Whenever someone commits a crime in the United States, the U.S. Constitution guarantees them the right to an attorney if they cannot afford one. Thus, for people who cannot afford to bond out of jail while on remand via our societally toxic money-based bail system, those people can receive a public defender to represent them in court. Having at least basic, public representation on the taxpayer’s dime helps ensure a fairer legal process that does not unfairly deprive people of their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without the due process of law.

Even the best public defenders need help trying to secure the dismissal of charges, a not guilty verdict, or the best plea deal possible for the wellbeing of their clients. This is seldom an effortless process, because governments do not pay public defenders well, and they often employ newer people with less impressive skills and then overload them with far too many cases with insufficient time to provide each client with decent representation.

Indeed, police and prosecutors will do everything they can to throw the accused criminals into prison with lengthy prison sentences. They often have more highly skilled lawyers working as prosecutors who receive better pay and have access to far more prosecutorial resources, both financial and operational like the police departments, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Their resources and skills can unfairly tip the balance in favor of securing convictions and can place defendants without means at severe risk of increasingly lengthy incarceration periods.

One thing that public defenders and other criminal defense attorneys can do to help with their clients’ legal cases is to hire a public defender private investigator. These individuals can help with a wide range of legal needs via their public interest private investigations. Indeed, when budgets allow, these criminal private detectives can help secure better legal justice for criminal defendants. Some of the legal services private investigation agencies can provide include, but are not limited to, the following:

Surveillance 

Surveillance of witnesses, criminal defendants, and alleged victims is a truly invaluable legal service that our surveillance private investigations can offer for public defender lawyers. It is vital to track what defendants in criminal cases are up to, so public interest attorneys do not find themselves blindsided by their clients’ actions. If their accused defendants they are trying to represent are out engaging in human trafficking, drug dealing, etc., then their criminal defense attorneys need to know this ASAP so they can address it head-on.

Likewise, keeping watch on alleged victims and witnesses is also crucial, because they may flee or do things which could significantly undermine their credibility. Surveillance private investigations are especially important, because sometimes witnesses – even police officers – lie and some “victims” are narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths, and/or pathological liars and never underwent victimization at all. Our PI agency has seen this happen many times, and if we fail to watch them closely and verify their activities and the truthfulness of their statements then it could harm accused criminal defendants.

Social Media Scans 

Our social media scan private investigator can also attest to the need for public defenders to run comprehensive social media scans on their clients, the accused victims, and witnesses in criminal trials. This even and especially applies to police officers who are serving as witnesses, because corruption and lying among law enforcement personnel is much more common than many people realize. Our legal team can tailor each social media scan to look for helpful information like the following:

Criminal Histories/Activities/Accusations of/against Victims, Witnesses, & Criminal Defendants That News Stories, Social Media Sites like TikTok, Facebook, etc., Show

Criminal defendants and sociopathic false accusers alike can find the Internet revealing their dark little hidden secrets. Where a criminal may have had records of the crime expunged in official records, the news stations and users of social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok may have posted stories about the crime and charges on their sites.

While it is true that judges can order websites to remove the pages and their content, it does not happen as commonly as criminal expungements do. Thus, even when the government has charged and especially convicted a person of a crime, an expungement might hide the charge and conviction itself, but the new stations are less likely to have hidden the matter.

The same holds true to people who make false accusations about others. Eventually, people get fed up with others lying about them and might post something online to help warn others to stay away from them. Our social media private detective can run social media scans that can help expose psychopaths and pathological liars for who they really are!

False Accusation History 

Some people who are sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissists, and/or pathological liars will post things online about people they have made false accusations against for things like rape, assault and battery, burglary, etc. Their friends and family might also make similar posts or may know something about what did or did not happen. Indeed, they may know if this “victim” has a history of making false accusations against others in court. Their testimony could prove crucial during criminal proceedings, and our social media private investigators need to find out if this type of evidence exists, where the posts are, and who the witnesses are that could help impeach the so-called victim’s testimony and claims.

