04.29.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, los angeles times, mass media, pellicano at 9:32 pm by Administrator
Seems like Chuck Philips, Anthony Pellicano’s old beat reporting friend at the Los Angeles Times, is working on a special piece about the incarcerated P.I. Consistent with Philips’ cozy relationship with Tony, he wants to do more of an up close and personal profile to really show the true man. Philips must also be getting a little desperate lately for something to write about. He hasn’t gotten any real scoops since 2002, when his favorite anonymous source was sent off to prison. Philips and the LAT feel that the rest of the media has just been too hard on poor old Tony as they try to help recreate the gumshoe’s halcyon glories.
Philips is busy contacting many of Pellicano’s former co-workers and clients to obtain some warm and fuzzy anecdotage about the gumshoe’s quirky traits. In one of these conversations, Philips derided that recent threat Pellicano had made against journalist John Connolly’s safety when the explosive Vanity Fair article premiered.
According to Philips, both he and his newspaper don’t believe that Pellicano would physically threaten journalists as had occurred with John Connolly, Anita Busch and Ned Zelman. In fact, he added, at the LAT they never believed “any of it” and that’s why they haven’t given “anything like that” real coverage. Philips wouldn’t leave well enough alone in singing Tony’s praises (which really isn’t the wisest thing to do, Chuck old boy, when trying to get information out of sources who might disagree with you right now). Philips opined that Tony could never/would never do such terrible things to people. Philips and the LAT had worked with Tony for years and they both respected and admired the man and his work.
Well, duh, so there’s the explanation for the LAT’s peculiarly positive bias and soft coverage of the Pellicano case in a nutshell. Does anyone else wonder if some of that newspaper’s staff has been called yet to testify before the Grand Jury? Let’s all be patient and the New York Times will tell us.
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Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, pellicano at 3:12 am by Administrator
So much is being written now about who did and did not hire Anthony Pellicano, it’s seems fitting to devote at least a parcel of Internet space to Pellicano’s victims. Most of them weren’t famous celebrities, like those models, actors and producers who’ve been profiled. Who can feel sorry for victims like that? That mogul’s ex-wife, Bonder Kerkorian, only wanted a few hundred thousand every month for family support and she probably got what she had coming anyway. Damn, even Linda Doucett had enough money left that she could comfortably retire to nuzzle horses in California. Pellicano was just a man in search of the Jewish God who only wanted a rubdown once a week from his wife. Is that too much to ask for? He even was rumored to be a family man who’d honorably refuse to wiretap people who had had debts welched on, like his billionaire friend Burkle. Anthony Pellicano was a man of discriminating taste who made sure that he only preyed on the “bad” people.
Uh, no.
Pellicano was a monster. He wasn’t any flesh and blood recreation of a Phillip Marlowe celluloid character; he was something out of Saw II. But don’t take my word for it just because I had the pleasure of meeting the man several times and the personal delight of practically being ground out of existence by his Tinseltown machine. Let’s look at how some other victims felt instead:
“That’s what I have been doing for the past 7 years and actually the reason I contacted you…Unfortunately, the victories have been few and far between for me. I’ll never be able to forget any of it but if I’m ultimately successful maybe it will be easier to live with. I’m not interested in any more lawsuits, just looking for a little justice and vindication from…the people who told me “No”.”
“I was a Jane Doe in the Jones case “aka Limousine Rapist”. [Jones] put GHB in girls drinks and raped them. Most of the girls frequented the clubs where he did this. I “met” Jones when I was out celebrating my birthday, actually on my way home and did and do not frequent the clubs. In fact, the irony is it was probably one of 2 times I went out to a club in years. The DA’s office had to relocate their task force in the beginning because women from as far back as the early 80’s were coming forward and there were so many they couldn’t keep up. Soon after he was released on bail he was put back in and denied bail for 2 1/2 years because he committed more acts and was caught with notes to him to pay off girls and get to the families along with 800,000 in cash. Pellicano was hired from the beginning and the DA’s office told me to expect him to be watching and listening to me which I later learned he had from the FBI. The DA’s told me their phones were bugged as well. Jones’ first set of attorneys were Danny Davis and Ron Richards who also represented a friend of Jones, Andrew Luster the Max Factor heir that did the same thing to women and taped it. Upon a year of nothing happening in the criminal case I filed a civil case to protect my rights. I went through hell for the next 3 years, looking over my shoulder, defending myself against ludicrous lies and trying to make sure I did everything I could on my end.”
