Private Investigators

Mississippi State football coach Jackie Sherrill paid private investigators as much as $10,000 to help Derrick Taite fight rape charges in 1993, the former quarterback's mother says in court documents. The charges stemmed from an on-campus incident in November 1993 that resulted in a Mississippi State student filing charges against Taite and three other players. A grand jury heard the case but never issued an indictment. Documents obtained by the Mississippi Press show that Sherrill paid $10,000 to private investigators to help Taite defend himself after he was charged with attempted rape.

Twenty-two months after they were snatched from their multimillionaire Main Line dad, wide-eyed Sarah Lynn Shah and little Genevieve Marie Shah are back home, safe and sound. But it wasn't one of 135 bounty hunters anxious to cash in on banking magnate Bipin Shah's $2 million reward who made the discovery - it was the desperate father himself. In a dramatic climax to the long global search, the Rosemont man's private investigators reportedly found the missing children in Lucerne, Switzerland, last Saturday, and returned them home.

The plot might sound like something from America's Most Wanted, but the details seem more suitable for America's Funniest Home Videos. State House officials are looking for a former employee who owes them money, but so far they've spent almost as much money as he owes the state on lawyers and private investigators trying to track him down. The House has sued the ex-employee, Joseph V. Soriano, to recover $5,552 - the amount in salary and benefits the House mistakenly paid him in 1988 after he walked off the job. Since last year, the House has spent more than $5,200 looking for Soriano, who is the nephew of former State Rep. Matthew J. Cianciulli of South Philadelphia.

The family of Janice Bell said it plans to take back a $100,000 reward it has offered for information about her unsolved murder. The family said it would rather use the money to try to find the killer itself. The money has been in an account since it was offered last April to help solve the December 1995 stabbing death. The Bell family said yesterday that, since the Camden County Prosecutor's Office's investigation has produced no arrests, it will discontinue the offer on April 4 and use the money to hire private investigators and lawyers.

The privacy of 200 million Americans with records at the Social Security Administration is threatened by an illegal trade in pilfered computer files, administration officials said yesterday. "Computerization has dramatically improved our ability to serve the public," Louis Enoff, Social Security deputy commissioner, told the Senate Finance subcommittee on Social Security. "However, it has also made confidentiality more difficult. " In one case of alleged data theft, two executives of Nationwide Electronic Tracking (NET)

Generally speaking, the public image of private investigators is a little on the gamy side. "People think we're a bunch of ex-police officers," said Kitty Robinson, an investigator from Haddonfield, "with a brush cut, a pot belly, a double- knit polyester suit with the two rows of white stripes in a green background, and chafe marks under the left arm to show people we've been wearing a gun. " This isn't the image that private investigators wish...

Undercover police officers unsuccessfully attempted to buy drugs from employees at Abington Memorial Hospital who were suspected of dealing cocaine and marijuana, Abington Police Chief William Kelly said Tuesday. Hospital officials, however, said private investigators hired by the hospital were able to gather sufficient evidence to justify firing 12 employees for alleged possession, use and sale of cocaine and marijuana at the hospital. The employees - workers in the hospital's housekeeping and maintenance departments and a hospital clinic - were fired either last week or Monday, hospital officials said Tuesday.

New Jersey U.S. Senate candidate Jon S. Corzine has paid his personal attorney $200,000 for campaign activities that included using private detectives to investigate former Gov. Jim Florio, Corzine's Democratic opponent. In federal election filings last week, Corzine reported two $100,000 payments, one in April and one this month, to the New York law firm of Stanley S. Arkin for "legal services. " Arkin said part of the money was channeled through him to a New York investigative agency, the Mintz Group, which helped conduct an inquiry this year that included questioning people who worked for Florio in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Governor's Office.

Edward P. Quinn Jr., P.I., really wanted to nail the couch potato. But after a couple of days of surveillance during last summer's Olympics, it became clear that the subject - a sports fan whom an insurance company suspected of falsely claiming he had been injured on the job, then applying for workers' compensation - wasn't coming to Quinn. So Quinn, a Havertown private detective, decided to go to him. He bought two cases of beer, knocked on the man's door, told him he was conducting a marketing survey and placed the two cases of beer at the bottom of the steps.

What began as a cyber-prank involving stolen computer files and an apparent vendetta has snowballed into a massive industrial espionage scandal affecting 50 of Israel's top companies and casting doubt on a recent deal to privatize Israel's national telephone company. The investigation, dubbed "Trojan Horse" for the type of surveillance software secretly implanted in scores of computers, has so far resulted in at least a dozen arrests. The inquiry has implicated corporate CEOs, private investigators who moonlighted as "information brokers," and the alleged writer of the illicit software, an Israeli expatriate living in England who was jailed there this month pending possible extradition.

