LA jury convicts Hollywood private eye in racketeering case

[Jolie Rouge]

LA jury convicts Hollywood private eye in racketeering case
By GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer
2 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - A Hollywood private investigator was convicted Thursday on charges that he schemed to dig up dirt for his well-heeled clients to use in lawsuits, divorces and contract disputes against the rich and famous.

Anthony Pellicano, 64, was accused of wiretapping stars such as Sylvester Stallone, and running the names of others, such as Gary Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through law enforcement databases to help clients in legal and other disputes.

Pellicano was convicted of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy counts.

Verdicts on dozens of other counts were still being announced in court.

The indictment charging Pellicano and his supporting cast in February 2006 had Hollywood buzzing with speculation about who might be ensnared in the investigation and what secrets might be revealed.

Fourteen people were charged and seven, including film director John McTiernan and former Hollywood Records president Robert Pfeifer, have pleaded guilty to charges including perjury and conspiracy.

The biggest power brokers with links to Pellicano, such as famed entertainment attorney Bert Fields, Paramount studio head Brad Grey and one-time superagent Michael Ovitz, insisted they didn't know about his methods and weren't charged.

Pellicano starred in the real-time court drama as a tough-talking gumshoe who valued loyalty and secrecy as necessary virtues in his profession. He also acted as his own attorney but called only one witness and rarely raised objections.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_re_us/hollywood_wiretaps;_ylt=AogojEYYuRSY9dlTTIvW87qs0N UE

[Jolie Rouge]

a little background ....


Tom Cruise's Lawyers Among 244 Names on Pellicano List
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
By Roger Friedman

Prosecutor Daniel Saunders has issued his list of potential government witnesses in the Anthony Pellicano case, and we’ve got it exclusively.

The government may not call them all, but there are 244 names on the witness list for the trial set to begin Feb. 27, in which Hollywood private eye Pellicano faces federal charges of racketeering and illegally wiretapping celebrities.

The list — which was obtained by this column on Monday — includes a lot of stars, studio execs and other Hollywood players whose names are familiar either because they’re famous or infamous. You decide.

What’s clear is that the prosecutors have made sure not to miss one person who’s ever been connected to Pellicano one way or another.

Right at the top of the list are attorney Bert Fields and Paramount chief Brad Grey. They may not be marquee names, but if they are called to testify and do, there could be fireworks.

Ricardo Cestero, the Fields associate who represents Tom Cruise and who worked for Pellicano before becoming a lawyer, is there, too. So are several other members of Fields’ firm, Greenberg Glusker: David Moriarty, Jill Cossman and Chuck Shepard among them. I told you in a column back on Oct. 21, 2006, that they’d all been interviewed by U.S. Attorney Saunders.

Ron Meyer, the head of Universal Pictures, would be next of interest, followed by Bilal Baroody, Meyer’s former neighbor. CAA agents and partners Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane are wanted by the prosecutors, as well as their former boss, Mike Ovitz, who may have used Pellicano to spy on them.

The list I received, which was distributed to several others, is so inclusive that at least two of its entrees are dead men: Herbalife founder Mark Hughes, who passed away several years ago. But then again, Hughes’ first wife and his widow, respectively, Suzan Hughes and Darcy LaPier, are noted, as well. And Bette Midler’s former manager, Aaron Russo, has been dead since last August. Someone better tell the feds.

Key legal players named on the witness list, of course, are journalist Anita Busch, who triggered Pellicano’s descent into the court system when she discovered a dead fish placed on her smashed windshield. Also named are divorce lawyer Dennis Wasser and director John McTiernan. The latter already is in jail on matters relating to Pellicano.

There are plenty of actors, such as Keith Carradine and Kevin Nealon, not to mention Carradine’s ex, Sandra Will, who once was Pellicano’s girlfriend. Actor/comedian Garry Shandling, who sued Pellicano client Grey over his TV show, could be a big draw. They’re all on the list.

The names go on and on, and if even half of them make it to testimony, the Pellicano trial will be a hot ticket. Chris Rock would make an amusing witness, no doubt. So would Sylvester Stallone.

Actor/producer Andrew Stevens, as I predicted some months ago, could be a linchpin in all this. So could producer Bo Zenga, who’s in the middle of a legal wrangle with Grey over the discovery that Pellicano was wiretapping him — Zenga — during depositions in a previous case against Grey.