“I’m a former wife and biz partner to a very connected Hollywood producer who’s produced Secret Service/CIA movies. Thanks to [Pellicano's] thug mystique, a corrupt justice system and the Pellicano type element in Hollywood, I went through a most hellacious divorce and partnership split that involved harassment, bribery, traitor attorneys, manufactured evidence, constant perjury, industry blackballing, police bullying, you name it. Wire tapping was the least of it. [I] have a disabled son and I’ve lived in fear alongside some hope that by being silent (mostly) my son will not continue to suffer from the outrageousness on top of his disability. I was hoping for some justice…”
The common theme of these victims is fear and hope. The common desire is revenge…which isn’t such a bad thing really. Wouldn’t you want revenge too if some criminal had tried to rob you of all your personal integrity and identity?
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04.28.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, mass media, pellicano at 2:42 am by Administrator
Kind of read with amusement Nikki Finke’s exclusive interview with Kat Pellicano today. Kat trashed the recent Vanity Fair expose about Anthony Pellicano by Bryan Burroughs and John Connolly and threatened to take legal action. What I was immediately reminded of was all the very nasty emails from the Pellicano clan that I had gotten when I initially started Anthony Pellicano Web Links back in the day. The Pellicano family, with Kat as their queen bee, claimed that I was embarrassing them in front of their neighbors by saying things about both their Tony and them that weren’t true. I had responded that I was just aggregating links to news articles others had written and if there was anything factually inaccurate I really wanted to know. There were more nasty letters from more relatives and eventually my website was completely hacked into and my trusty old desktop got a nasty computer virus that ultimately resulted in its demise.
Now, there are no fingers being pointed here at anyone. Websites get hacked into constantly and computers do die painful deaths of their own accord. I always found something interesting though, which happened when I put some spiffy software into my new digs. This software was magical and would tell me if anyone was trying to access my computer, and what their geographic location was. I kept on getting addresses in Chicago and the Valley until I filed a slew of complaints with the federal government and then all was quiet for some time after. All the computer woes were just an extreme nuisance and inconvenience for me really. It wasn’t near as unsettling as a physical threat on my own personal health which had apparently happened to John Connolly proximate to the time of that Vanity Fair article’s publication. Could Tony have been valiantly trying to defend one of his ex-wives’ honor with his threat? That would at least have a noble ring to it, consistent with Kat now claiming that Tony had only wanted to convert to Judaism because he believed in Judaism more than his own faith and not just to please a man twenty years his senior, Bert Fields.
It’s not easy to understand why the Pellicanos are at war now with Connolly. After reading the Vanity Fair article, I was left with the impression that Burroughs and Connolly were being quite kind, especially to Kat Pellicano. I had also been left with many unanswered questions in fact. Since Kat Pellicano had been married to Tony during the height of his reign of terror in Tinseltown, did she know of any of the crimes that he has been accused of committing? Had she in any way colluded or participated in them? Had she benefited from Tony’s ill gotten fortunes? Since Kat and Tony are currently divorced, marital privilege would no longer apply legally and had she been called to testify before the Grand Jury?
Kat Pellicano’s communication with Finke got me wondering even more. Does that imply except for (1) Tony’s reason to convert to Judaism (2) Kat’s daughter telling her to call Tony “asshole” to make him go away (3) Tony demanding his children kiss his ring finger like Don Corleone and (4) Kat and Tony’s son being in Tony’s “war” room, that everything else mentioned in that lengthy Vanity Fair article was true? Hmmn…
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04.25.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, pellicano at 11:13 pm by Administrator
After reading endless articles today about Chris Rock hiring Anthony Pellicano to dig up dirt on a former model who was slapping him with a paternity suit in 1999, I just wanted to nominate Defamer for kudos after having my favorite comment on the feigned innocence of Pellicano’s clients about his illegal tactics.
