Investigators
Investigator - r3 Owner
Richard R. Robertson, CLI
Rich Robertson, CLI, has been a state license investigator since 2000, leading hundreds of complex criminal and civil cases, including numerous death penalty cases at the trial, sentencing, and post-conviction levels. He is a Certified Legal Investigator (CLI).
He was honored in 2017 by Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice – the criminal defense bar – with the John J. Flynn Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the only non-attorney in the organization’s 30-year history to receive the award.
Mr. Robertson served on the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Private Investigator & Security Guard Hearing Board, which deals with licensing and regulatory matters. He was appointed to a five-year term in 2016 and was chairman from 2019 to 2021.
He is a frequent speaker and instructor on investigative topics, and he has conducted CLE programs for attorneys. His expertise is public records. He has testified as an expert on private investigations. To become designated as a Certified Legal Investigator in 2012, he underwent a rigorous written and oral testing process in civil and criminal law, administered by the professional certification board of the National Association of Legal Investigators.
Previously, Mr. Robertson was a print and broadcast journalist in Arizona for 28 years, including two decades with The Arizona Republic, where he was on the investigative team, and city editor. He was the editor of three Republic investigative projects that were finalists for Pulitzer prizes. He was also an Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter for KPHO-TV (Channel 5) and KPNX-TV (Channel 12).
He is a former president of the Arizona Association of Licensed Private Investigators; editor of The Legal Investigator, a quarterly educational journal published by the National Association of Legal Investigators; active in the Justice Project, which re-evaluates criminal cases for proof of actual innocence or manifest injustice; and on the legislative committee of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice.
investigator
Beth Shapiro
Beth Shapiro joined R3 Investigations as a licensed investigator in November 2013 to focus on financial-related civil, criminal, business and probate investigations. She has experience in complex criminal investigations, personal injury defense, corporate due diligence, financial and asset searches, heir searches, and kinship determinations, background checks, and death penalty cases at the post-conviction relief stage.
Ms. Shapiro practiced law for 10 years. Her areas of practice included bankruptcy law, creditor and debtor rights, civil litigation, and appeals. She represented small businesses and individual debtors in complex bankruptcy cases and in workout negotiations with creditors and trustees in matters involving fraud claims, discharge issues, exemption claims, preferences, fraudulent transfers, and lien validity.
She also has experience in television broadcasting, print media, and public relations. She served as a reporter and producer of KAET-TV’s Horizon (Channel 8 weekday public affairs program); editor and staff writer with Jewish News of Greater Phoenix; and was a media relations specialist for Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU.
Ms. Shapiro received her law degree from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, PA, and her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL She is a member of the State Bar of Arizona (inactive status), Arizona Women Lawyers Association, and the Scottsdale Bar Association.
Investigator - R3 operations manager
Christina Dougherty
Christina Dougherty has been a licensed private investigator since 2002, handling criminal, civil, and corporate investigations. She has worked on state and federal misdemeanor and felony criminal defense cases, everything from complex sexual assault to white-collar financial crime. She conducts internet investigations and writes profiles; performs background investigations; and offers attorney services and litigation support, including testifying in court. In one high-profile case, her work led to charges being dropped in 2016 against the alleged Phoenix Freeway Shooter. Leslie Merritt’s arrest made national news after a string of shootings on Interstate 10 and other Valley freeways between August and September, 2015, but the investigation proved he was wrongly accused.
Ms. Dougherty, an Arizona native, graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication with a minor in business.
She is a member of the National Association of Legal Investigators, serves as the National Secretary, and serves on the Membership Committee for the Southwest Region. She is the former coordinator of The Legal Investigator, a quarterly educational magazine published by the National Association of Legal Investigators.
Ms. Dougherty served as the Managing Treasurer of the Arizona Death Penalty Forum, a professional non-profit organization that aims to abolish the death penalty.
INVESTIGATOR
Lew Ruggiero
Lew Ruggiero joined R3 Investigations in January 2007, after nearly 40 years in radio and television. As an investigator, he has provided in-depth investigations in criminal and civil matters.
For almost 27 of those nearly 40 years in broadcasting, Mr. Ruggiero served as an assignment editor, field producer, and general assignment reporter for KPNX-TV, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix. He retired in June 2006.
His major investigative work for R3 Investigations to date: Serving as a defense investigator for one of several defendants under federal indictment for an alleged complex nationwide multi-million-dollar business opportunity fraud scheme. This case involved reviewing thousands of pages of discovery documents and conducting scores of personal and phone interviews around Arizona and the nation.
Mr. Ruggiero has handled both defense and mitigation work in sexual assault, aggravated assault, and Arizona death penalty cases. He has also done civil plaintiff's investigative work in lawsuits filed against the state prison system's contract food provider, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the Phoenix Police Department.
As a television journalist in 1982, he helped produce KPNX's Rocky Mountain Emmy Award-winning series "He Told Me Not to Tell," one of the first in-depth television news explorations of child sexual abuse. He won several awards during his TV career from both the Arizona Press Club and the Arizona Associated Press for his coverage of social, environmental, and political issues.
In 1996, the Valley of the Sun Society of Professional Journalists awarded Mr. Ruggiero its Sunshine Award for his work on behalf of the First Amendment in trying to keep Arizona public records open and available to the public.
While continuing to work full-time as a night-side reporter at KPNX-TV, Mr. Ruggiero returned to graduate school, earning a Master's Degree in mass communications from Arizona State University. A year later, Northern Arizona University's School of Communications named Ruggiero its Robert Eunson Distinguished Journalism Lecturer.
