About Ross Investigators in Denver, Colorado

The Ross investigations team collectively has more than three decades of experience digging up critical information no one else can get their hands on.

Ryan Ross
Principal Investigator

​Ryan Ross has been digging up information for some of Colorado’s top trial lawyers for nearly ten  years, and before that he was an investigative reporter for more than two decades, treating the powers that be like a piñata.
As a legal investigator, Ross has:
  • assisted attorney representing neighbors of the former Rocky Flats Nuclear weapons plant on a class-action lawsuit that resulted in a $477 million verdict;
  • assisted attorneys with one of Colorado’s premier civil rights litigation law firms (Killer, Lane & Newman) on a lawsuit on behalf of the parents of an inmate in the city jail who died as the result of the failure of nurses and guards to provide medical care. The lawsuit resulted in a $4 million settlement with the Denver medical center and a $3 million settlement with the city/county Denver.
  • assisted an attorney who won a $700,000 judgment against a recycling plant, on behalf of a worker injured in an incident on an outdoor dock.
  • investigated accidents from common motor vehicle crashes to once-in-a-lifetime plane crashes;
  • interviewed clients and persuaded them to reveal secrets they hadn’t told anyone, not even their lawyer;
  • helped an attorney in a wrongful death case stemming from a gang shooting identify more than a dozen defendants as the statute of limitations was about to expire;
  • uncovered criminal convictions unknown to probation officers;
  • exposed the deceit of a firm trying to unfairly enforce a no-compete contract against one of its former executives;
  • assisted attorneys defending a public official against a charge of defamation;
  • identified numerous responsible parties previously unknown the claimant’s lawyer;
  • located and served documents on people who numerous other investigators have been unable to find;
  • found heirs in instances in which relatives had had no contact with them for more than half a century and didn’t know their names or dates of birth.

Ross is licensed through the state of Colorado  (License #PI2.130)

As an investigative reporter, Ross’ investigations covered the infidelities of politicians, business scams, environmental crimes, wrongful deaths, policy disasters, and public corruption. He regularly wrote stories other reporters knew about but were unable to confirm.
Dennis Gavalier
Director of Surveillance
Gavalier has 28 years of law enforcement experience as a detective with the major investigations unit of the Broward County (FL) Sheriff’s Department. He led dozens of undercover operations, seized records amounts of contraband, several as a technical advisor to several TV shows, and won several public service awards.  He has extensive experience with sophisticated enforcement techniques, including electronic surveillance and intelligence data processing.
Andrew Schmidt
Director of Financial Investigations
Schmidt has helped attorneys, individuals, small businesses and large corporations untangle and effectively resolve their financial and legal problems since 2002.

Senior Associate Investigators

(in alphabetical order)
Gary Brown
Brown was with the Pinellas County (FL) sheriff's office for 30 years, of which six were as a lieutenant in charge of an 18-employee crime investigations unit. He was responsible for strategic and intelligence operations, the interdiction squad, and the tactical operations unit. For several years, he was the department's liaison with the FBI, the DEA, and US Customs (now ICE).
Rick Haugh
Haugh is a former newspaper reporter and a freelance correspondent for the Associated Press and United Press Internal, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting.
Paige Kilpatrick
Kilpatrick is a licensed real estate investor and appraiser. She served in the US Air Force and the Colorado National Guard for ten years beginning in 1984.
Sean Meade
Meade has extensive surveillance experience, and was a site manager for a security firm and a supervisor for an event security firm. Before that he was police officer for 14 years with the Los Angeles police department, conducting white-collar, drug, crime-scene, property, missing persons and crimes against persons investigations.
Crystal Monaco
​Monaco was an investigator-intern with the Arapahoe County public defender’s office in 2013.
Jack Montoya
Montoya is a retired FBI agent who investigated white-collar crime among other assignments during his 24-year career.
Sharee Ruiz
Ruiz has covered some of the country's highest high-profile criminal trials as a reporter.
Scott Smith
​Smith has 17 years of experience as a surveillance operative, first in Texas and since 2006 in Colorado.

Associate Investigators 

(in alphabetical order)
Maureen Batson
Batson is an attorney who has been a senior litigation associate at a Denver law firm and a general counsel for a non-profit health plan, and who has managed her own firm.
Brendan Dawson
Dawson was the transportation director for a media production company with a 50-vehcile fleet, and is the founder of a software development company (accidentplan.com) that assists the commercial transportation firms with responding quickly and effectively to accidents.
Eric Dudley
Dudley has extensive experience of a surveillance investigator, and he has been a process server.
Sydni Dunham
Dunham has worked as an intern probation officer and a security officer at a hospital.
Chelsea Isaac
Isaac was an investigator intern with the Arapahoe County public defender’s office 2015-2016.

Surveillance Operatives

Ross Investigators retains some of the most experienced surveillance operatives in Colorado on a case-by-case basis.

Specialty Assistance

When a case calls for a particular investigative expertise, Ross Investigators contracts with the best in the business at:
  • sophisticated, technical surveillance.
  • undercover investigations.
  • computer and accounting forensics.
You want Ryan Ross and his team in your corner – on every important case you have.
Best Private Investigators in Denver