A former top television publicist was arrested Friday on a charge that he illegally eavesdropped for 2 1/2 years on confidential weekly executive staff meetings at the FX cable channel that had earlier fired him.
Los Angeles County law enforcement officials said Randolph Steven Webster, 38, faces one felony count of illegal wiretapping for using a toll-free number to dial, undetected, into meetings held by top executives at the Fox cable channel. Webster was dismissed by FX in July, 2001, in what court papers portray as a bitter falling out with a network executive Webster had once viewed as a father figure and mentor.
Webster, who for two years held the title of vice president of publicity for FX, is the brother-in-law of tennis great Pete Sampras and is married to Stella Sampras Webster, UCLA's head women's tennis coach.
Authorities said that as a senior FX executive, Webster had regularly participated in the meetings. Executives traveling or based outside of Los Angeles were allowed to access the meetings via conference call using a password.
But Webster continued calling in to secretly listen in on the meetings even after moving on to subsequent jobs, court records show. After leaving the News Corp.-owned FX, Webster worked as vice president for corporate communications and marketing planning at the Game Show Network owned jointly by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Digital Inc. Most recently, he was senior vice president for communications for the Universal Television Group until leaving that job this year.
It was unclear whether or how Webster might have used the information he gathered during those conference-call meetings. There also is no evidence that anyone at Game Show Network or Universal was aware of Webster's activities, authorities said.
Still, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey McGrath described Webster's activities as a serious matter.
"I view this almost as industrial espionage," McGrath said. "You had someone working for the competition able to get inside."
Los Angeles lawyer Steve Meister, who represents Webster, called the executive "a longtime professional in Los Angeles with an impeccable reputation" who may have shown a lapse in conduct.
If he did, Meister said, it was because of "unusual professional circumstances" that would be disclosed at trial.
