2023 Conference Information

Eric Daigle
Attorney, Daigle Law Group

Eric practices civil litigation in federal and state courts, with an emphasis on municipalities and public officials. His experience includes municipal clients in civil rights actions, including police misconduct litigation and employment actions, as well as premises and general tort liability. Eric acts as a legal advisor to police departments across the Country. He provides legal advice to law enforcement command staff and officers in the areas of legal liability, internal affairs, discipline, policy drafting, employment issues, use of force, laws of arrest, and search and seizure. His experience focuses on officers’ use of force, specifically in the training, investigation, and supervision of force, as well as deadly force incidents involving law enforcement. From 1992 to 2002, Eric worked for the Connecticut State Police, during which time he spent many years as a detective assigned to investigative units. His experience included leading investigations; processing crime scenes for the collection of forensic evidence; and preparing cases for prosecution. Eric is currently assigned as a reserve officer and maintains his Connecticut Police certification.

 

Jon Fehlman
Chief (Ret.), Instructor, Thatcher Lewis

Chief Jon Fehlman (Ret.) has served in law enforcement since 1984. His community-oriented career has been through police service and other community-based services. His commitment to forging relationships that last a lifetime and strengthen communities led to his recognition by the International Community Oriented Policing Conference with their James Q. Wilson award. Chief Fehlman also received a Medal of Valor as well as numerous recognitions and commendations during his career.

Chief Fehlman is currently a Senior Vice President for GovHR USA full-service executive recruitment and selection services. GovHR customizes services to meet the organization’s individual needs. These services include a thorough analysis of the organization, in addition to a comprehensive understanding of the hiring authority’s expectations. Through the firm’s experience with hundreds of placements over the last decade, the GovHR USA team provides a growing pool of highly-qualified candidates who are well-suited to handle the challenges and expectations of professional positions in local government. Chief Fehlman conducts police chief assessment centers around the country utilizing interviews, written work, in-basket exercises, and more to find the right chief for police departments. 

Chief Fehlman has extensive experience in police officer involved critical incidents. He has investigated incidents from both the administrative and criminal perspective.  He has served on the board of directors for National Alliance for Mental Illness-Sonoma County and engaged his communities on mental health and policing relationships.

Chief Fehlman has a master’s degree in Emergency Services Administration from California State University-Long Beach and a bachelor’s degree in Workforce Education and Development from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

 

Nicole Florisi
Instructor, Force Science

In her myriad roles, Nicole Florisi is the Law Enforcement Subject Matter Expert for VirTra with a focus on communication, mental health, and resiliency. She is also a course instructor for Force Science in their de-escalation and force encounters program. Nicole has worn many hats in her career from officer and sergeant to acting chief. She has worked in law enforcement for over 20 years in patrol, investigations and internal affairs. Her passion for communication led her to work as one of the lead SWAT negotiators for the past 17 years. Prior to her role with VirTra, Nicole was the executive director for a non-profit that provides services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence. She previously worked as a therapist for an integrated community healthcare agency with a focus on crisis and trauma. She is still a sworn officer in AZ. Nicole has two post-master degrees, one in human factors psychology and one in trauma counseling, an M.S. in Professional Counseling, and a B.S. in Public Safety Administration and Emergency Management.

 

Tony Paixão
Instructor, Consultant, and Executive Director, Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates

Tony Paixão is a Certified Forensic Interviewer, instructor, and consultant for Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc. (WZ) he also serves as the Executive Director of the International Association of Interviewers (IAI), a company affiliated with WZ. IAI provides the certification process for qualified Interviewers and Interrogators to become a CFI. While at WZ, Tony has also played an integral role in the ongoing research and evolution of content creation and innovative teaching methods. Tony has created customized training programs, presented at seminars, hosted a variety of webinars, as well as conducted live broadcasts of training.

Tony has served in a variety of roles both in the public and private sectors. He has conducted investigations and interrogations for hundreds of cases ranging from retail fraud to homicide to sexual assault and employee relations matters. Tony began his career working in law enforcement. During this time, he served as a pre-trial officer, a police officer with the University of Virginia (UVA), and as a Special Agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). With UVA, Tony completed Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and primarily worked traffic along with foot/bike patrol. While with NCIS, Tony was a member of the Family and Sexual Violence Unit where he managed cases primarily dealing with child sexual assault, child pornography, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. In the private sector, Tony quickly advanced to a regional level leadership position with Harbor Freight Tools covering over 390 locations from Maine to Florida. During this time, Tony was directly involved in multiple companywide initiatives including the development of the operational audit used in all locations nationwide, the creation and implementation of the physical security assessment, the development of the investigation and interview protocol, and a complete overhaul of all roles and responsibilities companywide across all departments. Tony received his undergraduate degree from James Madison University with a BS degree in Justice Studies, and his graduate degree from Arizona State University with a MS in Forensic Psychology. During Tony’s career, he also obtained the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) certification.

 

Michele Stuart
Owner, JAG Investigations

Ms. Stuart has over thirty years of investigative experience with twenty-six years operating her own company. Ms. Stuart’s area of expertise includes OSINT, counterintelligence, insurance fraud investigations, financial investigations, threat assessments, due diligence, organized retail crime, corporate and competitive intelligence.  Ms. Stuart consults and trains federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, the military intelligence communities, fortune 500 companies as well as the financial and insurance industries in open source, social media, and threat assessments/mitigation.  She has been an Instructor at Quantico (FBI Academy) for international training in OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence).

In 2017, Ms. Stuart partnered with Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security creating a program "Keeping Kids Safe," training administrators, principals, teachers, SRO’s, and parents on the dangers of online and social media activity, predator grooming as well as the dangers of applications/cellular security.

  

James Tacchini
Police Sergeant, Instructor, Savage Training Group

James has been a police officer since 2007 and has held the rank of sergeant since 2017. He is currently assigned to the Internal Affairs Division, Officer Involved Shooting Team.  James administratively investigates officer involved shootings, in-custody deaths, and major use of force incidents. James helps students like you develop a working knowledge of current case laws, trends, and will show you how to apply this knowledge to your investigations.

James’ goal is to share his combined knowledge of current laws/case laws and obstacles he's encountered to provide investigators like you with the confidence and skills to complete a fair and thorough investigation.

 

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