Editor's note: Rachel Abramowitz will be periodically checking in on the trial of Anthony Pellicano -- former private eye to the stars, who faces 79 counts of racketeering, wiretapping, conspiracy and other federal charges -- and writing about what the case means to Hollywood.
It was "Waiting for Godot" week at the Pellicano trial, though for those who follow the shenanigans of the Machiavellian private eye, Godot wasn't a Brechtian invocation of God but of esquire Bertram Fields, famed Hollywood mega-lawyer, and Pellicano's benefactor.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 56 words Type of Material: Correction
Pellicano trial: An article about the Anthony Pellicano trial in Monday's Calendar section said, "It was 'Waiting for Godot' week at the Pellicano trial," and added that "Godot wasn't a Brechtian invocation of God but of esquire Bertram Fields, famed Hollywood mega-lawyer, and Pellicano's benefactor." "Waiting for Godot" was written by Samuel Beckett, not Bertolt Brecht.
For two days last week, Fields lingered at the Roybal Federal Building as he waited for his turn on the witness stand. The government investigated Fields but never charged him with anything, and the litigator has always maintained he knew nothing about his gumshoe's alleged illegal activities. Here, it seemed as if the court was finally going to get to hear from Fields' mouth his professions of innocence.
But ultimately, Fields was never called to testify, leaving some court watchers with an overwhelming sense of frustration and a lack of closure.
Fields' nonappearance capped weeks of backstage drama. First, prosecutor Daniel Saunders announced to the court that he'd been notified by Fields' then attorney, famed trial maven John Keker, that Fields planned to plead the Fifth if called as a witness. Fields would invoke his right not to incriminate himself. Within hours, Fields had contacted the media to say he wasn't planning to take the Fifth, that he had nothing to hide. By the next morning, Keker had been replaced as his lawyer. Then the government decided not to call Fields at all. Then defense lawyer Chad Hummel, who represents Pellicano's LAPD crony Mark Arneson, announced that he intended to question the legal liege, a pronouncement that left Saunders swearing that he'd cross Fields for four hours. Hummel dropped that plan Thursday after Saunders eviscerated his client, Arneson, on cross-examination.
So the public is left to imagine what the 79-year-old lawyer might have said under oath. Would the Harvard-trained Fields, who once wrote a nonfiction book examining Richard III's guilt or innocence, insist that he was naive to Pellicano's alleged repeated forays outside the realms of the law?
Mum's the word
Sure, various clients from Fields' firm Greenberg Glusker such as the ex-wife of Los Angeles developer Robert Maguire, Susan Maguire, hedge fund manager Adam Sender and movie producer Andrew Stevens testified -- albeit with the cover of immunity agreements -- to having repeatedly listened to Pellicano's illegal wiretaps. Sender even testified that he believed Fields' underling David Moriarty knew all about Pellicano's surreptitious listening (an assertion that Moriarty denied via his lawyer).
Then there are the comically blustery musings of Pellicano himself, who on the government's tapes is heard brandishing his friendship with Fields like the gold seal of approval. When Mike Ovitz worries that Pellicano might not take his call, the private eye assures the despairing mogul, "Bert Fields loves you -- I love you." He tells another client, business manager Kenneth Starr, that "Bert is like my blood." According to testimony, Fields suggested Starr hire Pellicano to help fight off a lawsuit from Sylvester Stallone. The government contends that Pellicano, in turn, wiretapped Stallone and proceeded to tell Starr all the specific details of Stallone's legal strategy. On tape, Pellicano intones, "You cannot say a word to anybody in the world about what I just told you. . . . Now, you are not going to tell Bert this. I am."
Of course, it's possible that Pellicano parsed his information delivery to Fields in such a way as to hide his illegal methods. That's what Fields' lawyer Brian Sun contends, noting "there was evidence at trial suggesting that Pellicano was directing his clients not to tell their lawyers what the source of the information was." Indeed, Pellicano repeatedly tells one person after another to keep the secret between them -- which, as the government case suggests, wasn't actually the best way to keep a secret.
Or maybe Fields never plumbed too deep into the murky Pellicano muck, much like his close friend and Greenberg Glusker client, Taylor Thomson, daughter of the late media billionaire Ken Thomson, who hired Pellicano to investigate her former nanny. "I want you to do whatever you can to get whatever information you need to on" her, Taylor tells Pellicano on tape played in court. "I'm not gonna ask any questions."
To many, the mere appearance of so many Greenberg Glusker clients working with the likes of the thuggish Pellicano raises eyebrows.
