January 2024 marked the start of our 35th year in business. A week does not go by without us achieving success for our clients—whether it’s helping them with wayward spouses, uncovering employee theft, locating and serving individuals, assisting in criminal defense, or providing foundational evidence for civil lawsuits seeking restitution for serious injuries and deaths.

We stopped doing newsletters in 2018 because we became too busy. Recently, our website director suggested we resume documenting our successes, so people seeking help would realize we have a team ready to assist them. Even during the five years we didn’t publish updates, we continued to achieve major successes.

Our team has grown, and I’m proud to say I have the best group of investigators my company has ever had:

• Criminal Division: Eight retired law enforcement detectives with a combined experience of over 154 years, providing premier criminal defense.
• Surveillance Division: Two women and four men, with over 50 years of experience handling infidelity cases, corporate theft, fraud, and insurance matters—capturing detailed video to strengthen legal positions.
• Background Division: Led by expert Polly Korzekwa, who specializes in uncovering every detail about individuals.
• Civil Division: Six skilled investigators focusing on gathering facts for litigation involving death and injury claims.
• Administration: Headed by Yesica Ramirez, ensuring smooth communication and case management.

After 16 years, we moved to a new office, improving our operations. Additionally, in 2023, we launched an intern program, resulting in two investigators graduating from college and joining our team.

While it’s impossible to document all of our achievements over the past five years, this newsletter will highlight some recent successes. We plan to release updates every six months.

Internship Program Graduates

Kristen Potts Kristen Potts, originally from Baytown, Texas, graduated from Ross S. Sterling High School. She actively participated in the Explorer Program, working with the Baytown Police Department to learn patrol incident response, search techniques, interviewing, and report writing.

After earning a spot on the Dean’s List multiple times, she graduated in May 2024 from Sam Houston State University with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Kristen interned with our firm in Summer 2023 and became highly skilled at interviewing both cooperative and reluctant individuals, documenting her findings meticulously. She will now work full-time with aspirations to own and run her own investigative agency.

Carina Garcia Carina Garcia, from the Houston area, graduated from Lamar High School in 2020. She earned three degrees from Pennsylvania State University in May 2024, majoring in Criminal Justice (graduating Cum Laude with a 3.9 GPA) and minoring in Sociology and Psychology (both Cum Laude).

Carina joined our internship program in February 2024, following her participation in a three-summer ride-along translator program with HPD Patrol Units. She plans to pursue her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree and later become an attorney, with aspirations of joining the FBI as an agent. In her short time at Gradoni & Associates, she has excelled in interviews, research, and writing accurate reports.

Criminal Defense Success

Paul Morgan
In late 2023, we assisted attorney Paul Morgan in securing two Not Guilty verdicts in murder cases. In both instances, the Defendant and Victim were armed. Witness testimonies we obtained convinced the jury that the Defendants acted in self-defense, leading to their acquittals.

Chase Clayton
We supported attorney Chase Clayton in Brazoria County, Texas, in achieving a hung jury on a murder case. Our investigation uncovered testimony from a victim’s relative who believed the Defendant acted in self-defense.

Mary Conn
Attorney Mary Conn defended an individual accused of Capital Murder in a drug-related incident. The case was complicated by social media postings from the victim’s mother, which muddied witness identifications. Our interviews revealed inconsistent testimonies from witnesses with lengthy criminal histories. As a result, the jury could not return a guilty verdict, leading to a hung jury.

Brad Loper
Attorney Brad Loper represented a client charged with a fatal stabbing in the street. Our investigation uncovered that the suspect had only been identified by a nickname—common in the area. The sole witness had multiple conflicting accounts of events. Attorney Loper convinced the District Attorney that the wrong person had been charged, leading to the case being dismissed.

Octavio Bujosa
Attorney Bujosa represented a male accused by the mother of his child of sexual assault when he visited her residence after their separation. Our investigation revealed that the woman was upset because the defendant arrived in his new girlfriend’s car. After two extensive interviews, she admitted to drinking heavily before the defendant arrived and confirmed that the sexual encounter was consensual. In an affidavit, she stated that she called the police only in hopes of having the defendant deported.

Mary Conn
Attorney Mary Conn represented a male accused by a female roommate of sexual assault. The defendant and his cousin had been allowing the woman to stay in their efficiency apartment since they knew her from Cuba and she had no place to stay. The accuser initially told the prosecutor and our investigator that she had never had sex with the defendant. However, the roommate later stated they had sex frequently, which made him uncomfortable enough to move out. The case was dismissed before going to trial.