[They all have] got a good point–after you meet in that dark corner of the parking garage to hand over the brown paper bag full of unmarked bills in small denominations, you expect the private dick to put on his dark glasses and trench coat, scale a tree with a pair of comically oversized binoculars, and show up two days later with a manila envelope marked “incriminating evidence–for your eyes only.” You have no reason to think he’s going to pay off some cops to run illegal background checks or tap their phones.
Trying to be fair and balanced here, perhaps Defamer is being a tad harsh on Pellicano’s former employers back in the day knowing of his criminal activities. They were all very important A-list types, who probably were just too busy with their very important work to read the newspaper, go on the Internet or watch television much.
As early on as 1973, when Pellicano was still based out of Chicago, an electronic eavesdropping device discovered attached to a telephone in the Chicago office of the Secretary of State, Michael J. Hewlett, was strangely attached to the now disenfranchised gumshoe at the time. Pellicano always did have a cozy relationship with law enforcement that he’s nurtured since his origins in the windy city. In 1977, when the investigation into the peculiar disappearance and reappearance of Mike Todd’s remains could go no further unless Pellicano divulged his informant, the state’s attorney refused to subpoena Pellicano and the investigation was closed. Gee, must be really nice to enjoy special immunity when you’re not even a member of the media or the government.
In the 1980’s, the federal prosecutor in the DeLorean cocaine case accused Pellicano of purposely destroying part of the FBI’s evidence. Then there was the fortunate disappearance of Monica Harmon, the secretary at Paramount who had threatened the ascendancy of the Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer team.
Since the 1990’s, Pellicano’s exploits had become legendary in Tinseltown. In 1990, when Pellicano was acting as chief goon for the National Enquirer, Rod Lurie, a writer from Los Angeles Magazine who had embarked upon his own tabloid investigation had an unfortunate accident on his bicycle. On March 11, Rod Lurie was riding his bicycle near his home in Pasadena. An unmarked car (no plates) drove up behind him, suddenly sped up, and whacked Lurie fifty feet into space. The bicycle was instant scrap, and Lurie wound up in the hospital with two broken ribs and a busted back. Lurie was resolute: “It was no accident,” he said hoarsely. “That car hit me on purpose. There’s absolutely no doubt about it … I saw the guy veer over and go right for me….The tabloids warned me if I didn’t back off I’d be sorry. I think they just made good on their threat.” Pellicano had threatened Lurie prior to his accident that his life was going to be disrupted in ways that he couldn’t even “begin to imagine.” Pellicano had begun a nonstop campaign to hound all the journalists involved in the tabloid expose. Another reporter working on a story about the Enquirer, Stuart Goldman was sent hush money by Pellicano. When Goldman changed his private telephone number — which he did frequently — Pellicano would call soon after just to let Goldman know he’d made the new number already. So as early as 16 years ago the Pelican enjoyed a rep as an expert bug and wire man.
In 1993, Maureen Orth, writing for Vanity Fair about the Michael Jackson sexual abuse allegations, said that, “Anthony Pellicano’s greatest strength lay in getting people not to talk…Cabell Bruce, a producer for Hard Copy, told of going up to the front porch of a woman who worked at Neverland and trying to talk to her. “She literally started shaking, her eyes filled with tears, and all she could say was ‘Call Mr. Pellicano.’” Diane Dimond of Hard Copy complained that every time she found a source who had been close to Michael Jackson the response is “Mr. Pellicano has asked us not to say anything.” Diane Dimond, who along with local KNBC had broken more new developments in the case than anyone else, said that she had received messages via other reporters from Pellicano: “Tell Diane Dimond I’m watching her.” “Tell her I hope her health is good.” Dimond was unabashed about telling everybody that she thought her phone was actively being tapped by Pellicano during that time.
Back in 1994, John Connolly writing for Los Angeles Magazine noted that Anthony Pellicano had become quite renown by then as “the Neutralizer,” “the Intimidator” and “Thug to the Stars.”
This tawdry saga grows more sordid moving forward in time, but perhaps there’s enough information already here to decide that the Defamer was not being too harsh in their snarky quip about the pristine innocence of Pellicano’s clients to the man’s methods. Get more snarky please and quickly.
