About Ross Investigators, P.C.

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 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 by the state of Colorado (Lic. #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)
Barry Bortnick
Bortnick was a newspaper reporter, communications director for the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, and documentary filmmaker before becoming a private investigator.
Brendan Dawson
​Dawson was the transportation director for a media production company with a 50- vehicle 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.
Sydni Dunham
Dunham has worked as an intern probation officer and a security officer at a hospital.
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 MontoyaMontoya is a retired FBI agent who investigated white-collar crime among other assignments during his 24-year career. ​
Tammy Rudolph
Rudolph is a former child-family investigator for the Colorado courts system.
Sharee RuizRuiz covered some of the country's highest high-profile criminal trials as a reporter before becoming a private investigator. ​
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)
Elizabeth Daerr
Daerr was a regional sales manager for a garden seed company and news editor for the National Parks Conservation Association.
Ron Humphries
Humphries as with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for 20 years, retiring as the special agent in charge of the Denver field division. ​

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.
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