Court documents released Tuesday show that FBI agents did not examine private investigator Anthony Pellicano's sophisticated audio lab during their initial November 2002 search of his Sunset Strip offices, raising new questions about the handling of the probe.
After the November search, the court documents show, FBI agents waited almost two months to seize computers and other items from the lab.
With prosecutors publicly acknowledging that they have only one allegedly wiretapped conversation on tape, the time lapse between searches raises the possibility that Pellicano or others could have removed audio files or potential evidence in the case from computers in the lab.
In recent court proceedings, federal prosecutors said they had seized 1,300 audio recordings from Pellicano's offices, nearly 300 of which remain encrypted.
The newly released documents also show that Anita Busch, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who was allegedly threatened at Pellicano's behest in June 2002, also told authorities that someone had hacked into her personal computer and tapped her telephone.
So far, Pellicano and 13 others have been charged in the federal probe of wiretapping, racketeering, witness tampering and other crimes. Seven of Pellicano's co-defendants already have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from lying to the FBI to hiring Pellicano to engage in illegal wiretapping.
He and his remaining co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges that they used wiretaps and illegal background checks to obtain "confidential, embarrassing or incriminating" information, typically to help attorneys and other clients gain an advantage in civil or criminal litigation.
They are scheduled to go on trial in October.
The court papers released Tuesday relate to three of six searches conducted by authorities in their investigation of Pellicano, which began after he was allegedly linked to the threat against Busch.
Investigating the threat, the FBI first raided Pellicano's offices in November 2002 and hauled away computers, data storage devices and other items, according to the search warrant documents, including affidavits, signed by the lead agent in the case, Stanley Ornellas.
In a January 2003 affidavit, Ornellas said he had spoken to an agent who had participated in the earlier search and was told that nothing was taken from the audio lab at Pellicano's offices.