Despite support from two lawmakers, an ousted Lower Merion Township deputy constable hit a hurdle yesterday in his attempt to obtain a private investigator's license. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman filed a petition naming Steven David Sokoloff, 57, of Ardmore, as a person who "lacks the good character, integrity, honesty and competence required for a private investigator license. " Sokoloff's attorney, Mark S. Pearlstein, said his client is being unfairly targeted.

The parents of John Fiocco Jr., a freshman at the College of New Jersey whose mangled body was found last month in a Bucks County landfill, have hired a high-profile lawyer, a private investigator, and a world-renowned forensic pathologist to explore whether foul play was involved with the death of their son. New Jersey state troopers found the body of Fiocco, 19, on April 25, but authorities have not said how he died or whether they considered his...

What began as a cyber-prank involving stolen computer files and an apparent vendetta has snowballed into a massive industrial espionage scandal affecting 50 of Israel's top companies and casting doubt on a recent deal to privatize Israel's national telephone company. The investigation, dubbed "Trojan Horse" for the type of surveillance software secretly implanted in scores of computers, has so far resulted in at least a dozen arrests. The inquiry has implicated corporate CEOs, private investigators who moonlighted as "information brokers," and the alleged writer of the illicit software, an Israeli expatriate living in England who was jailed there this month pending possible extradition.

New Jersey has revoked the private detective's license of Len Jenoff, who told authorities that he and an accomplice killed Carol Neulander at the bidding of her husband, Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, in November 1994. State police took the action on May 8, one week after Jenoff was charged with murder and conspiracy after confessing his involvement in the Cherry Hill crime. In a letter to Jenoff that was made public yesterday, the department said it had revoked his license because he had demonstrated "bad moral character" and proved himself "untrustworthy.

New Jersey U.S. Senate candidate Jon S. Corzine has paid his personal attorney $200,000 for campaign activities that included using private detectives to investigate former Gov. Jim Florio, Corzine's Democratic opponent. In federal election filings last week, Corzine reported two $100,000 payments, one in April and one this month, to the New York law firm of Stanley S. Arkin for "legal services. " Arkin said part of the money was channeled through him to a New York investigative agency, the Mintz Group, which helped conduct an inquiry this year that included questioning people who worked for Florio in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Governor's Office.

Twenty-two months after they were snatched from their multimillionaire Main Line dad, wide-eyed Sarah Lynn Shah and little Genevieve Marie Shah are back home, safe and sound. But it wasn't one of 135 bounty hunters anxious to cash in on banking magnate Bipin Shah's $2 million reward who made the discovery - it was the desperate father himself. In a dramatic climax to the long global search, the Rosemont man's private investigators reportedly found the missing children in Lucerne, Switzerland, last Saturday, and returned them home.

Mississippi State football coach Jackie Sherrill paid private investigators as much as $10,000 to help Derrick Taite fight rape charges in 1993, the former quarterback's mother says in court documents. The charges stemmed from an on-campus incident in November 1993 that resulted in a Mississippi State student filing charges against Taite and three other players. A grand jury heard the case but never issued an indictment. Documents obtained by the Mississippi Press show that Sherrill paid $10,000 to private investigators to help Taite defend himself after he was charged with attempted rape.

It was a muggy morning in the suburbs when she drove past in a Toyota Tercel. Private investigator Howard Krivy eyed the suspect. He focused his high-powered surveillance equipment - his Panasonic hand-held video camera - on the car's license plate. He captured the image for later use, cracking the case. Within a few seconds he focused on another suspect: a Nissan truck, then a Ford Mustang - car after car whizzed by carrying commuters headed to work in Philadelphia or one of South Jersey's corporate campuses near Routes 73, 38 and 70. Those corporate campuses, and housing developments, have filled Route 73 with more traffic than it can handle - and turned some parking lots into thoroughfares.

The family of Janice Bell said it plans to take back a $100,000 reward it has offered for information about her unsolved murder. The family said it would rather use the money to try to find the killer itself. The money has been in an account since it was offered last April to help solve the December 1995 stabbing death. The Bell family said yesterday that, since the Camden County Prosecutor's Office's investigation has produced no arrests, it will discontinue the offer on April 4 and use the money to hire private investigators and lawyers.

Two Philadelphia cousins have been charged in the bludgeoning and stabbing death of a Trevose private investigator that authorities said apparently resulted from the victim's making an unwanted sexual pass at one of the suspects. David Alan Elliott, 23, of Bustleton, and Scott Alan Stocklin, 24, of West Kensington, were arrested early yesterday in the slaying of James R. Rebuck, 55, whose body was found lying on a blood-soaked couch in his Chestnut Avenue home early Friday evening by a nephew.