CRIMINAL CASE SUMMARIES

• SEXUAL ASSAULT:  A U.S. Air Force Prosecutor contacted us to investigate what the temperatures were in a Wyoming location where the accused threatened his victim saying that he would leave her out in the middle of that remote area if she did not comply with his demands.  On its face, perhaps a frightening and long walk home, however, the temperatures at that location on that date and time were below freezing and would have certainly cause the victim to fear for her life.  Faced with this pertinent information, the accused changed his plea to "guilty" and the case was quickly resolved.
• FRAUD PREVENTION:  A U.S. Air Force Claims Examiner received a Tort Claim from a civilian who lived east of the local military base.  He claimed that his prize-winning stallion had been frightened by low-flying aircraft from the base and it subsequently impaled itself on a fence post and died.  After retrieving weather data for the date, time and location of the incident, it was clear that due to the thunderstorms in the area that day, no aircraft would have been flying and it was determined that the likely cause was thunder and lightning.  His claim was denied.
• WORKER'S COMP:   A claimant was suing his insurance company for reasons undisclosed to us.  The insurance company hired us to find evidence to support their investigation that this claimant, who was currently on leave due to an on-the-job injury, was believed to be committing fraud by requesting reimbursement for payments he allegedly made to his home support person for work that was not accomplished by that worker.  With a year's worth of past weather data, we were able to confirm that some of the payments claimed for reimbursement were indeed fraudulent in that the work being performed (i.e. shoveling of snow during the summer months) was not possible.