Attack of the SaucerMan
My regular readers should be familiar with the history of Private Investigator Edward Saucerman. For new readers, check out the following prior blog entries I’ve done for context:
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2011/02/14/not-just-my-opinion/
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2011/02/14/continuing-saga-of-the-saucer-man/
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2011/02/12/update-on-the-saucer-man/
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2011/01/28/how-does-doj-select-vendors/
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2011/01/25/people-who-live-in-glass-houses/
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2010/10/08/play-nice-or-get-out-of-the-sandbox/
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2010/09/23/white-flag-of-surrender/
http://janbtucker.com/blog/2010/08/24/nciss-vs-ispla-iii/
Edward Saucerman
Well, what prompts this blog entry is that the Hesperia Unified School District recently hired Ed Saucerman to do an investigation of a dispute between the Superintendent of the District and the Chief of the HUSD Police Department. Here’s the context as reported by the local newspapers:
http://www.hesperiastar.com/news/investigator-4211-private-stand.html
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/mckinney-28588-investigator-charges.html
http://www.hesperiastar.com/news/highlights-4212-husd-police.html
What is remarkable about these stories is that in addition to “investigating” the dispute, it seems that Ed Saucerman “sustained” the allegations of misconduct!
This will not be lost upon my private investigator colleagues. We are hired to investigate, not to judge. This is remarkably similar to what happened in a case investigated by my friend and colleague Tony Perrin some years back, where he exposed the incompetence of an unlicensed human resources consultant that unlawfully conducted a personnel investigation for the University of California against a gay professor and got him fired based upon her purported “findings of fact” that she wrote up in her so-called investigative report. While it’s similar, what Saucerman has done is different because making a judgment call of “sustained” is akin to making a legal judgment call, something that is the prerogative of a finder of law, like a Skelly hearing officer, an attorney, a school board, or a judge.
That’s not what private investigators are hired or licensed for.
