Investigator: Undocumented immigrant caught working at GBI headquarters

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A local private investigator says she was scared and shocked after she tracked an undocumented immigrant suspected of filing a false worker's comp claim to his new job at GBI headquarters.

The man in question, Joel Montoya, did not work directly for the GBI, but for a subcontractor.

Channel 2's Tony Thomas worked on this story for days and learned an investigator was hired to follow Montoya to document evidence to fight his worker's comp claim. Investigator Robin Martinelli said her team saw Montoya enjoying a day at Lake Lanier, playing a game of tug-of-war and holding a child.

"He was claiming he couldn't work, he couldn't do much," Martinelli said.

Martinelli said what shocked her the most was that the man who authorities confirm didn't have proper papers to be in the U.S., and was supposedly too injured to work, was working at the GBI.

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"I'm like, 'Why would he be there?' So we rushed over there," she said.

Martinelli confronted GBI agents. The GBI told Thomas that Montoya was helping build the state's new morgue facility. Authorities said he was "picked up off the street" by a subcontractor without the state's knowledge. He worked on the site for a day and a half.

Montoya and the supervisor who hired him were both fired. The GBI said contractors now must check in daily and wear badges on site.

"It's just scary to know we aren't vesting and looking deep into who's on the property and what they are doing and why," Martinelli said.

A GBI spokeswoman said this was all something the GBI had no knowledge of and did not authorize. She said it was simply bad judgment on the part of a subcontractor and she believes appropriate changes were made.

Cox Media Group