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 "botched" ...
-
Maywood Confidential
On the evening of Oct. 23, 2006, as a premature snow fell in parts of the Chicago area, Maywood (Illinois) Police Officer Tom Wood pulled his marked SUV to a dimly lit corner known for drug sales, rolled down his window part of the way and began talking to somebody, likely a person he knew. Within minutes gunfire exploded from the street, ripping through the car and hitting Officer Wood in the head and elsewhere, killing the 37-year-old father of five almost instantly. More than six years later, the murder is still unsolved, and an eerie pall has been cast over the official investigation, and Maywood itself. The nonprofit Better Government Association (BGA) and WFLD-TV/FOX Chicago set out to determine what happened – why Officer Wood was killed and why the official investigation into his death had failed to produce an arrest or criminal charges. In a figurative sense, our findings (which form the basis for our entry) indict not a person, but a culture of corruption and apathy in Maywood that may have contributed to Officer Wood’s death, and certainly played a role in the subsequently botched homicide probe.
Tags: Murder; police officer; corruption; homicide
-
Army slow to act as crime-lab worker falsified, botched tests
The reporters undertook a year-long inquiry into every facet of the often-opaque military justice system. Through more than two dozen stories, the series closely examined military criminal investigations, lab testing, trials, sentences and appeals.
Tags: military justice system; fabricated results; investigation; falsified tests;
-
Who Killed Doc?
KSTP found that "commanders ignored warnings, botched investigations, and failed to protect service members on their own base - where they should have been the safest. As a result, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner says it has changed the way the remains of service members killed worldwide are tracked, to ensure that families of the fallen are notified of changes to their love one's autopsy or cause of death."
Tags: military; military deaths; service members; death examination; military bases
-
Hospital Group
New York's 11 municipal hospitals are ridden with false records created by staff to cover up medical mistakes. In one instance, after gangrene was left untreated on a stroke victim, it became necessary to amputate his leg, yet no report was written. Hundreds of citations and complaints have been filed against the city hospitals, but few disciplinary measures have intervened.
Tags: New York; hospitals; operations; mistakes; botched; reports; false; faked; staff; cover-up;
-
Botched Sting
This story exposed how local Florida police cost a young woman her life by manipulating her into working an undercover sting, then botching the operation. Rachel Hoffman was a typical American college student who was also twice arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Scared and facing jail time, Rachel agreed to be a police informant. Police told here that no charges would be filed, that prosecutors would never know and that they would protect her. Only after her death, and following this investigation, did the police admit that their recruitment of Rachel Hoffman violated their own policies.
Tags: undercover police work; recuritment; police informant; drugs; drug dealers; wrongful death
-
Fatal Flaws
"Nebraska has no state oversight and few standards to ensure quality death investigations by coroners or law enforcement. As part of two-week series, The World-Hearld detailed 15 botched cases that illustrate weaknesses in the system."
Tags: police; investigation; murder; coroner; law enforcement; death-investigation; suicide;
-
Medical Secrets
Dr. Richard Austin is a Toronto-area gynecologist who has gained a reputation for botching surgeries. This story happened when 14 women "claimed they suffered emotional and physical harm after going under his surgical knife." After the initial story was published, more women came forward to tell about how they had also suffered injuries, often to their bowels, during procedures such as hysterectomies.
Tags: Medical malpractice; surgery; surgical injuries; hysterectomy; complications from surgery
-
Writs Gone Wrong
The Austin American-Statesman investigates as writs of habeas corpus are found to have errors when submitted to the court. These writs are essential in death row appeals because they "help ensure that the right person will be executed and that verdicts are obtained in accordance with the U.S. and state constitutions." But the newspaper found that "court appointed lawyers routinely submit shockingly botched writs applications. Some are incomplete, incomprehensible or improperly argued. Others are duplicated, poorly, from previous appeals." Yet, these lawyers are not held accountable for these mistakes.
Tags: Writ of Habeas Corpus; death row appeals; court-appointed lawyers; lazy lawyers; overworked lawyers; case load
-
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is the topic in this book by noted historian Douglas Brinkley. He finds out how and why the evacuation was botched, relief efforts were delayed, and also "incidents of racism and brutality on the part of local police." He also examines how the Coast Guard and local citizens banded together to save people from the flood. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin denied much of the charges in the book, but later acknowledged the truth of them publicly.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina; disaster; flood; racism; national guard; Mayor Ray Nagin; New Orleans; Gretna Bridge Incident; Danny Brumfield; levees; drowning; crisis
-
Bad Deed
This investigation followed a botched land auction by the El Paso Sheriff's Office. The story revealed that the sheriff auctioned off a parcel of land with a deed problem. The buyer lost $20,000 and was not compensated by the government.
Tags: El Paso; real estate; property auction; deeds; sheriff; contest entry