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Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, pellicano at 2:43 am by Administrator
Anthony Pellicano committed many heinous crimes, the least of which is probably wiretapping. So why is the present media hullabaloo about the disgraced P.I. concerned primarily with the rich people he snooped on for other rich people? Frankly, who really cares?
Most of us are never going to attain that sort of wealth, despite our devoted weekly purchase of a lottery ticket. Most of us are also never going to be paid at least $100,000 for only one month of our services. Honestly, if I want to know what’s going on in my neighborhood, I tend to bring Starbucks to the local gossip and get more than an earful. For that matter, if I desire tidbits about my family, well, I have a certain gay cousin that I use as a source. I must admit, before going much further, that I too used to avidly watch “Dallas” and delighted in the foils of the Ewings even though being born in the South Bronx is a tad removed from a Texas oil family.
This is not an attempt to denigrate our healthy need to engage in fantasy play, not at all. It is just a reminder that what went on with Pellicano was unfortunately very real. The man terrorized Los Angeles for over two decades strangely unfettered. Though what might be parading through the newspapers is the list of A-list types who were momentarily inconvenienced, what about the more common folk who got caught in Pellicano’s depraved games? They probably don’t have the finances, let alone spirit anymore, to sue for a gazillion dollars to gain compensation for their emotional suffering. Remember, most normal people aren’t attention whores, so they won’t be giving interviews to reporters either.
Let me share some of the stories I’ve learned since doing this website and blog…and no, I will never give out names. There was the unwed mother who had a history of drug use who Pellicano kept in servitude to a certain producer by threatening to report her to Child Services. There was a screenwriter whose handicapped child was directly intimidated. There was an optician who knew too much and was stalked and hounded till she lost her professional license and custody of her children. There was a paralegal that was raped and desperately keeps trying to just get on with her life. There was a professional musician who was involved in a certain famous murder, who endlessly has gone on Internet discussions since 1995, searching for someone, anyone, to believe his story. There was this man in Las Vegas who frankly didn’t make any coherent sense anymore. There were divorcing wives and husbands. There was a doctor, a chauffeur, a sound editor…..I’m not done with my list by any means, but overstatement rarely wins kudos.
These people weren’t wiretapped. They were blackmailed, threatened, subject to extortion and character assassination. If you had your druthers, wouldn’t you rather just be wiretapped? Personally, I would. Damn, all whoever would hear was me talking to my gay cousin about the exploits of my brother’s lesbian ex-wife.
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04.21.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, pellicano at 12:57 am by Administrator
What sorts of services did Anthony Pellicano really provide for his clients that gave him such a Teflon shield to any real scrutiny for over the past two decades?
Well, besides creating false paranoia in the little boys’ club that is the Hollywood elite to make himself seem indispensable, Pellicano could also make messy things wash away better than Chlorox on soiled underwear. He sure helped the federal government get rid of those pesky conspiracy theorists for the JFK assassination. Being an equal opportunity employee, he also testified that that crucial 18.5 minutes of the Watergate tapes were “accidentally” erased by Nixon’s secretary. Pellicano literally wiped away a portion of the FBI’s tape of Delorean making that drug deal, according to a lead prosecutor on the case. He cleaned up the messy situation with that secretary for Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and the poor woman hasn’t talked to anyone since. He was involved in the Heidi Fleiss scandal and has anyone ever really seen that oft-mentioned little black book since then? He also was superb at thoroughly confusing everyone as to what really happened with the O.J. Simpson case. Pellicano got rather heavy handed with the Michael Jackson sexual abuse scandal, but then MJ didn’t have to flee to Bahrain after that one and sell his Beatle’s catalogue. Some critical evidence seemed to have vanished for the prosecutor’s case back in 1993 with Pellicano’s assistance. He tidied up again for Jerry Bruckheimer after Don Simpson’s excesses caused both the death of his live-in friend and his own. He sure scrubbed down bimbo-gate, and if Monica hadn’t had that stained blue dress nothing might really have come of it. John Gordon Jones, the serial date rapist, got off a free man and the women are still reluctant to talk about their ordeal today. Finally, how many rumors were there that Tom Cruise was gay which vanished into thin air? This list could keep on going, but I’m catching that some of the reading audience here is beginning to nod off.
