The Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles has barred a New York Times reporter from the facility for allegedly misrepresenting herself in an effort to interview Anthony Pellicano, the celebrity detective at the center of a Hollywood wiretapping scandal.
Allison Hope Weiner, who has written about the Pellicano case, got into the jail last month after presenting a State Bar of California card and asking to speak with the investigator. Weiner, who earned a degree 20 years ago from the USC law school, is registered with the California bar but has never done legal work for Pellicano or the New York Times.
Michael Benov, warden of the detention center, issued an order in February saying that, for security reasons, no one could visit Pellicano except his lawyer or immediate family. After learning that Weiner was admitted to a room in the jail where prisoners meet with their lawyers, Benov ordered an investigation.
Guards brought Pellicano from his cell to the meeting room, but he refused to talk to Weiner after learning that she was a reporter.
A spokeswoman for the New York Times confirmed that Weiner had received a letter from Benov permanently barring her from the facility.
The spokeswoman, Diane McNulty, said the newspaper believed that the ban was unjustified and intended to appeal Benov's action to the regional director of the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Benov and detention center spokeswoman Monica DeVore did not respond to requests for comment.
Weiner referred questions to the New York Times spokeswoman.
The reporter, who writes for the newspaper under contract, went to the detention center June 14 and asked to speak to Pellicano, who is being held without bail while he awaits trial on racketeering and wiretapping charges.
According to McNulty, Weiner identified herself as a New York Times reporter. The spokeswoman said officials informed Weiner that only immediate family members and lawyers could see the inmate. Weiner then told the guard that she was a journalist and a lawyer -- "but not Pellicano's lawyer," McNulty said.
"Our reporter was very clear and forthright about her intentions and who she was," McNulty said.
The New York Times ethics code states that "staff members may not pose as police officers,\o7 \f7lawyers, businesspeople or anyone else when they are working as journalists."
