

Officials added that she was booked in the Brunswick County Detention Center with a $1,000 secured bond awaiting her first appearance.

https://lsisinvestigations.com/blog/f/private-investigator-arrested-for-january-child-abduction-offici 

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/private-investigator-arrested-for-january-child-abduction-officials/ar-BB1eC30o