OUR INVESTIGATORS
Experience Built on Complex Cases
Westbrook Investigations & Consulting is led by experienced investigators whose careers were built handling homicides, major crimes, complex investigations, and cases where getting the facts right mattered.
Our investigative leadership brings decades of law enforcement and private sector experience to criminal defense, wrongful conviction and post conviction matters, civil litigation, workplace investigations, fraud investigations, and other complex cases.
Matthew Gnatek
Managing Partner
Retired Detroit Police Detective Sergeant | Homicide & Major Crimes
Nearly 30 Years with the Detroit Police Department
20 Years as a Sergeant and Investigative Supervisor
1,000+ Death & Critical-Incident Investigations
Homicide | Major Crimes | Complex Case Review
Matthew Gnatek spent nearly three decades with the Detroit Police Department, including an extensive career as a Detective Sergeant in the Homicide Section.
During his career, Gnatek handled or supported more than 1,000 homicide, critical shooting, suicide, overdose, unexpected death, and infant death investigations. His work included major homicide investigations, cold cases, complex death investigations, witness interviews, suspect interrogations, crime-scene response, investigative case review, and coordination with prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies.
As a homicide supervisor, Gnatek was responsible for conducting investigations, directing investigative personnel, reviewing cases, coordinating investigative resources, and ensuring significant investigations were thoroughly developed.
Gnatek was featured on A&E’s nationally televised series The First 48 in “Winter Games,” which followed his investigation of a Detroit homicide during a winter snowstorm.
His experience now provides Westbrook clients with the ability to critically examine complex cases, identify investigative gaps and inconsistencies, develop additional evidence, and determine what further investigation is necessary.
Gnatek's current investigative work includes criminal defense investigations, homicide and major-crime case review, wrongful-conviction and post-conviction matters, civil litigation support, fraud investigations, workplace investigations, and other complex investigative assignments.
EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Graduate Certificate in Business, Wayne State University, Mike Ilitch School of Business
Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.), Cleary University
Eastern Michigan University School of Police Staff and Command
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners member (ACFE)
Michigan Council of Professional Investigators member (MCPI)
Barbara Kozloff
Director of Investigations
Retired Detroit Police Lieutenant | Homicide & Major Crimes
25 Years with the Detroit Police Department
15 Years in Detroit Homicide
Lieutenant & OIC, Detroit Police Homicide Task Force
Cold Case Sergeant | Averaged Approximately 12 Case Closures Annually
Barbara Kozloff retired from the Detroit Police Department after 25 years of service, having progressed through the investigative and supervisory ranks of Detective, Sergeant, and Lieutenant.
Approximately 15 years of her career were spent in Detroit Homicide. Kozloff personally served as the officer in charge of homicide investigations before advancing into supervisory and command positions.
She later served approximately three years as a Sergeant assigned to Homicide Cold Case, where the unit averaged one cold-case closure per month under her leadership.
Kozloff ultimately served as Lieutenant and Officer in Charge of the Detroit Police Homicide Task Force, commanding approximately ten police officers, detectives, and sergeants. Her responsibilities included oversight of major and high-profile investigations and work involving officer-involved shootings, with the Detroit Police Department and Michigan State Police sharing investigative responsibility.
Throughout her career, Kozloff conducted hundreds of witness interviews and suspect interrogations and obtained numerous admissions and confessions. She has extensive courtroom experience, including testimony in District Court, Circuit Court, Federal Court, preliminary examinations, and jury trials.
Kozloff was featured on the Oxygen Channel series Buried in the Backyard, which highlighted one of her Detroit homicide investigations.
Her investigative strength is the comprehensive development of a case: identifying what is missing, pursuing unresolved investigative issues, coordinating with other investigators and agencies, and connecting evidence, witness accounts, records, and investigative findings to develop a clear and comprehensive picture of the case.
Since retiring from Detroit, Kozloff has continued investigating complex matters, including wrongful-conviction cases and criminal-defense investigations involving assault with intent to murder, assault, robbery, and other major felony offenses. Her private investigative experience also includes civil litigation, workplace investigations, witness location, and background investigations.
EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Master of Arts in Criminal Justice (M.A.), Saint Ambrose University
Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice (B.A.), Michigan State University
Reid Interview and Interrogation training
Wicklander-Zulawski interview and interrogation training
Recipient of multiple departmental citations and commendations
Two Careers. One Investigative Standard.
Gnatek and Kozloff bring different perspectives to complex investigations. Gnatek's background centers on homicide supervision, death investigation, major-crime case analysis, investigative strategy, and complex case review.
Kozloff brings extensive homicide case experience, cold-case investigation, major-case command, interviewing and interrogation, multi-agency coordination, and the detailed development of cases from initial evidence through courtroom proceedings.
Together, they provide Westbrook's clients with senior-level investigative experience that can be applied to both sides of an investigation: determining what happened and critically examining whether the existing evidence actually supports that conclusion.