In the throes of a rancorous divorce from a now-dead multimillionaire, Jude Green remembers the day five years ago when a sullen stranger confronted her outside a Santa Monica dog groomer where she'd taken her Shih Tzu for a trim.
Arms folded, eyes behind dark glasses, he had blocked her car with his and stood nearby, striking a menacing pose without uttering a word. Then he followed her to a nearby coffee shop, again boxing in her vehicle.
At the time, Green thought he "was just some jerk." Only later did she realize who it was: Anthony Pellicano.
"I saw his picture in the paper and I said, 'Oh, my God. That's the guy!' " Green, 53, said in an interview.
It was her only personal encounter with the Hollywood private eye, now indicted on federal wiretapping and racketeering charges. But Green said he also threatened one of her lawyers in her divorce from financier Leonard I. Green, and she suspects he was behind other incidents, including a telephone threat and the slashing of her Lincoln Navigator's tires two days after she testified before a federal grand jury in his case in 2003.
Though details of Green's once-lavish lifestyle and acrimonious divorce have been aired previously, her account sheds new light on why her name is on the government's list of Pellicano's alleged victims. It also underscores the investigator's penchant for hardball tactics and his role as a "negotiator" for the well-heeled clients -- or their lawyers -- who allegedly unleashed him.
But far from being Hollywood's best-kept secret, Green said, Pellicano's down-and-dirty approach was so well known in certain circles that two of her lawyers told her that opposing counsel -- prominent divorce attorney Dennis Wasser -- had hired him.
"One of the first attorneys I hired came right out and said, 'Dennis Wasser just told me down at the courthouse that Pellicano's on your case,' " Green said, recalling the lawyer's cautionary advice: "You need to get a cross-cut shredder because he's going to be going through your garbage and he's going to be checking your background. And you'd better get your house swept because your phones are probably tapped as well."
Green interpreted the advice as a not-so-subtle message, from Pellicano and Wasser, designed to force a quick settlement. And she said her lawyers viewed Pellicano's involvement with a business-as-usual attitude.
"They let me know that this is the way of life in L.A. family law," Green said.