So Pellicano had a sanitizing service of sorts in addition to his wiretapping enterprise. He could bring in his cleaning crew anytime and anyplace to make sure things were left spotless for his clients. He’d use blackmail, extortion, and his numerous media and law enforcement contacts as well as just about anything necessary in addition to his wiretapping expertise to ensure that many crimes saw as little daylight as possible.
What ever happened to the victims of those crimes that Pellicano so assiduously cleaned? Does anyone really care anymore or is it just more fun to watch the mighty as they tumble from grace?
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04.20.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, los angeles times, pellicano at 3:51 am by Administrator
Just sent off the following letter to David Garcia, the media co-ordinator of the Los Angeles Times, asking him for a bit more elucidation about his newspaper’s involvement with Anthony Pellicano. I will be posting his reply. He is currently out of the office till April 24, 2006.
Dear Mr Garcia,
I noticed yesterday that you made a statement to Nikki Finke regarding your newspaper’s past involvement with Anthony Pellicano. I was hoping that you might be able to clarify your statement further along the following lines of inquiry:
1. Did the LAT ever use Pellicano’s services without financial reimbursement but in a fashion that might be considered as mutually beneficial for both parties?
2. Did LAT reporters, either staff or freelance, ever use tips from Mr. Pellicano verbatim as an anonymous source without corroborating the information?
3. Did the LAT ever give preferential treatment to stories about Pellicano’s clients, many of whom have helped provide substantial advertising revenue for your paper in the past?
4. With what frequency was Mr. Pellicano in the LAT’s offices and were person’s related to the LAT in Mr. Pellicano’s offices? What was the frequency of phone contact with Mr. Pellicano and by whom?
5. Did your staff or freelance employees ever receive monetary gifts or favors from Mr. Pellicano?
6. Were any of your staff or freelance employees also on Mr. Pellicano’s payroll?
7. One of your staff reporters, Chuck Philips, as recently as last year, boasted to other journalists that he had a very “special” relationship with Mr. Pellicano. Could you please have Mr. Philips define what he meant by very “special”.
8. Can you explain what has come to be regarded by many as your newspaper’s positive bias towards Pellicano and his clients in your articles, both in the past and recently?
Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Nomi Fredrick M.D.
http://anthonypellicanoweblinks.com
http://anthonypellicanoweblinks.com/blog
For anyone interested in sending Mr. Garcia an email, please write to him at david.garcia@latimes.com.
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04.19.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, los angeles times, pellicano at 12:27 am by Administrator
David Garcia, the Los Angeles Times’ director of media relations actually made a statement to Nicki Finke today, after refusing to respond to numerous other reporters’ queries: “The Los Angeles Times, including its legal department, has never hired Anthony Pellicano ever. This includes in-house legal counsel as well as any outside legal counsel working on behalf of the Times.” Nicki is polite in attributing the response to a “semantics game”. I’ll be so politically incorrect as to call it a likely bold misrepresentation of the truth.
I’m absolutely not calling Mr. Garcia a fibber, but his statement reminds me of a particularly cogent quote from Upton Sinclair:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Even if Mr. Garcia does indeed understand the situation at the LAT, he still seems very careful to avoid mention of if his employer ever used Pellicano’s services without financial reimbursement, sort of in the vain of I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine. Did his newspaper’s reporters ever use Pellicano’s tidbits as uncorroborated sources of information for their stories? Did the LAT ever bury stories out of service to Pellicano’s clients while putting others on their front page, vis a vis the type of trading that Pellicano was famous for doing with the tabloids from the Mitteager tapes? Was Pellicano ever in their offices? Were their reporters ever in Pellicano’s offices? Did their staff receive any monetary gifts or favors from the disgraced P.I.? Were any of the LAT’s staff also on Pellicano’s payroll? Those are just a few of the many questions that Mr. Garcia should be able to clearly answer for both the LAT’s public and the journalistic community at this point.
