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MYTH BUSTER
Private Investigator Brian McGuinness is on the case, lobbying for his industry, battling
stereotypes and giving private investigators a good name
BY LOANN HALDEN
WHEN MOST PEOPLE think of private investigators, they pluck their
mental images from the Hollywood file: unsmiling men in trench coats lurking
in shadows, willing to do whatever it takes to crack the case and seduce the
leggy blonde client with the questionable past. This, of course, bears no
resemblance to the truth.
In the brightly lit Coral Gables office of PI Brian McGuinness there’s
nary a femme fatale in sight; and sporting a cheery blue shirt, he is
positively anti-noir.
For more than 20 years, the head of McGuinness and Associates has
worked on a dizzying array of criminal and civil cases. His reality involves
large amounts of computer research, and field time is spent winning over
witnesses with his friendly demeanor rather than force.
“Often [our cinematic counterparts] are doing things that are illegal
and it gives us a bad rep,” he says. “We don’t bust in doors; we don’t
trespass. I’m very cognizant of the laws because I’ve visited too many
prisons over the years and I always feel good when I’m going out the door.”
As the past president and current board chair of the National Council
of Investigation and Security Services (NCISS), McGuinness has actively
lobbied on the state and federal level to curb misconceptions about his
profession and amend legislation that negatively impacts investigators.
Just like the general public, McGuinness says, the perception held by
many congressmen and state legislators is colored by television and movies.
“We’re constantly going to Congress and saying: ‘We understand your zeal to
pass privacy legislation … but you have to give up a little privacy for the
common good.’” He cites the example of his efforts to locate the witness to
a car accident that ended the major-league dreams of an aspiring baseball
player. He got the witness’ social security number and then found him
through a legal database search.
“Had that been your brother or son, wouldn’t you want somebody like me
out there trying to find that witness? That witness was key to assigning
liability in the accident, and ultimately this baseball player received a
pretty nice financial settlement.”
His advocacy has not gone unnoticed. In October 2005, McGuinness
received the Investigator of the Year Award from the Florida Board of
Certified Investigators. Four months later, NCISS presented him with its
prestigious “Duffy,” an award named after the group’s first president, which
recognizes an individual or entity whose leadership has brought credit to
the profession.
Eddy McClain, a past Duffy winner, calls McGuinness “a class act.”
Asked about his colleague’s credibility, McClain once said: “If McGuinness
tells you the sun won’t come up tomorrow, you better buy some candles.”
But don’t think for a minute that high standards equal a dull career.
McGuinness has more than his share of war stories to tell. He was one of two
lead investigators for the defense in the U.S. vs. Eric Rudolph case,
locating witnesses and reviewing evidence surrounding the bombings of
abortion clinics in Birmingham, Ala., and at the Atlanta Olympics. In
Operation Courtbroom, the nation’s largest judicial corruption case, he was
the defense investigator for a sitting circuit court judge; and he handled
the Florida investigation for the defense in Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault
case. McGuinness recently worked with Miami attorney Edward Carhart on the
defense of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor on aggravated assault
charges.
“One day I might get hired to find an heir and the next day I might
get hired to defend somebody on a marijuana trafficking case and end up
going to Belize to find a government witness,” he says. “That’s what I like
about the profession. I feel sorry for the investigators that just do one
thing.”
His resume also includes personal injury investigations, product
liability cases and securities fraud. Then there was the case of an importer
who relied on a “Who’s Who In Poultry” guide to find a chicken dealer for a
client who forked over more than $150,000 and never received a single frozen
bird. McGuinness quickly unearthed the company’s shady record. This, he
points out, is why companies should use an investigator for background
checks in advance of large financial transactions. “A good barometer of
somebody you don’t want to do business with is somebody who’s been a
defendant in a lot of fraud contract cases,” he says with a grin.
This year, the Miami PI expanded his reach even further when he became
one of a few investigators in the country licensed through the U.S. Treasury
Department to conduct investigations in Cuba. When a genealogical firm
contacted him about finding a Cuban national who was heir to a Maryland
estate, he earned the accreditation, traveled to the island and found his
man.
This self-proclaimed people-person loves his time in the field. Unlike
many investigators who are former police officers, McGuinness earned a
psychology degree from the University of Connecticut. He made Miami his home
when his car broke down here on a visit, and started his professional career
as a rehabilitation counselor for the state. He spent seven years as a
criminal defense investigator for the Miami-Dade County Public Defenders
Office before heading out on his own.
The counseling background has served him well. “I always say finding
the witness is the easy part; it’s getting them to become involved to the
point that they’ll be a witness for your part of the case that’s hard,” he
says. “That’s where good people skills come in.”
Creativity also comes in handy. Like the time that McGuinness went to
the Bahamian home of a witness he needed in a smuggling case, but couldn’t
get anyone to answer at the front gate. Undaunted, he rented a windsurfer,
cruised over to the house via sea and told the witness’ mother that he was
“a friend of a friend.”
“I was probably within five years of the age of her son so she didn’t
think it was anything out of the ordinary – some guy windsurfing by, ‘Hey,
where’s Jeremy?’ I wasn’t able to interview the witness but I got a
reasonable assurance he was out of the country.”
Perhaps Hollywood should knock on McGuinness’ door. From AWOL poultry
to undercover windsurfing, his adventures contain more entertainment value
than most of their fictional detective tales – and all of his stories are
true.
