Her sister, Monica Zsibrita, a model, demanded money from comedian Chris Rock because of her pregnancy, he testified reluctantly. (He was not the father.) Rock hired Pellicano to investigate her.
The fact that most of Pellicano's clients were not prosecuted wasn't lost on defense attorneys.
During his closing argument on behalf of Arneson, the ex-cop, attorney Chad Hummel ticked off a list of seven people who testified that they had listened to wiretapped conversations -- but were never criminally charged. Prosecutor Saunders, the model of high dudgeon during the trial, scoffed in his closing arguments: "As if that makes his client any less corrupt." The statute of limitations for prosecuting wiretapping had run out in some cases, Saunders said.
The trial was laced with references to Pellicano's self-styled operatic sense of loyalty, which he seemed to have borrowed from "The Sopranos."
One of the several pass codes necessary to get into his highly secured computer system was omerta -- the Italian word for the Sicilian code of keeping silent about crimes and refusing to cooperate with police.
Prosecutors played in court a conversation between Pellicano and a man whose brother was charged with bookmaking. The private detective tells the man: "If you're a rat, don't even come anywhere . . . near me. 'Cause I will hurt you. I don't deal with rats. I am an old-style Sicilian, you understand, and I don't want to have nothing to do with any . . . rats."
Of course, the words rang out in an open courtroom for all the world to hear.
--
carla.hall@latimes.com
tami.abdollah@latimes.com
Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.
--
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
The verdicts
Anthony Pellicano, 64, private eye
Convicted:
* Racketeering, 1 count
* Racketeering conspiracy,
1 count
* Honest services wire fraud, 19 counts
* Unauthorized access of national law enforcement database, 18 counts
* Identity theft, 13 counts
* Computer fraud, 13 counts
* Conspiracy to wiretap,
1 count
* Wiretapping (of specific individuals), 9 counts
* Manufacture or possession of a wiretapping device,
1 count
Acquitted:
* Unauthorized access of national law enforcement computer database, 1 count
Mark Arneson, 54, former LAPD sergeant
Convicted: (all counts)
* Racketeering, 1 count