Just on the face value of what Mr. Garcia said, and hoping for it to be true, I might conclude that the LAT never actually paid to have someone wiretapped though the paper still might have benefitted from Pellicano’s ill gotten spoils in their scoops on the entertainment industry. Essentially then no federal crime was committed by his newspaper. What I have no sense of however from Mr Garcia’s statement was if the LAT acted in an ethical manner delivering news objectively in a way that was fair and balanced to a city of over 9 million.
Mr. Garcia, I think I’ll write you a letter myself. If you answer, I promise to not only post it here but also distribute it to every journalist I know to stop those ugly rumors that have been circulating around Tinseltown about the Los Angeles Times’ collusive involvement with Anthony Pellicano.
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04.18.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, pellicano at 7:55 am by Administrator
What exactly were Donald Re’s connections to Anthony Pellicano? Besides being a criminal attorney and Princeton educated what were his connections to the Pellicano mess? It appears that they were both very complicated and probably conflictual most of the time. Ross Johnson brought this up a bit ago, and on further digging the story gets even more sordid. As Johnson said Re was Pellicano’s first criminal attorney and even tried to represent Alexander Proctor way back in 2002. The federal prosecutors told Re they considered Pellicano a conspiracy suspect in the threats against Anita Busch. It was a serious conflict of interest if Re represented one client, Proctor, who might roll over on the Busch extortion charges against another Re client, Pellicano. So Re decided to leave that one well enough alone but somehow had no problem with remaining Bert Fields’ criminal attorney as well as Pellicano’s when this whole debacle started. He just happened to be Howard Weitzman’s old partner to boot.
Re has a history of representing the unsavory as well as thugs tied into the mob. Perhaps they like his Ivy League credentials or something. He was Al Cowlings’ lawyer in the O.J. Simpson trial, in which Pellicano was also involved. Pellicano not only was Mark Fuhrman’s P.R. person but was seen by Alfred Dunton outside Nicole Simpson’s house the night of her and Ron Goldman’s murder. There were rumors that he was working for O.J. at the time, or was that Bert Fields, correction Howard Wietzman?
This all leads me to strongly suggest that someone, anyone really, think of at least questioning Donald Re. It’s only a suggestion from a blogger, but still…..
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Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, los angeles times, mass media, pellicano at 3:19 am by Administrator
All those skeletons in people’s closets must really be rattling by now if they were ever involved with Anthony Pellicano. The sixth person in the Pellicano investigation, director John McTiernan, rolled with a sealed plea agreement which likely indicates he’s ratting others out to the prosecutors at this very moment. If things keep going this way, there are soon going to be more guys pleading guilty than proclaiming their continued innocence in the case. It does give one pause to think how much longer Pellicano will be able to maintain his mum posture. If he continues tight-lipped he will likely die an old man in prison. A deal with the U.S. Attorney would really be in his best interest, sheesh…just look what Abramoff is going to be getting away with. Maybe some of the A-list Hollywood types and government politicos are threatening Pellicano’s family or offering financial renumeration to buy his continued silence. After all, the man has nine children and six ex-wives still to support.
The Los Angeles Times had peculiarly unique reporting, once again, about McTiernan’s plea bargain. Even though Reuters reported that McTiernan admitted that he had lied to agents when he said that he had not asked Pellicano to wiretap producer Charles Roven, the Los Angeles Times quoted McTiernan as simultaneously saying that he did not know that Pellicano had used illegal wiretaps in any investigation. Perhaps the LAT’s reporter, Andrew Blankstein, was just in the wrong courtroom this afternoon. As Nicki Finke commented, the Los Angeles Times’ inability to hit hard at the Hollywood types caught up in the Pellicano mess thus far has given rise to some major rumors. The newspaper itself probably hired Pellicano to do work for it’s legal department in the past as well as used him as an anonymous source for a number of their articles. They had a consistently favorable bias (or lack of any real coverage) for most of Pellicano’s clients, including Delorean, Belushi, Judas Priest, Michael Jackson, Don Simpson and serial date rapist Gordon Jones, let alone the disgraced gumshoe himself. So whose going to investigate the Los Angeles Times, the FBI or the New York Times?
I call “tails.”
