Process Server On Trial for Allegedly Impersonating Cop

A Madison County judge is deciding whether a private detective went too far by identifying himself as a police detective.

Circuit Judge Richard Tognarelli heard the last testimony and closing arguments today of a bench trial for 27-year-old Dustin Dahmer. He is accused of identifying himself as a police detective while he was working for Kelllerman Investigations in Glen Carbon, a private detective agency that also serves court summonses on people.

Dahmer, of Bunker Hill, is accused of identifying himself as a Madison County sheriff's detective in May 2007: once by phone to a Godfrey woman and once in person to a man at his South Roxana home. Both times, Dahmer was trying to find someone who was to be served with court papers.

Read more at bnd.com.

Union County State's Attorney Passes Polygraph Over Process Server

Union County State's Attorney Allen W. James said the truth is in the test, and that he passed it twice.

James said he recently took two voluntary polygraph tests in an effort to prove his innocence against allegations that he knowingly pointed a .380 semi-automatic handgun at a man attempting to serve him with a federal subpoena earlier this year.

Christopher Dees, an investigator working for a private company, contends he was attempting to serve James with a subpoena regarding a lawsuit filed by a former state's attorney's office employee the morning of March 19. As Dees approached James, in the parking lot of the Union County Courthouse, James allegedly pulled the gun and pointed it at him, Dees contends.

Dees filed his complaint with the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) on Sept. 9.

James said he doesn't deny carrying the concealed weapon or pointing it at the private investigator, however, he denies having prior knowledge of who Dees was or why he was approaching.

The polygraph test was conducted by Dennis Smith of Herrin, who recently retired from the Illinois State Police.

"He is the person we would send people to and we trusted him," James said. "So, if we trusted him from the prosecutor's standpoint then I might as well trust him from the other side, as well."

Excel Investigations Saves Default Law Firms Time & Manpower

Tinley Park, Illinois-based Excel Investigations—a company specializing in process serving, skip tracing, foreclosures and subrogation—is helping one Illinois County Courthouse save time and manpower by successfully implementing a procedure designed “to simplify service of process”—a concept better known as “Standing Orders.”

The model, which approves certain vendors to function as process servers at the courthouse, essentially streamlines and expedites the foreclosure process for courts and law firms by eliminating the need for an appointment motion to be made on every single case.