I came home and my neighbor who is President of my neighborhood
Association informed me that there was a flyer that was put into
mailboxes in my neighborhood accusing me of being a ?unregistered
child molester? I was told that this flyer must have been past
around early that day and she was also was receiving calls about the
flyer questioning her if she new anything about it. I informed one of
my other neighbors of the flyer going around and I asked her if I
could look in her mailbox and she told me it would be no problem.
There was one there and I removed it carefully with tweeters and
placed it in a plastic bag for the hope it can be useful to find who
would do this to me. The next day the Association president called me
and told me because of all the neighbors calling and driving by my
home to show their children to stay away from my house because a ?bad
man? lives there motivated her to write a letter to the Post office
and included the flyer with the letter. Also, she told me she talked
to the neighborhood mail lady and she told my neighbor that she
noticed the flyer in mailboxes as she was delivering mail that day and
called her boss and was told to remove any flyers she found in any of
the mailboxes. The mail lady said she did not get all of them but she
felt she remove most of them. Even though the ones that did get them
has cause great embarrassments to me my family & friends and the
family business we have in Clinton twp. This is obvious my
ex-girlfriend that I want nothing to do with. I have the flyer in a
plastic bag and I am moving forward with the police but I'm not sure
if the evidence would be destroyed this way. What plan should be
designed at this point before counsel with a local attorney How do I
move forward with the evidence? Do I give it to police tomorrow? How
do I present it the post office? Would they take care in fingerprints?
How can I prove she did it with the flyer? How can it be she didn?t do
it? Also the fact went I broke up with her and wanted nothing to do
with her again she broke in my home and was arrested. Anything I
didn?t think would you fill in the blanks? I have a mess here and need
to act quickly.

Dear smiles011-ga;

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. As it
turns out, I am an evidence technician with more than 20 years law
enforcement experience so I have some insight into how evidence is
handled. Keep in mind that (as per our disclaimer) we cannot provide
legal advice in this forum; I can, however, direct you to some
published information that you will find useful. Let me begin with the
facts:

First of all, if you are indeed an unregistered sex offender, it is
unlikely that you have a valid complaint, though it would probably
take a licensed attorney to determine this for certain. In most states
the fact that a convicted sex offender is living in the area is a
matter of public information and in most cases the public has a right
to know. In that event, the fact that someone merely made the issue
known is not, in itself, usually considered defamation of character,
because, after all, it is a fact of public record.

On the other hand, if you are NOT a convicted sex offender, defamation
of character is not a criminal offense ? it is a CIVIL complaint. In
other words, this would be a matter for which one party may sue
another for compensatory and/or punitive damages.

Assuming you are not a convicted sex offender and the information
distributed about you is a clear effort to besmirch your reputation
and cause you distress, what you essentially have in terms of a
criminal complaint is harassment, and herein lies the criminal
complaint. You may be able to learn more about the wording of the
harassment statutes in your state from this source:

CORNELL UNIVIERSITY
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes.html

As you alluded to in your question, it is always the best course of
action to consult an attorney with regard to legal matters. Your
attorney can guide you about what to do next with your evidence. I
would presume that your first course of action would be to consult the
local police department and file a harassment complaint, even if you
do not know for certain whom the perpetrator is. Because the
harassment involved the US Postal Service you might also contact the
US Postal Inspector?s Office, who will also be able to give you some
guidance about your evidence. The ?offense? may even be deemed fraud
under Federal statutes, if in fact the derogatory comments about you
are false. Postal inspectors investigate any crime in which the US
Mail is used to perpetrate a fraud or to commit more than 200 other
designated crimes, whether it originated in the mail, by telephone or
on the Internet. The use of the US Mail, in this instance, is what may
make this particular offense a Federal issue. You can file a complaint
with the US Postal Service online using this form:

US POSTAL SERVICE MAIL FRAUD COMPLAINT FORM
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm

If you prefer to mail in your complaint you can fill out this form and send it in:

http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/ps8165.pdf

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS SERVICE CENTER
ATTN: MAIL FRAUD
222 S. RIVERSIDE PLAZA STE 1250
CHICAGO IL 60606-6100