Of course, within the witness list there are little soap operas. Just establishing them in front of a jury will be riveting. Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and his former wife Lisa and daughter Kira all are there. So are wealthy Alec Gores and his ex, Lisa, not to mention Gores’ brother Thomas. Bob Pfeifer, former head of Disney’s record division, is there along with his ex, Erin Finn.

Wealthy movie producer and frequent gossip column character Steve Bing is named, too. So are restaurateur Peter Morton, commentator Michelle Malkin, former Hollywood beat writer for the New York Times Bernard Weinraub, Pellicano’s wife/former ex-wife, Kat, former phone company manager Teresa Wright and "sexiest" private eye Tarita Virtue, as well as security expert Gavin de Becker.

To make the surreal Pellicano trial more like a reality show, the government has even included "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett.

More Pellicano names on Wednesday, most unknown to the public, such as hedge fund manager Adam Sender and Lilly LeMasters, a former Pellicano secretary.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331153,00.html


I wonder who else could be on that list ....


http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/553604-what-hillary-hiding-7.html


Seven Things To Know About The Clintons
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/E...t_the_clintons
By Emmett Tyrrell
Thursday, October 18, 2007

----

2. For years, the Clintons have bullied the press, political opponents, prosecutors and those women who caught Bill's eye. Their successful efforts to suppress the recent GQ story by Josh Green show that their bullying continues. Since the 1980s, the Clintons have employed private investigators, for instance, Terry Lenzner, Jack Palladino and Anthony Pellicano, the latter of whom is a convicted felon. Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky and Kathleen Willey are but the most famous of the many women who have been harassed by the Clintons' private detectives. In my recent book, "The Clinton Crack-Up," I report that at least one independent counsel in the 1990s took to carrying a gun after being harassed on Washington streets. The harassment was very similar to harassment my reporters experienced in Little Rock, Ark., in the mid-1990s.

---

Those are some of the unlovely things said about the Clintons by their friends . Now are the Democrats really going ahead with a Hillary nomination?

7. The media have been lax in reporting the Clintons' unprecedented record of ethical failings and outright corruption. Most glaringly even the conservative columnists remain inert. The conservatives have adopted the position that all of the above is passe and to dwell on it is unseemly and awkward.

Well, call me unfashionable, but I find the Clinton record alarming.


Prosecutor calls indicted private eye a 'well-paid thug'
By GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Private investigator Anthony Pellicano was a "well-paid thug" who dug up dirt through wiretaps and other illegal means to benefit his Hollywood A-list clientele, a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Saunders said jurors had been taken inside Pellicano's world during the two-month trial and shown how he illegally collected information for clients to use in legal and other disputes.

"Tires get slashed, computers get hacked, houses get broken into," Saunders said. "And of course, people's phones get wiretapped."

Saunders was scheduled to continue his argument Tuesday, with defense attorneys to follow.

Pellicano, 64, and four co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to a variety of charges. Pellicano, who is acting as his own attorney, is accused of leading a criminal enterprise that raked in more than $2 million by spying on Hollywood's rich and famous then supplying the dirt to their rivals.

Saunders said the government had proven its case by presenting documents, testimony from clients and alleged victims, and perhaps most importantly recordings made by the private investigator.

"When you get recordings of defendants engaging in criminal activity, there's not a whole lot they can do to get away from it," Saunders said.

Nearly all those recordings involved discussions between Pellicano and clients. Only one allegedly wiretapped call was played during the trial.

Saunders explained that computers weren't seized during the first of several searches of Pellicano's office because the warrant did not target the alleged wiretapping.

When authorities returned later with another warrant, "Mr. Pellicano had cleaned house," Saunders said.

Saunders called former Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson, a co-defendant in the case, a "dirty cop" who sold his badge for the $2,500 a month Pellicano paid him to run names through law enforcement databases.

Saunders showed jurors copies of checks to Pellicano from clients or law firms. He then compared the dates of the payments to a police audit showing when names were run through databases by Arneson. In some cases, names were processed on the same day a payment was given to Pellicano.

U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer expects closing arguments to take about two days, with the jury likely to get the case later this week.

