Private Detectives

Former private investigator Anthony Pellicano has a reputation for bravado, which was on full display Tuesday morning as he instructed a judge and a courtroom full of lawyers on legal procedure -- from the downtown Los Angeles jail where he is awaiting trial on illegal wiretapping and racketeering charges. Pellicano is accused of eavesdropping on opponents of his Hollywood and business clients to gain information that would help his clients in legal battles.

Former private investigator Anthony Pellicano and five codefendants pleaded not guilty Monday to a new wiretapping and racketeering indictment after a contentious hearing over potentially crucial evidence. Throughout the 90-minute hearing before U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer, federal prosecutors and defense attorneys clashed over whether the government has turned over a mountain of tapes, FBI interviews and other evidence in a timely manner.

Defense attorneys for Anthony Pellicano have asked prosecutors for documents they say will show that authorities first investigated the Hollywood private eye for allegedly audiotaping an FBI agent. The government has said the long-running probe stemmed from a threat against a Los Angeles Times reporter investigating organized crime in Hollywood.

Attorneys for Anthony Pellicano are mounting a new legal attack to strip the prosecution of its most potent evidence, contending that an FBI agent concealed information and then lied about it to convince a judge to let him search the Hollywood private eye's office. That search five years ago, the government said, turned up thousands of hours of tapes of celebrities and attorneys -- the basis for wiretapping and racketeering charges against Pellicano and a dozen others.

Almost 17 months after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about hiring indicted Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano, film director John McTiernan on Monday sought to withdraw his plea on grounds that the government's case relied on inadmissible evidence. The surprise move surfaced during the scheduled sentencing of the 56-year-old director, whose film credits include "Die Hard" and "Predator."

The government's investigation of Anthony Pellicano yielded the first prison term for a major Hollywood figure Monday when a federal judge ordered director John McTiernan to spend four months behind bars for lying to the FBI about hiring the indicted private investigator. With some stinging comments about McTiernan and what U.S. District Judge Dale S.

The wife of a U.S. businessman and former FBI agent who disappeared nine months ago during a trip to Iran said Saturday that she was leaving the country with no new clues about his whereabouts. Christine Levinson, wife of private investigator Robert Levinson, arrived in Iran with her son and sister Tuesday to retrace her husband's steps during what was supposed to have been a 24-hour trip in March to the southern Iranian island of Kish.

The investigation of former Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano took a significant turn Tuesday with the disclosure that his onetime girlfriend and a veteran Beverly Hills police officer have pleaded guilty to lying about the detective's use of wiretaps and other illegal tactics.

Former private investigator Anthony Pellicano will be returned to Los Angeles from a federal prison near Bakersfield as early as today to face new charges that he and others illegally used wiretaps and confidential law enforcement records to help his clients, sources said Thursday.

His name is nowhere in Monday's 60-page indictment of celebrity gumshoe and alleged wiretapper Anthony Pellicano. But the shadow of 76-year-old lawyer Bertram Fields, who for years employed Pellicano as an investigator, looms over the case. Listed throughout the indictment are a host of alleged victims, including such prominent names as actor Sylvester Stallone and comic Garry Shandling, who battled with Fields' clients.