Allan Cease
Attorney Allan Cease defended a client charged with sexual assault after a date with the complainant. Our investigation found that the complainant and defendant had returned to the defendant’s apartment with another couple, who were present during the alleged incident. Investigator Kucifer obtained affidavits from these witnesses confirming that the encounter was consensual, leading to a No Bill from the Grand Jury.

Jimmy Ortiz
Attorney Jimmy Ortiz represented a young man accused of stealing a vehicle at gunpoint from a resident at his apartment complex. The stolen vehicle was later allegedly used in an aggravated robbery. Our investigation revealed that the defendant did not know how to drive and had a solid alibi for the time of the theft, resulting in the case being dismissed.

Corporate Success

Deposit Thefts
A merchant with two Houston locations suspected his area manager of stealing cash from daily deposits. An internal audit identified over $40,000 in missing cash. Investigators interviewed employees who confirmed the merchant’s suspicions, detailing how the manager controlled deposits and records. Investigator Gradoni confronted the manager with witness statements, leading to a confession. A full report and the confession were provided to the Houston Police Department for legal action.

Contract Employee Issues
An international firm contacted us regarding issues with contract workers supplied by a local company. During our investigation, we found missing inventory and discovered that one laborer had been submitting forged doctor’s notes to avoid work. Background checks conducted by expert Polly Korzekwa revealed that many of the workers had extensive criminal histories involving drugs, theft, and assault, with over half having served prison time. The supplier had failed to vet the workers before assigning them to our client. The firm dismissed the involved laborers and hired a new company. We continue investigations to identify individuals responsible for ongoing thefts.

Laptop Recovery
An Ohio-based corporation lost contact with a remote employee in Houston. One of his phone numbers was active, but his whereabouts were unknown. The client was concerned about a company laptop in his possession, which contained highly confidential information. Through extensive research and social media searches, our investigators located the individual and recovered the laptop.

Civil Plaintiff Issues
Our Client, a physician, had dissolved his partnership with two other physicians. As part of the corporate dissolutions, it was agreed that the remaining three partners would provide any one calling for our Client, to be informed he was no longer with their office and provide his new contact information.

Investigator Haywood made three blind phone calls to the former doctor’s office asking to make an appointment with our Client. Each and every time she called no information was provided about his new location and the caller was recruited to set up an appointment for treatment with their office, in violation of  dissolution agreement.

Missing Son
Our firm was contacted by a concerned mother in Kentucky who had not heard from her son in months and was really concerned about his well being. The only information mom had about her son was his last known employment location.

Investigator Haywood hit the streets and found out from the former job that he left suddenly three months prior. Leads that she developed sent her to a gas station where she learned the son had been recently seen leaving the area with a backpack and bicycle. Haywood was given the impression that he was now homeless.

Investigator Haywood continued to canvass the area and located a female who had contact with our missing son that promised to inform him that his mother was concerned about his health and safety.

Our client soon after called us and informed us that her son had called and although he did not want to communicate with her he assured her he was safe.

Degree Verification
Our client was interested in investing with a company whose website indicated that the Chief Financial Officer had a PHD and was a Certified Financial Analyst. The client requested that Investigators determine if the information posted in the website was accurate, before she invested her money.

Investigators conducted a detailed investigation and learned that the information posted on the website was not truthful causing the client to not become financially involved.

Crypto Scam
Our firm was contacted by a doctor in Illinois who had developed a relationship with a female through Social media. The female had provided him photographs of a residence and of herself, and eventually talked him into an investment program for crypto currency.

Our client stated that this investment process had been somewhat successful but he was concerned because it appeared the female had drawn out the majority of the money that was in the account.

Our social media investigators determined that the photograph provided to the doctor was fake, the picture of the residence was a model home and the “business partner” was in the wind.

Our client expressed his gratitude since his suspicions about getting scammed was confirmed and at the end of the day would no longer be losing any more of his hard earned money.

Do I Have a Sibling?
Our firm was hired by a female who was aware that her father had been in a long time extra marital affair and believed that as a result of this affair he had fathered at least one child.

Investigators conducted database searches which identified the other half of the extra marital affair, allowing us to determine that she in fact had a female child that would enhance the speculation that the child might have been a sibling.

Further research revealed that the individual believed to be the child had the same last name as the female in the relationship.  It was also determined that the female was living in a house owned by our client’s father and had never been married or divorced.

Our Investigators were not present when our client confronted her father with the evidence we had developed but we learned the meeting was pretty emotional.