Impeachable/Confirmable Comments, Posts, & Photos 

As stated above, criminals, witnesses, and victims alike will often post all kinds of things online like photos, comments, etc., which may cast doubts about the credibility of their statements. Indeed, sometimes criminals post photos of things they have just stolen onto their social media to brag about it, or they may post photos of themselves partying and having a great time even as they claim someone “stole” their now-missing child. Comments like these could seal or blow a criminal case wide open, and our public defender private investigators need to find any such comments or photos that exist and give them to the criminal defense attorney overseeing the case right away!

Running Brady List checks on police officers and other law enforcement personnel is also imperative, because our social media scan private detective denotes evidence and disciplinary measures against them that criminal defense attorneys can use in court to impeach their testimony. Public interest private detectives can hand this information over to lawyers representing their clients in court, and detrimental information against them could help turn the tide in a criminal proceeding.

Criminal and Civil Background Checks 

Everyone has something in their backgrounds, if they live long enough. Whether it was something they did or failed to do, said or failed to say. Experts claim that the average person commits about three felonies a day, even if they do not realize it. Thus, you can locate a private detective from our PI agency to help you do nationwide civil and criminal background checks on alleged victims, perpetrators, and witnesses to find out what is in their backgrounds. Then, public interest attorneys can use the information contained therein to protect their clients’ best interests while impeaching the credibility of so-called victims and witnesses to alleged crimes.

License Plate Checks 

When public defenders need to find out who owns a suspicious vehicle that our private detectives for public defenders locate during surveillance investigations, we can run their license plates. License plate checks can help and identify who they are. If there are more criminals visiting the criminal defendant or anyone there whose presence might discredit a witness, victim, or perpetrator, then we must know about it and give that information to the criminal defense lawyer in charge.

O. Box Checks 

Post office box checks are another thing our public interest private investigator at our private detective agency can do help find where someone moved to. This is especially important when the criminal defense attorney needs to locate a missing witness, an absconding criminal defendant client, or an alleged victim in a case for interviewing, surveillance, or having a process server give them a subpoena to show up to court or for a deposition.

Post office box checks work when a person lists a P.O. box as their address and get their mail there. They often do this so that other people will not discover where they live. So, our private investigator for public defenders can go to the post office and ask for the 911/physical address that the person to whom has the post office box registered it. Thus, the postal worker can give our legal team the information, and we can forward that directly to the criminal defense lawyer.

Interviewing Witnesses, Alleged Victims, & Criminal Defendants 

Interviewing witnesses, alleged victims, and accused perpetrators sometimes tell different stories to police than they communicate to their friends, family, and social media associates. Before memories fade, it is imperative to get the story right from the horses’ mouths. Thus, our criminal defense private investigator can go on behalf of the criminal defense lawyer and can interview victims, perpetrators, and witnesses in a criminal case.

Hearing and recording their sides of the story and comparing what they said to documented statements they made to investigators and our PI can potentially help discredit and otherwise impeach their testimony in court. Thus, this is a crucial legal service our firm can offer that can have significant impacts on criminal cases.

Forwarding Mail Checks 

Forwarding mail checks are another way we have that can help locate missing people like victims, witnesses, and criminal defendants. When someone moves and it is too early for a skip trace to show the results, if they filed a forwarding address notice with the United States Post Office it can show where they moved to. While not everyone does this, when they do it can help fill in crucial gaps and locate people faster, when our skip tracers are unable to locate missing people via their skip trace service.

Courtroom Testimony 

Judges and juries put significant stock into the sworn testimony of licensed private investigators in both civil and criminal cases. When our social media private detective learns valuable information via interviewing, surveillance, etc. that judges and juries will want to hear, our PIs can testify in court about what they know. This can help sway a jury and/or judge in making the best possible decision.

Defense Strategy Consultation & Jury Consultations

 Since criminal and civil cases alike take enormous time, effort, and collaboration, many criminal defense lawyers and especially public defenders need help. From paralegals to expert witnesses and criminal defense private detectives, there are many people who can help turn the tide in a legal case. We can provide professional consultations, jury selection assistance, witness and trial preparation, and more.