Comedian Chris Rock and one-time power agent Michael Ovitz testified during the trial about using the services of Pellicano. Both said they knew nothing about his tactics.

Comedian Garry Shandling, an alleged victim, also took the witness stand.

Pellicano was accused of wiretapping the phone of Sylvester Stallone, but the "Rocky" star did not testify.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/...2.wTuZBH2o cA

[Jolie Rouge]

12/15/2008
Pellicano Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
Read Anita Busch’s Sentencing Statement, Including Her Commentary on the Los Angeles Times

Anthony Pellicano was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison today — just one year less than the government had asked for.

Anita Busch read a statement to Pellicano during the sentencing. Although portions of her statement have been quoted in a couple of stories, some of the quotations have been inaccurate, and none of them has been complete. Below is Busch’s complete statement, which she has confirmed to me is exactly how she said it in court.

I was touched by how harrowing the experience was for her, and how little support she received from people at the L.A. Times, many of whom treated her very real nightmare as a joke. The most moving moment to me was reading Busch describe how agonizing it was just to start her car . . . after receiving credible threats that her car would be blown up: “[A]fter a night of nightmares, I would close my eyes and just scream really loud as I turned the key to the ignition. And when I didn’t blow up, I’d wipe my eyes and go onto work at the L.A. Times and face the snickers from the disbelievers.”

Busch also told Pellicano: “The day you were arrested, that’s when the cover-up began at my newspaper.” At that point, Pellicano started talking with his lawyers, ignoring her. Busch paused and waited until they stopped talking.

Until Pellicano paid attention.

Hearing that story, my reaction was: he wasn’t in control. She was.

That’s a great story.

Ms. Busch’s statement follows:


I want to thank Judge Fischer for her patience and wisdom during this trial and thank you to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Mr. Pellicano, after you and your employers relentlessly attacked all of us and got caught after years of doing this to others, you and your lawyers just kept attacking. You attacked the FBI, the search warrant, a potential witness, the veracity of your victims, launched personal attacks on the lead FBI agent on the case and U.S. Attorney, went after the jury and then the verdict itself.

And you did most all of it through the Los Angeles Times where I unfortunately found out while working there that you had a trusted relationship with the lawyer advising me and one of the reporters that they had covering this criminal case.

In the sentencing memorandum you talk about how your life is ruined. Yes, well, YOU made that choice. None of your victims had a choice. You could have helped put these sociopaths with money behind bars, but to this day, you show contempt for this court and the law.

You have yet to take responsibility for your actions.

It was revealed only two weeks ago that an FBI agent named Mark Rossini pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining documents that were then used by your lawyer.

So every day you prove that you ran a criminal conspiracy and a criminal enterprise.

Your co-conspirator Mr. Kachikian aided and abetted you so that my computer was hacked into and 18 years of my musical compositions – which I considered my life’s work – were destroyed.

When Mr. Turner and other co-conspirators at the phone company helped you tap my phones, you not only violated my privacy and that of my family and friends, but you violated the privacy of a journalist AND her sources, undermining the very fundamentals of my profession. This attack was also on journalism and a newspaper’s ability to gather the news.

By carrying out these crimes, you not only hurt me, you hurt my elderly parents, my brothers and sisters and my friends.

After these threats, I was afraid to come and go from my house. I was afraid to sit in my car for even a moment out in the street for fear that a car would speed up on me again, block me in and this time I WOULD be killed. And that was a Catch-22 because I was ALSO petrified to turn over the engine of my car for fear that it would blow up.

So, I would sit there and cry and pray and beg, “Please God, I want to live.”

Or some days, after a night of nightmares, I would close my eyes and just scream really loud as I turned the key to the ignition. And when I didn’t blow up, I’d wipe my eyes and go onto work at the L.A. Times and face the snickers from the disbelievers.

You and your employers not only used fear and intimidation, but you made sure people – your targets – were smeared in the press. And you and your clients used any means at your disposal to destroy people’s employment. And you guys did it many times over many years. When it was my turn how very convenient it was for you that you already had long established relationships inside my employer.

The day after the first threat, the lawyer at the L.A. Times, Karlene Goller, wanted YOU on board to help because as she said, “He’s done work for us in the past and he’s done well by us.” The editor told her no, but she did it anyway. Without my knowledge or the knowledge of law enforcement, she had reporter Chuck Philips call you about my case. Philips had a longtime relationship with you as a news source and had worked for years alongside Karlene’s husband.

