Resource Center

Stories

The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast.

These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need.

Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:



Search results for "beating" ...

  • Voter Patrol

    The NEWS4 I-Team dug through more than 600 phone and email tips to break three major election stories before, during and immediately after the presidential election. About two weeks before the election, we asked viewers to tell us when they saw problems when they voted. The response was immediate. Our two-man team went through every tip and beat out the AP, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other local stations on the biggest election stories in our area. Our first story revealed absentee ballots sent out in Maryland were missing their second page, which contained the most contested ballot initiatives including legalized gambling, same-sex marriage and the DREAM Act. This story was picked up across the nation and led to statements made by the Maryland Governor and the various interest groups involved in the ballot issues.

    Tags: Elections; presidential elections; votes; presidential reporting; ballot issues

    By Tisha Thompson; Rick Yarborough

    WRC-TV (Washington, D.C.)

    2012

  • Deaf and Tased

    A deaf crime victim calls police for help, but instead gets tased, beat-up, and thrown in jail for 60 hours over Easter weekend without access to an interpreter. KIRO 7’s investigative team proves police manipulated their reports to defend their actions. We also uncovered jail guards offered the deaf inmate a broken TTY phone as her only means of communication. We found that device still broken and in service two months later.

    Tags: crime; police; jail; broadcast

    By Chris Halsne, Investigative Reporter; Brian Doerflinger, Investigative Videographer/Editor; Katie Doptis, Investigative Producer

    KIRO-TV (Seattle)

    2012

  • Sun Sentinel: Speeding Cops

    A Miami cop in his marked patrol car set off a public fury in the fall of 2011 when a Florida state trooper clocked him going 120 mph to an off-duty job. Turning to technology and a never-before used tool – highway toll records – the Sun Sentinel produced back-to-back investigations documenting widespread police misconduct and the professional solidarity that allowed it to flourish. In "Above the Law," a three-part series published in February, reporters used police toll records to confirm what many South Florida drivers had witnessed for years: cops were among the worst speeders on the roads, taking advantage of the badge and patrol car to ignore the very laws they enforce. "Short Shifted," a two-part series published in December, used those same toll records to detail how many South Florida cops, paid to serve and protect, were regularly leaving their beats and cities before their shifts ended.

    Tags: Police; police speeders

    By Sally Kestin; John Maines

    Sun-Sentinel

    2012

  • National Security and Terrorism Beat

    The Brian Ross Investigative Unit looked at various national security issues including the Seattle Bomb Plot, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the war in Libya, the killing of Anwar al Awlaki and the killing of a Saudi ambassador to the U.S. that was thought to have been sought by the Iranian government.

    Tags: broadcast; terrorism; Seattle Bomb Plot; Osama bin Laden; Libya; Anwar al Awlaki; national security

    By Brian Ross; Avni Patel; Matthew Cole; Angela Hill; Randy Kreider; Rhonda Schwartz; Mark Schone; Lee Ferran; James Goldston; Michael Corn

    ABC News

    2011

  • Fallen Angel: Joe Gustafson lives above the law in North Minneapolis

    Using public documents, confidential sources and internal information from law enforcement, the reporter told the secret history of one of North Minneapolis' organized crime rings.

    Tags: Hell's Angel; bondsman; Big Joe; Little Joe; Beat-Down Posse; kidnapping; drug ring

    By Erin Carlyle

    Village Voice (New York)

    2010

  • Judge Darrell Russell, Jr.

    The reporter uncovered a decision by a Baltimore County judge to marry a man accused of beating his fiance.

    Tags: Judge Darrell Russell, Jr.; judge; court; decision; physical abuse

    By Jayne Miller

    WBAL-TV (Baltimore)

    2010

  • Victims of Silence

    The story reviews dating violence in Florida, as well as the beating of Rihanna by boyfriend Chris Brown. This revealed a number of issues, including “lack of prevention programs, the impact this news had, and that dating violence is under the domestic violence law only to ask for injunction and protection orders”. Further, dating violence isn’t considered a crime and many times is underreported after a physical attack.

    Tags: abuse; relationships; physical; police reports; law enforcement; beating; Council and National Crime Forum; emotional violence; sexual violence; law

    By Ada Alvarez

    n/a

    2009

  • I Lit the Fire: Jared Petrovich Admits His Role in the Killing of John Chamberlain. But why did he target the gay?

    These four articles probed the culture of violence at tTheo Lacy Men's Jail in Orange, CA, beginning with an exclusive interview of Jared Petrovich, the accuse ringleader of the Oct. 5, 2006 murder of John Chamberlain, an inmate suspected of child molestation who was brutally beated inside the jail. That story included combined interviews with Petrovich and other inmates and guards at the facility with transcripts and notes of interviews with inmates and guards that the reporter obtained from lawyers representing inmates, including Petrovich, who were charged in the attack. The article contained allegations that Deputy Kevin Taylor, a prison guard who was never charged in the crime, told Petrovich that Chamberlain was a child molester, and that Taylor routinely use inmates like Petrovich to enforce prison rules and mete out punishment to various inmates. Petrovich provided an example of this behavior that I did not include in my original story, alleging that Taylor had known about--and approved--a previous beating of an inmate in Sept. 2006. He only knew the inmate's first name--Mark--but claimed the inmate had been a guitarist for the rock band Kiss. He claimed another inmate, nicknamed "Sick Dog" had witnessed Taylor being informed of the planned attack and, after it was carried out, rewarding the inmates with sack lunches. Through a California Public Records Act request, the reporter obtained the Sheriff Department's jail file on the beaten inmate, Mark Leslie Norton, aka Mark St. John of the rock band Kiss, and found information which corroborated Petrovich's account of the incident, and obtained his death certificate. St. John died of a brain hemorrhage several months after being released.

    Tags: prison beatings; rock band Kiss; California; prisoner brutality; bribe; prison regulation

    By Nick Schou

    OC Weekly (Orange County, CA)

    2008

  • To Protect and Massage

    WXYZ-TV found that Detroit Police Sergeant was going to massage school while she was supposed to be on her beat.

    Tags: police department; police; massage school; tax dollar; city government; hidden government

    By Heather Catallo; Ann Mullen; Ramon Rosario; Randy Lundquist

    WXYZ-TV (Southfield, Mich.)

    2007

  • Police Beatings Caught on Tape: the Pictures that Chaged the Chicago Police Department

    FOX News Chicago discovered footage of an off duty officer beating a female bartender. They then "investigated the circumstances of the beating, the apparent lack of an appropriate police department response both at the time and during the investigation of the officer, and how other city employees may have tried to cover up the incident."

    Tags: police department; internal investigation; beating; assault; police officer; Chicago Police Department; police beating

    By Diane Carbonara; Craig Wall; Edward Bartlett; Nathan Halder; Andrew Finlayson; Larry Yellen; Dane Placko; Mark Suppelsa; Marsha Bartel; Jack Conaty

    WFLD-TV (Chicago)

    2007