For P.I., Career has its benefits
                           Sunday, March 12, 1995

                           By KAREN VIGIL
                           The Pueblo Chieftain

          ~For Joe Arellano,
         being a private
         investigator
         is the perfect job.
         He's his own boss
         -- and it allows
         him to display his
         more flamboyant
         side.~

    
      Joe Arellano says his life is just like Magnum P.I.'s _ without "the car and the women." Even without those "perks," the 36-year-old investigator said his job has
its benefits. In fact, it's just about perfect for him. He is his own boss, and can spend as much time on the golf course as he likes and attend his children's school functions. Sometimes, it's even glamorous, especially when out-of-state travel is called for or when an out-of-state lawyer hires him to work on an especially intriguing case. Besides, the work lets him show the flamboyant side of his personality. His car sports a license plate with the moniker, "Hamr P.I.," reflecting his wrestling history. His tie had a Dick Tracy-like character and the words "Private Eye" in mirror image.

      Arellano began the skulking profession in 1989. Before that, the La Junta native unintentionally had been preparing for the job in his earlier work. For 12 years, he had been a professional wrestler in the late 1970s to mid-'80s, during which time he was the Colorado Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Champion for a couple of years along with being a Tag Team Champion with partner George "The Tank" Stevens.
But that was just a sidelight to his work and schooling.

      After being injured while working for the railroad, he went to college and became a psychiatric technician. He then went to work for the Colorado State Hospital, where he oversaw group counseling and unofficially was a "bouncer" of sorts when patients became uncontrollable. But a knee injury forced him to retire. He fell into the investigations agency after a Colorado Springs woman, Carolyn Green of Sundance Investigations, who ran an investigations firm encouraged him to learn the trade.
Serendipitously, he had the self-defense skills and psychological makeup to prepare him for the world of private investigations.

      After six months of basic shoplifting and surveillance cases, his boss told him he was ready to work on a murder case. The suspect was found guilty. But when Arellano polled the jurors, he found one who admitted to reading material she shouldn't have.
There was a mistrial, and when Arellano reinterviewed witnesses, he found the youth who was killed had a criminal history. Plus, he had been "packing weapons" the night he was slain. Before the evidence was discovered, prosecutors had painted him as a high-school athletic standout. With Arellano's newly discovered evidence, the suspect's
lawyer was able to get him acquitted.

      Arellano was hooked on the investigations business because he found that he
was able to help right a wrong in the criminal justice system."My client was acquitted on a self-defense theory. I honestly believe he was not guilty. He did kill him, but it was in self-defense," Arellano said. Arellano approaches his work with that experience in mind. He said he searches for contradictions or differences in police and clients'
accounts in the aim of getting his client a fair trial. He said his clients are not always deemed "not guilty, but he's pleased that he's helped them get the best possible defense each U.S. citizen has a right to have.

     "At least I know when the case is finished, I did everything I could have done. And I feel pretty confident that I do." Arellano also does background checks on people, asset searches, reconstruction of accident scenes, surveillance on people suing insurance companies and surveillance on engaged couples or husbands and wives.