As for your evidence, it is typically best to store the questionable
items in a clean paper bag or loose fitting envelope. Storage in
plastic can sometimes create humidity that can adversely impact the
latent prints on the item. If you must handle the items, handling it
with tweezers is a good idea; handling it with gloves is not a good
idea as this can sometime smear any latent prints that might be on the
item?s surface. As a rule, it is best to have the authorities collect
and handle the items because this preserves the chain of custody
(which can sometimes be a factor in a court of law). However, since
you have already collected the item I recommend that you do not
transfer it to another container; rather you should immediately call
the authorities and let them professionally manipulate the item as
necessary.

As for your question, ?How can I prove she did it with the flyer??,
the answer is YOU don?t. You should seek legal counsel and let the
authorities make your case based on your complaint and their
subsequent investigation of the facts. Logically they would interview
people involved in the matter and trace the letters back to the
source. The easiest way for anyone to ?blow? a case is for him or her
to try and investigate it on his or her own. By doing so you run the
very real risk of being accused of retaliatory actions and you can set
yourself up for charges of harassment that might effectively ruin your
valid complaint.

I recommend that you DO NOT try and collect any further evidence nor
should you try and interview any of the players in this saga ? in
fact, you should have no further personal contact with anyone involved
lest you be accused of harassment too. Let the authorities take
whatever actions they deem appropriate so the matter can be pursued
according to the proper protocol.

Sending the evidence to an independent lab for analysis (as the
commenter below suggested) is a BAD IDEA. This will undoubtedly open a
Pandora?s box of questions about how the evidence was handled, how
admissible the evidence is in court and intimately how viable it is in
your complaint. Evidence that is manipulated by a complainant is
almost always rendered ineffective in a court of law so it is best to
turn it over to the authorizes and let them process it in accordance
with state law.

When you make your complaint be sure to tell the authorities of your
ongoing problems with your ?ex?. The fact that you have prosecuted her
in the past for burglary does indeed suggest a retaliatory motive.
While this, in itself, does not provide ?probable cause? (the criteria
that must be met in order to arrest a suspect for a crime) it may cast
enough reasonable suspicion on her in the mind of the investigating
authorities to question her further.

I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

Harassment

Fraud

Defamation of character

Slander

US Postal Service

US Postal Inspector

Complaint

Libel

Unfortunately, with a case like this there's not much you can do. 
Your best course of action would be to see if at least one or two
people saw whoever was distributing the flyers and if they would be
willing to testify.  If not, see if your local police station would be
willing to try to run prints from it, but it's doubtful that they
will, especially since no officers were brought on scene and the
'evidence' was not collected according to their strict procedure.

If the police won't help you, call around and see if any research labs
in your area would try to pull a print.  As a last resort, you can
purchase a professional lifting kit and pull a print yourself, but
unless you can get clean, matching prints from a good number of the
flyers (I'd say at least half a dozen), and you get your ex to agree
to be printed (this part has to be done officially), then you won't
have a case.

In the unusual event that you are able to pull all this together, get
a lawyer to represent you, and win the case, don't expect much (if
anything) in terms of a settlement for libel or defamation of
character.  About the most you could hope for is reimbursement of
legal fees, and she would be fined $1,000 plus the cost of postage for
each flyer, so it's really not worth your time...

sell your house asap.  you can't live in that neighbourhood if
everyone thinks you're a prevert.  if you have to take a loss just sue
the ex-girlfriend for the difference.  also if some guy gets in your
face, punch him out adn don't stop till the cops arrive.  then tell
the cops that it was all self defence cuz of what the ex girlfriend
did.  i watch law and ordr.  you get a good DA like MacKoy he'll
totally BS this into a criminal endangerment charge.

good luck

Gary,
Tutuzdad has been on the police force for a long time and knows what
he is talking about.
"i watch law and ordr."
As has been pointed out a couple of times on different legal
questions, TV shows are NOT a good reference.
Myoarin