In his first opportunity to rebut charges that could put him away for life, private eye Anthony Pellicano on Thursday sidestepped the government's allegations that he was the heart and soul of a wiretapping and racketeering ring that empowered celebrities and other well-heeled clients to "discredit and in some cases destroy" their adversaries.
Instead, the enigmatic former investigator, acting as his own attorney, told the packed courtroom of U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer that his successful business "served clients in problem solving" for years.
"That is what [I] was paid for," Pellicano said, "gathering information."
"The evidence will show what it shows," Pellicano added cryptically during his brief remarks.
The surprising statements by the 63-year-old Pellicano came after Assistant U.S. Atty. Kevin M. Lally, in opening remarks, told the eight-man, four-woman jury that Pellicano and his codefendants accessed telephone company records and police files, intimidated witnesses and exploited the justice system for years -- all for personal gain.
"This is a case about corruption in some of society's most fundamental institutions . . . corruption fueled by greed," Lally said. "And at the center of this corruption was Anthony Pellicano."
The self-described private investigator to the stars, Pellicano was not like a "pulp fiction" gumshoe who ekes out a living scrambling from one hard-luck client to the next, Lally said.
On the contrary, the prosecutor told the jury, Pellicano charged $25,000 nonrefundable deposits from people who could pay a "premium price" to win lawsuits, child custody battles or business disputes or for defense against serious criminal charges. And to cinch those victories, Lally alleged, Pellicano routinely used what the prosecutor called the "gold standard" of confidential information: illegal wiretaps.
Outlining nearly a dozen civil and criminal court cases in which Pellicano allegedly used illegal techniques, Lally told the court that the detective paid co-defendant Mark Arneson, a former Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, at least $180,000 to access confidential police records for dirt on people. Lally said he paid another defendant, former SBC field technician Ray Turner, $30,000 to help set up wiretaps of targets.
Those targets, Lally said, included journalists who had written negative stories about star agent Michael Ovitz and women who had accused Los Angeles businessman John Gordon Jones of rape, charges on which he was acquitted in 2001.