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04.13.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, mass media, pellicano at 4:02 am by Administrator
The Pellicano Case: Recently, I met with a talent manager who hired Anthony Pellicano during the mid-1990’s, on behalf of a movie-star client with a female-stalker problem. As the manager recounted it, their first meeting eerily foreshadowed Jared Paul Stern: “Pellicano offered us a laundry list—a menu—and asked exactly how far we wanted to take this,” the manager said. “Nobody can plead naïve here. We all knew exactly what we’d bargained for and what we were getting billed for.”—Bruce Fierstein, New York Observer
It’s not that this revelation about Anthony Pellicano is exactly new but it’s beyond the imagination as to why more reporters in Los Angeles aren’t mentioning it. Not withstanding the complaints of his victims but Pellicano’s very own clients have publicly admitted using his wiretapping services since at least 1993. Howard Wietzman was the first one to laud the disgraced P.I.’s skills in the area. When Pellicano illicitily taped a phone conversation with attorney Barry Rothman, who represented the accuser’s father in the 1993 Michael Jackson sexual abuse scandal, Weitzman said that although Rothman was not informed that the 25 minute conversation with Pellicano was being taped, Pellicano was not breaking the law because it permitted secret taping in cases of suspected extortion. The Jackson camp subsequently purported to have other tapes, most of which didn’t involve conversations with Pellicano. I asked not just a few people about the veracity of what Weitzman had mentioned about the legality of the wiretaps, and suffice it to say that they had a very different opinion of what the laws on wiretapping were in California back in 1993.
In the Gordon Jones multiple date rape case, both Jones’ attorneys, Ronald Richards and Daniel Davis have publicly acknowledged listening to illegal tapes made by Pellicano, but they denied authorizing the taps. Pellicano’s recordings included more than 30 phone calls made by Jane Doe No. 3, one of Jones’ alleged victims. Davis’ bail motions included portions of Jane Doe No. 3’s taped conversations that could only have come from illicit recordings. According to a memo written by Davis, Richards suggested that one of the rape victims be pressured not to cooperate with prosecutors, but Davis worried that the alleged victim would ask the D.A. to start a “formal inquiry.” Richards had told Jane Doe No. 3 the defense had tapes of her phone calls. Davis told Richards that the tapes “would not legally be admissible” in court, and that they could “implicate Pellicano and Richards in a conspiracy to illegally tape conversations.”
D.A. Steve Cooley admitted that the Garcetti administration investigated Pellicano’s activities in 1999. Court documents and police records from the Jones case reinforce the notion that prosecutors knew about the illegal wiretaps in 1999 as well.
So the question is not who knew what Pellicano was doing, but who didn’t?
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04.09.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, mass media, pellicano at 8:47 pm by Administrator
Just wanted to share some musings from a veteran LAPD officer about the Anthony Pellicano case:
“You know what is kind of interesting. All the things about Pellicano were talked about in hushed tones 5….10 years ago. Everyone knew he was an asshole, hell I even heard about him and I’m a zero, all except the feds for who he did work for. Isn’t it funny how the feds come on the tail end of things like this after all the carnage and damage he was allowed to perpetrate, just like 9-11. The feds are like the Highway Patrol, where are they when you need them? I could just go on and on. The more you read about them the less you will like them, just like Pellicano. You may quote me.”
My friend’s email is bothering me, despite my morning run, especially in light of the fact that Pellicano did work regularly for the federal government since the late ’70s. Albeit the Los Angeles media’s positive bias towards Pellicano certainly didn’t facilitate the unearthing of nasty details about the man and neither did his many friends in local law enforcement besides just Mark Arneson. But why was the federal government using Pellicano so very much as an expert practically up until his incarceration? As recently as 2001 Pellicano was hired to analyze the FBI’s audio tapes of former Ku Klux Klansmen in the 1963 church bombing that killed four Black school girls. Don’t they have anyone more skilled working there than Michael Brown lately?
There’s also that bit about Hilary Clinton’s association to Pellicano in the Bill sex-gate scandals. Not so much for the fact that the powers that were back in the 90’s tried to hush the opposition (just look at the news for the past few days on President Bush) but for the fact that they hired Pellicano for that task. Why did our former first couple turn to a high school drop out and a two bit thug from the South side of Chicago for protection of their vital interests? Couldn’t they get better?
