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Celebrity sleuth Pellicano re-arrested in Calif
2006-02-03
Private eye to the stars Anthony Pellicano, freed from prison on Friday after serving 2 1/2 years for firearms offenses, was immediately arrested again in a federal wiretap investigation closely watched in Hollywood. The charges were contained in sealed court documents that will be made public when Pellicano, 61, is arraigned on Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, said Inspector Jimell Griffin, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service. The former private detective whose clients have included Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Michael Jackson, has been quoted as vowing never to betray his high-profile clients. Still, a number of Hollywood heavyweights have answered questions from federal agents or appeared before the grand jury that conducted the investigation, among them Paramount Pictures Group Chairman Brad Grey, Universal Studios President Ron Meyer and veteran entertainment lawyer Bert Fields. The scope of the charges will reveal whether federal prosecutors believe he acted at the behest of powerful Hollywood clients willing to eavesdrop on their enemies. The wiretap probe was triggered in 2002 by accusations that Pellicano had tried to intimidate reporter Anita Busch, then working for the Los Angeles Times, to keep her from pursing stories about a suspected Mafia extortion plot against actor Steven Seagal. FBI agents searching Pellicano's West Hollywood office found computer files containing large volumes of wiretap transcripts and notes, as well as firearms, grenades and plastic explosives in a safe. The weapons discovery led to his guilty plea on felony firearms charges in October 2003 and a 30-month prison term. Pellicano was taken into custody as he was released from the Taft Correctional Institution near Bakersfield, California, where he was serving that sentence. Griffin said Pellicano was then transferred to the San Bernardino County Jail, east of Los Angeles, to be held until his arraignment, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday. In June, the Los Angeles County district attorney charged Pellicano in a separate case with making criminal threats against Busch and conspiring with an associate, Alexander Proctor, to carry out those threats. According to prosecutors, it was Proctor who placed a dead fish with a rose in its mouth on the windshield of Busch's car outside her home in June 2002. He also is accused of making a hole that resembled a bullet hole in the windshield and leaving a sign printed with the word "stop." Proctor is serving a 10-year prison term in Illinois on unrelated drug charges.
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