I was new to the paper, but you weren’t. And you USED the relationships you had there against me. You made sure my newspaper didn’t believe me so behind the scenes you could ruin my employment just like you and your clients did to other victims.

The day you were arrested, that’s when the cover-up began at my newspaper. To this day their own reporters, editors and readers don’t know the truth. And while you and your lawyers cried crocodile tears about media leaks, Philips – a reporter you helped for years – wrote story after story against the government’s case. Information FED to him by your defense team. And because the men whose job it was to put an end to your criminal activity were now your targets – Dan Saunders and Stan Ornellas – your pal Philips wrote stories smearing their integrity.

And, of course, those stories were then approved by the same newspaper lawyer who looked to you for help. And this is just one example of how you and your clients used the media as a weapon.

Your convicted co-conspirator, Mr. Kachikian, even worked for the L.A. Times.

You reached inside the phone company, the LAPD, the Beverly Hills Police Department, the FBI … AND this city’s largest newspaper.

So, I was on my own. And I was scared. I thought it was just a matter of time before I was going to be killed. I was scared to have any family or friends around me because I was afraid that they themselves might get hurt. And I struggled. I struggled hard to work as a journalist while battling constant fear … Journalism was something I loved and what I lived for. But it became impossible for me to continue on as a journalist. My sources were afraid to talk to me on the phone. It wasn’t long before everything was gone.

I no longer had my career. I no longer had my peace of mind. My income was dwindling. My life savings was disappearing. My health went downhill. I didn’t even have my music. And I no longer had passion or faith in anything.

It was death by a thousand cuts … and the cuts were deep and hard. I didn’t deserve it.

I remember sitting alone one night, trying to think of something – anything – good that had come out of this. I realized that the only hope I had left was in a dogged, and thank God ethical, FBI agent named Stan Ornellas who I knew was out there every day working to try to put an end to this kind of domestic terrorism. Which is what it was.

I am thankful beyond words to these men and women who worked this case because they kept what happened to me from happening to anyone else.

Now, Mr. Pellicano, you have always spoken about a sense of honor. I understand. You know I know many of your former clients. Most of the ones I knew were never your friends and they were certainly never your family.

These people don’t care about the kind of healthcare you get on the inside, the lousy razors that nick your face, the sandpaper for toilet paper, the mystery meat and candy bars from the vending machine.

They don’t care that you won’t be there to hold your own mother’s hand when she gets sick or when she passes away.

Where is the honor in that?

You won’t be there because of Michael Ovitz.

Your sense of honor is not wrong, Mr. Pellicano. It is misplaced.

To you and your wealthy clients, this was about winning – destroying our lives – at any cost. Well, look at the cost … here in the courtroom today … look into the faces of the ones you love.

You threw away your role as son to your mother and father to your children.

For money.

Sometimes money costs too much.

For what you have done to all of us and to your own flesh and blood, all I can say is that I fear for your soul when I think that God is just.

Thank you, your honor.

For more background on the way Busch was treated by the people at the L.A Times, read my previous posts here and here.

P.S. The initial L.A. Times story on the sentencing doesn’t report any of Busch’s attacks on the newspaper. It will be interesting to see whether the paper ever mentions it.

It is, after all, news.

http://patterico.com/2008/12/15/pellicano-sentenced-to-15-years-in-prison-read-anita-buschs-sentencing-statement-including-her-commentary-on-the-los-angeles-times/

[Jolie Rouge]

For more background on the way Busch was treated by the people at the L.A Times, read my previous posts here and here.

http://patterico.com/2008/05/16/anita-busch-calls-for-investigation-of-chuck-philipss-pellicano-reporting/

http://patterico.com/2008/05/17/is-a-paperweight-really-just-a-paperweight-more-on-how-the-la-timess-treatment-of-anita-busch-after-she-was-threatened/

First - read those ...

Now just a few idle observations ... how the MSM has ignored the Clinton/Pellicano connections - considering how closely they examined anything and everything connected with GOP or conservative candidates. Look at how much coverage and how many headlines were given over to a man who murdered his wife and his ONLY connection with the Clintons was that they owned homes on the same street. :hmmmm: