Attorneys for Anthony Pellicano are mounting a new legal attack to strip the prosecution of its most potent evidence, contending that an FBI agent concealed information and then lied about it to convince a judge to let him search the Hollywood private eye's office.
That search five years ago, the government said, turned up thousands of hours of tapes of celebrities and attorneys -- the basis for wiretapping and racketeering charges against Pellicano and a dozen others.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday June 16, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 4 inches; 151 words Type of Material: Correction
Pellicano investigation: An article in the June 7 California section about defense efforts to challenge the search that led to wiretapping charges against Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano referred to New York film producer Julius Nasso as a reputed Gambino crime family member. In a federal indictment charging Nasso with conspiring with members of the Gambino crime family to extort millions of dollars from actor Steven Seagal, Nasso was named an associate of the crime family, not a member. He pleaded guilty in 2003 and was sentenced to one year in prison. The article also said the case had yet to live up to its billing as a major Hollywood scandal, netting so far several guilty pleas to perjury charges. It should have said the case so far has netted guilty pleas for perjury, lying, wiretapping, computer fraud and other charges, but has not led to convictions of any Hollywood powerhouses.
A trial judge and a federal appeals court earlier refused to throw out the search, saying that even if the warrant was invalid, it was executed in "good faith." But Pellicano's new legal team says new evidence that U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer recently ordered the government to turn over undermines the good faith argument.
Specifically, the defense, in discovery demands, has accused Special Agent Stanley E. Ornellas of failing to tell Chief Magistrate Judge Robert N. Block that an informant tried to sell to a reputed mobster an FBI tape he made of an ex-convict as part of the investigation.
Ornellas also failed to disclose significant discrepancies in the ex-convict's account, they said in discovery demands. And they accused Ornellas of rigging a photo lineup.
"These are things that are beyond mere suspicion, things that are part and parcel of showing that there was a reckless disregard for the truth," defense lawyer Steven F. Gruel told the judge during a recent hearing. "What did Agent Ornellas really know and why is it coming out in piecemeal in some sort of protracted fashion that hides the ball as it progresses?"
Ornellas did not return calls. The FBI declined to comment, referring questions to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, who provided a filing from the earlier legal battle over the search warrant, asserting that Ornellas did nothing reckless or dishonest.
Ornellas' search warrant affidavit went through multiple levels of review at the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles as well as at the Department of Justice's Office of Enforcement Operations in Washington, D.C., the filing says.
The Pellicano wiretapping and racketeering case shook the entertainment industry with its intimations of eavesdropping on the secrets of industry powerhouses. But it has yet to live up to its billing as a major Hollywood scandal, netting so far several guilty pleas to perjury charges.
