An FBI agent and federal prosecutors repeatedly violated Anthony Pellicano's 6th Amendment right to counsel by having his onetime girlfriend secretly elicit information from him during prison visits, the former private eye's attorneys allege in new court papers.
The accusation of government misconduct is contained in a request by Pellicano's lawyers for an unusual court hearing in which they hope to prove that wiretapping and racketeering charges against him should be dismissed. The request is scheduled to be heard in court today.
In recent days, the U.S. attorney's office and lawyers for Pellicano and his five co-defendants have filed a flurry of motions and opposition papers under deadlines set by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who is presiding over the long-anticipated trial set to begin in February.
In their papers, federal prosecutors revealed that they first discovered that Pellicano's former girlfriend, Sandra Carradine, had lied to them after recovering tapes from Pellicano's offices on which he and Carradine allegedly discussed wiretaps placed on the phone of her ex-husband, actor Keith Carradine. Sandra Carradine pleaded guilty last year to perjury in the case.
The government papers also provide new details into an alleged plot by Pellicano against an ex-con, Alexander Proctor, whom the private eye purportedly hired to threaten a Los Angeles Times reporter. According to the new papers, Sandra Carradine was not asked by authorities to provide information about Pellicano until after she told them in October 2005 that Pellicano had communicated threats against Proctor and others, including a federal prosecutor in the case, Daniel Saunders.
But in their court papers, Pellicano's attorneys have asserted that although he was in state prison on explosives charges, authorities improperly used Sandra Carradine in a "secret, intentional and long term" manner to uncover evidence that could be used against Pellicano and undermine his ability to rebut charges of wiretapping and other crimes.
Attorneys Steven Gruel and Michael Artan say prison records show that Carradine visited Pellicano at Taft State Prison near Bakersfield at least 27 times between August 2005 and January 2006. During that time, they allege, Carradine was essentially a spy for the government, making some 55 calls to Stan Ornellas, the lead FBI agent in the Pellicano case.
