Pellicano found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy
All four of his co-defendants are also convicted in a case that revolved around wiretapping and the nasty spats of Hollywood heavyweights.
Private eye Anthony Pellicano was found guilty today of scores of federal charges for conspiring to wiretap and intimidate dozens of celebrities and business executives, including Sylvester Stallone, Garry Shandling and developer Robert Maguire
The jury also delivered guilty verdicts against all four of Pellicano's co-defendants who played various roles in the private eye's sophisticated and illegal scheme to gather personal information on people, which he often used to gain advantages in the courtroom or in business dealings. The co-defendants were former Los Angeles Police Sgt. Mark Arneson, former telephone company field technician Ray Turner, computer expert Kevin Kachikian and businessman Abner Nicherie.
Before the verdicts were read, Pellicano seemed at ease, grinning and scanning the room. But when he realized the jury had found him guilty, he crossed his arms, took his glasses off and looked around with a blank expression. A woman on the jury dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
The verdicts come after a six-year federal investigation and a nine-week trial that laid bare the ruthless side of the rich and famous, who thought nothing of having their adversaries and irritants investigated by an equally ruthless private eye.
Even after the trial, mysteries remained: How much did Pellicano really tell his clients and the lawyers who hired him about his illegal tactics?
This all started with a dead fish on a car. An FBI search in 2002 of Pellicano's offices for evidence relating to that cryptic threat mushroomed into a case poised to implicate billionaires and Hollywood power brokers and put them on trial alongside the private detective they had hired. The powerful would fall, some thought--a cautionary tale for the industry.
But that didn't happen. Pellicano's Hollywood clients -- including Ron Meyer, Michael Ovitz, Brad Grey and Freddy DeMann -- were questioned but never charged. The same held true for Bert Fields, the venerable lawyer to the stars, who hovered like a ghost over the proceedings -- often invoked, as Pellicano's frequent employer and mentor, but never heard or seen.
Fields acknowledged long ago that he had been a subject of the government's probe, but he was not indicted. Still, observers waited breathlessly for Fields to appear as a witness, wondering what he knew. In the end, the closest Fields got to the witness stand was the courthouse cafeteria, where he waited to be called by Chad Hummel, the defense attorney for Arneson, who in the end decided against using his testimony.
