Cases that built the methodology. And the methodology that built the cases.

Each case study below is a real investigation, a real program reform, or a real client engagement. Some closed with arrests. Some closed with appellate decisions. Some closed with national impact on how providers respond to lawful process. All of them taught a lesson worth teaching to the next investigator, the next unit, and the next agency. Some are public-facing in full detail. Some are anonymized to protect client confidentiality. All of them are work that ASC stands behind.

Built from the work. Taught from the file.

Homicide·Polygraph·Digital Evidence·Methodology·Warrant Reform

Featured Case Studies

Four cases. Four lessons.

Law EnforcementSearch WarrantsDigital Evidence

The Brandyn Foster Homicide

A 381-day homicide investigation that began as a missing-person case in upstate New York and closed with the recovery of Brandyn Foster's remains and the arrest of three people. The case required advanced warrant tactics (swamping warrants, IMEI tracking, Title III eavesdropping, sneak-and-peek), the digital investigation strategy that rebuilt a timeline the suspect tried to destroy, and the sustained provider-coordination work that contributed to Google's development of the Tombstone Report. Lead investigator: Joseph R. Auriemma, Jr.

Read the Full Case Study Book the Presentation Buy The Affiant's Standard

Law EnforcementInvestigative InterviewingMethodology Origin

The Nunez Homicide and the Methodology Origin

A 2011 upstate New York homicide investigation that hinged on a long interrogation with the prime suspect. The court suppressed most of the interrogation. The jury acquitted. The accusatorial methodology the investigator had been trained in produced exactly the result it was statistically likely to produce. Teach to Talk and the Adaptive Strategies Compass were built in response, not as a refined version of accusatorial work but as the alternative to it.

Read the Full Case Study Read the Teach to Talk Philosophy

PolygraphLaw EnforcementPolygraph Program Architecture

The NYSP Polygraph Unit Reform

Joe ran the New York State Police Polygraph Unit during a period when the unit conducted more than 1,200 applicant pre-employment exams per year, plus criminal exams. He converted the pre-employment program to Directed Lie Comparison Test methodology, authored a new unit manual, built the policy framework, and architected the quality control system. The program continued to operate inside that framework after Joe's tenure, and the reform is the basis for the Polygraph Unit Consulting service offered today.

Read the Full Case Study View Polygraph Unit Consulting

Digital EvidenceProvider CoordinationSearch Warrants

The Tombstone Report

During the Brandyn Foster investigation, in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joe's case work contributed to the development of what became known internally at Google as the Tombstone Report. The internal Google record is now relied on by law enforcement worldwide for cases involving deleted-account data. The same legal-process discipline that produced the report (the willingness to push past "no records exist," the documentation standards, the warrant architecture) is taught in The Affiant's Standard book series and is part of the flagship Brandyn Foster Homicide presentation.

Read the Full Story Book the Brandyn Foster Presentation Buy The Affiant's Standard

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Why This Library Exists

Case studies are how doctrine gets remembered.

The standard way investigative doctrine gets transmitted, from one investigator to the next, is the case. Not the case in a textbook. The case from the file, told by the person who worked it, with the parts that hurt still in the telling. That is how the lessons survive the move from one supervisor to the next, from one unit to the next, from one career to the next.

This hub exists to keep ASC's case-derived doctrine in one place. Some of the case studies are public-facing in full detail because the case is closed, the convictions are final, and the public record supports the write-up. Some are anonymized to protect client confidentiality, operational integrity, or ongoing matters. All of them are real work, with a lesson that an investigator, a unit, or an agency can use.

Lessons in Brief

Three patterns every working investigator should know.

Quick-read summaries of recurring patterns drawn from the case studies above. Each one is a 60-second read with a direct link to the case study where the pattern shows up.

From Brandyn Foster

Provider Silence Is Not Provider Absence

When a provider's first response to lawful process is "no records exist," the question is whether the answer is true or whether the provider's own system architecture is producing that answer. The Tombstone Report exists because someone pushed past the first answer.

From the Nunez Case

Suppression Is Predictable

The methodology that produced the suppressed interrogation in Nunez was the methodology the investigator had been trained in. The outcome was statistically predictable from the methodology, not from the case. Methodology matters more than facts when suppression is the question.

From the NYSP Polygraph Unit Reform

Quality Control Is Documentation, Not Intention

A polygraph unit running 1,200 applicant exams per year cannot rely on supervisor recall for chart-quality review. Quality control is a system, with documentation, with inter-rater protocols, and with a corrective-action posture, or it is not quality control.