A graduate school paper on civic journalism that he co-authored with ASU professor John Craft, "An Objective Measure of the Influence of Public Journalism: Framing a Yardstick for Connections Sought by a New Journalistic Paradigm-A Pilot Study," was published in the Southwestern Mass Communication Journal in 2001.
Investigator
Jim Rozalewycz
Jim Rozalewycz has been a private investigator since 2003, conducting a wide range of investigations, emphasizing criminal defense. He is experienced in the execution of complex surveillance and undercover investigations. In addition, he is a highly experienced interviewer.
Mr. Rozalewycz spent 13 years in the behavioral health field, honing his skills in behavioral profiling and violence risk assessments. He has been a psychiatric/suicide intervention counselor; behavioral health case manager; crisis management supervisor; and outpatient clinic manager.
He also has extensive experience in providing physical security. Mr. Rozalewycz has conducted close protection details for state politicians and corporate CEOs. He developed the armed security program for Trident Security where he served as an Account Manager overseeing up to 100 security personnel across 15 locations in addition to serving as Firearms Instructor and Armorer.
Mr. Rozalewycz is a long-time competitive shooter with extensive knowledge of firearms. He is skilled in deploying handguns, tactical shotguns, carbines, and long-range precision rifles.
He graduated from the State University of New York at Albany with a degree in psychology and minors in sociology and criminal justice.
INVESTIGATOR
Stephanie Robertson
Stephanie Robertson has been a licensed investigator since 2013, a certified educator in Arizona, and a former journalist. Mrs. Robertson locates individuals, businesses, and assets; helps with criminal defense investigations; helps find birth parents and siblings; writes sentencing studies. She has investigated money-laundering scams from foreign countries.
Ms. Robertson graduated from Arizona State University with a B.A. degree in journalism and a minor in political science. She worked for more than 20 years as a print journalist, in a variety of editing positions at The Arizona Republic where she wrote newspaper columns on education issues and was a member of the Editorial Board, and as an editor at the Idaho Statesman in Boise, Idaho.
Ms. Robertson has her Post-Bacc Degree from the University of Phoenix and her Master’s Degree in Secondary Education from Northern Arizona University. She is certified to teach K to 12 and has taught elementary, middle school, and high school classes for more than 20 years, specializing in at-risk youth. She has been an adjunct faculty member for Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University, and Rio Salado Community College.
INVESTIGATOR
Pete Rodriguez
Pete Rodriguez joined R3 Investigations in October 2018 as a licensed private investigator and brings more than 30 years of experience in municipal government, politics, education, business management, and finance. He locates individuals, businesses, and assets, assists with criminal defense investigations (including sentencing studies), and conducts a host of other investigative duties.
Mr. Rodriguez is a political historian, certified educator, and published author. His background in banking and finance includes corporate loan administration, securities lending product management, and retirement funds relationship management.
He has testified before the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency and presented his original research on shifting notions of employee theft at an academic conference. More recently, Mr. Rodriguez assisted the Arizona Justice Project with a legislative proposal to amend the state’s Criminal Code to provide a mechanism for certain exempt felons to apply for parole.
Investigator
Jeremy Voas
Jeremy Voas joined R3 Investigations in October 2019 after 15 years as a staff investigator for the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender, District of Arizona. Prior to that, he was a print and broadcast journalist for the Phoenix New Times, Detroit Metro Times, The Phoenix Gazette, the Sierra Vista Herald, and CBS-5 KPHO in Phoenix. He wrote or edited numerous projects that won state and national awards for breaking and investigative news.
Voas studied journalism at Dakota Wesleyan University. He is a former officer of the Arizona Press Club and current member of the board of the Arizona Center for Investigative Journalism. Most important, he once won the New Yorker magazine's cartoon caption contest.
INVESTIGATOR
Michael Monti
Michael Monti joined R3 in March 2017 after a lengthy business and legal career. After law school, Mr. Monti took over management of the historic Monti’s La Casa Vieja restaurant in downtown Tempe, and eventually purchased it from his father, operating it for 20 years. Mr. Monti sold La Casa Vieja and joined the law firm of Munger Chadwick, P.L.C., helping clients with hospitality and restaurant matters, liquor licensing, zoning and land use, lease agreements, and other commercial issues. At R3, he focuses on business-related investigations.
Mr. Monti has served on a number of industry, community, and political causes such as the Arizona Restaurant Association (past Chair), Tempe Diablos Charities, Arizona Tourism Alliance, Tempe Rotary Club, and the Tempe Community Impact Foundation. He co-founded Arizona Chain Reaction (now Local First Arizona). Mr. Monti ran for Tempe mayor in 2012, losing by only 139 votes.
He is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
INVESTIGATOR
In Memory of Gary S. Phelps (1943-2020)
Gary Phelps joined R3 Investigations in September 2007 after 42 years in law enforcement. In addition to conducting investigations, he was frequently asked to evaluate cases and testify as an expert on matters involving police investigations, use of force and prison-related operations.
His law enforcement career began with the City of Tucson in 1964. Mr. Phelps served 25 years with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, retiring as Deputy Director. During his tenure, he directed the department's criminal investigations. He was also the SWAT team commander and directed the department's criminal intelligence unit. Mr. Phelps developed the Governor Protection Detail.
After leaving DPS, he served as Gov. Fife Symington's law enforcement liaison. He then served 14 years as Deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. There, Mr. Phelps directed all criminal investigations. He also worked with the FBI and the City of Phoenix on joint gang task forces.
He was a true professional and true friend. He will be greatly missed.