Print the value of index0
Jennings Smith Investigations, Inc. Mr. William Smith Neglect, incompetence and financial abuse Internet
I am writing this letter to file a complaint against Mr. William Smith, a licensed private investigator (CSP # A-124 -AA-124) and CEO of Jennings Smith Investigations, Inc., in Canton, Connecticut.
First, I would like to share a sad story. My daughter was involved in a serious single-car accident as she was leaving the parking lot of a private school in New Haven where she was a student in her senior year. Her car was parked in the school parking lot for about five hours before she entered it and drove 0.38 miles outside of the school and crashed suddenly.
Given the sudden and inexplicable nature of the accident, and the sensitive time frame, I hired a professional Accident Reconstructionist, Mr. Peter Plante, to investigate the crash. The fact is, when the crash occurred it was during the college application and college swimming recruiting process, and the accident happened just two hours after I met the school’s official and filed a complaint against two adults: the school’s swim coach, and the mother of a swimming rival, who were both harassing my daughter. The harassment was trigged by my daughter’s swimming recruitment application to a college.
Mr. Plante’s reconstruction report indicated that someone had slashed the tire of my daughter’s car and that this had caused her accident: “The right front tire on Vehicle #1 was cut. The cut occurred pre-collision and was not the result of the collision process. While the exact instrument utilized to cause the cut is unknown, the cut is consistent with having been produced by a knife or similarly sharp and pointed object.” “The sudden deflation of the right front tire of Vehicle #1 caused the vehicle to enter a clockwise rotation. Operator #1 did not have sufficient time to react to the vehicle’s sudden rotation. Tire failure was the major factor that contributed to the occurrence of this collision.”
My daughter was an excellent high school student, the National Merit Scholar Finalist, National AP Scholar with Distinction, an award-winning pianist, award-winning artist, and a dedicated volunteer, as well as a great athlete. She was the Western New England Prep School backstroke champion, and Connecticut’s Top 16 swimmer’s award winner. The accident caused permanent damage to her back, ending her swimming career and shattering her athletic dreams. It also gave her chronic pains to suffer for the rest of her life, and traumatic brain injury which has left her with impaired academic ability, which jeopardizes her future. She is destroyed both physically and psychologically.
The New Haven Police Department opened its criminal investigation and abruptly closed it after the assigned officer only interviewed one person on school campus: the director of the college counseling office. No one else was interviewed, including the victim. Sadly, this crime still remains unsolved as of today.
After received Mr. Plante’s Accident Reconstruction Report, Private Investigator Smith was retained by my family from March 13, 2009 to September 17, 2009 to independently investigate my daughter’s motor vehicle crash and solve the crime that was obviously committed. However, for reasons unknown, Mr. Smith failed to provide evidence of his investigative activities, and never issued a verbal or written report regarding the crash to us the victim’s family. However, he had many contacts with the New Haven police department, and provided his verbal report regarding my daughter’s car accident to the police without the victim and her family’s permission and knowledge. This information was revealed by the Connecticut State Office of Victim Advocate. In addition, unexplainably, the New Haven Police Department notified Mr. Smith, the victim’s private investigator, instead of the victim and the victim’s family, that they closed my daughter’s case.
The following are details of Jennings Smith Investigations, Inc.’s (JSI) work and involvement concerning my daughter’s automobile crash and the crime committed against her, and my dealings with JSI:
1. Contract: On March 13, 2009, I signed a contract with Jennings Smith Investigations, Inc. and hired them to independently investigate the crime that caused my daughter’s motor vehicle crash. JSI was retained from 03/13/2009 to 09/17/2009.
2. Payments: From March 18, 2009 to July 8, 2009, Jennings Smith Investigations, Inc. made five transactions though my credit card and charged me a fee totaling $13,550.00, but never issued or provided any receipts. On May 18, 2010, nearly a year later, JSI stated that they made only four such transactions which totaled $10,550.00; but again did not provide any records.
3. One delayed interview report: On June 25, 2009, Mr. Smith interviewed a former student who graduated three years prior to my daughter and was not even a witness to her car crash. On November 15, 2009, after five months my waiting for his report, Mr. Smith finally released the interview report. It contains 15 questions and answers which total a mere 1018 words.
4. JSI’s Bill Statement: On May 18, 2010, fourteen months after our contract was signed and eight months after our contract ended, JSI finally issued a Bill Statement, which listed all of JSI’s investigational activities: 103 telephone consultations, 31 investigation tasks and charges for other things; but did not provide any names, phone numbers, places, findings, or reports.
5. Additional payment request from JSI: On July 12, 2010, JSI issued an additional invoice for $10,535.52 to me and the victim’s family, which I refused to pay since JSI failed to provide any records and reports for my previous payments of $13,550.
6. Two failed deadlines for providing records/reports: I had been constantly requested JSI to provide me all their detailed investigative records, my payment receipts, and their written reports from 03/18/2009 to 07/08/2009. This entire period of service I paid JSI for, in the amount of $13,550.00. However, JSI failed to meet the 09/11/2010 deadline, so I set up a second deadline for 09/17/2010. I informed JSI that no documents would be accepted after 09/17/2010. But JSI also missed this deadline. 7. No existing reports: On September 16, 2010, in an email to me, Mr. Smith stated, “I am writing the report today and tomorrow. While I appreciate your offer to pay for the Fedex charges, I want to know what guarantees I will have that you will pay our fee for services and expenses in connection with our Investigation as well as my time for writing the report and having same bound and forwarded?” Clearly there was no existing report prior to September 16, 2010 for the contracted service from 03/13/2009 to 09/17/2009.
8. Refund notices from the victim’s family: On September 17, 2010, exactly one year after my contract with JSI ended, I still did not receive any investigational records, receipts, or verbal/ written reports regarding my daughter’s car accident. I sent a notice to JSI for a refund. Also, on September 24, 2010, I sent a second notice to JSI for a refund. Both notices had been ignored. 9. 30-Day Demand Letter from JSI’s attorney: On February 8, 2011, I received a 30-Day Demand Letter from JSI’s attorney Richard Mahoney at Kenny, Brimmer & Mahoney, L.L.C. In the letter I was informed to pay “$9,525.14, plus interest and attorney’s fees since May of 2010, pursuant to a contract for services executed by you with our client on March 13, 2009.”
Conclusions:
I retained JSI to investigate a crime which destroyed my teenage daughter’s life. For their six months of contracted services from 03/13/2009 to 09/17/2009 I paid JSI $13,550.00, and was issued an additional invoice for $10,535.52 on July 12, 2010; the amount of $9,525.14 was collected by JSI’s attorney on February 8, 2011. However, nearly two years later, all I have in my hands from JSI for $13,550.00 in fees I paid them, is a simple interview report consisting of only 1018 words!
There are many unsolved mysteries to my daughter’s accident, and many questions that still need to be answered. The injustice and mistreatment I have received from the New Haven Police Department, the neglect and incompetence and financial abuse I have received from Jennings Smith Investigations, Inc., show corruption and a miscarriage of justice of the highest order. Thus it should be known that my family and I are not only seeking remuneration for economic damages against us, which is almost inestimable, but we demand justice for my daughter and in this case. And if we have to go all the way to the United States Supreme Court, we will, to find it!