As long as I’m fixating on this, how did Pellicano in 1978 get $300,000 to finance his own analysis of the McGruder tapes that were then submitted and accepted (though never requested) by the Select Committee on Assassinations. Why did the committee ever even listen to him, let alone take Pellicano seriously enough that his analysis helped definitely solve that only one shooter was involved in the JFK assassination? Why was Pellicano the sole expert allowed to testify that that crucial 18.5 minutes of Nixon’s conversation on the Watergate tapes had been “accidentally erased” by Rosemary Woods? After all, all Pellicano had done to that time of note was find Mike Todd’s missing remains for Elizabeth Taylor.
This whole Pellicano mess could really get a whole lot uglier. It’s a damn shame that Fitzgerald is tied up with that Plame business right now. Wonder if he has a brother…
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04.08.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, mass media, pellicano at 3:45 am by Administrator
Robert Pfeifer was the fifth person to plead guilty to federal charges in the ongoing Anthony Pellicano investigation. Pfeifer, a former music company executive of Disney-owned Hollywood Records, pleaded guilty to paying Anthony Pellicano at least $125,000 to illegally wiretap an ex-girlfriend, Erin Finn, who had testified against him in a business dispute. That leaves eight of the indicted who’ve yet to roll over, including Pellicano. In total three have fessed up without even being indicted, Pfieffer, Sandra Carradine and Beverly Hills police officer Craig Stevens.
This should all get kind of interesting with Pelicano’s attorney, Stephen Gruel, arguing that the certain documents aren’t admissible but with five former Pellicano clients already stating (without coercion) that the statements within them are true.
Nicki Finke, of LA Weekly, recently started talking about the analogy of “rats” in relationship to the Pellicano investigation. Least I presume that that implies “rats leaving a sinking ship” which I totally agree with. Bullies have always been rats, which I learned long ago from a public school yard in the inner city.
It seems that U.S. Attorney Saunders is an exceptionally skilled prosecutor. Rather than going after the ‘big fish’ initially, he chooses to go after the ‘little fish’ who are most likely to fold and help build the government’s case. After all, Saunders does have infinite time to prosecute anyone he wants to under Ricco laws, which is what he’s operating under. What’s becoming painfully apparent, and completely undermining any Hollywood hype, is that Anthony Pellicano would work for any one who would pay his exorbitant fees, not just celebrity types. The imprisoned P.I. absolutely didn’t care if he was being asked to cover up crimes that ranged from rape to child molestation to tired and blaise Tinseltown scandals. Let’s not even get into if his clients were guilty or not. If someone would pay him at least $100,000 Pellicano was the definitely the go-to guy for the rich and now infamous.
Let me take this blog space on the Internet to fully commend Daniel Saunders and FBI Special Agent Stan Ornellas for their excellent work to this point on the Anthony Pellicano investigation. Dear God, someone has to, what with all the defense attorneys now complaining that their clients are ’suffering’ with the prolonged prosecution of the Pellicano case and the media gossips itching for blood. I know it’s all been painfully slow but it’s damn fruitful. Congrats!
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04.07.06
Posted in anthony pellicano, crimes, pellicano at 7:33 pm by Administrator
Watching the Anthony Pellicano debacle unfold I’m always amazed at the number of people who become ensnared in the traps they build for others. The good news is though that another Hollywood dipshit hit the wall with Pellicano this past week on perjury charges.
What still seems difficult to believe is that these guys are even giving the FBI the time of day. But they do, and they think they can lie and get away with it. Maybe with the locals, but the FBI has a cool US Title Code that says if you lie to them they will give you five years in a federal prison. Pretty good reason not to talk to them if you’re not frankly delusional and you know that you did something very wrong. Any sensible average person in the same situation would make the Feds at least earn a filing and a conviction with their silence.
Is it that these idiots just don’t think that they are doing anything wrong even if it is flagrantly against the law? Sheesh, raping women, extortion and covering up crime scenes just aren’t cool. It’s not particularly polite to threaten, initimidate, blackmail and wiretap people either. Dunno, maybe none of these people ever got punished for anything before because they are just…that special.
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