LOS ANGELES - A private investigator known as being Hollywood's "private eye" was charged by prosecutors yesterday for indulging in alleged wiretapping, intimidation and blackmail.
61-year-old Anthony Pellicano pleaded not guilty of charges that include interception of electronic communications of stars like Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine.
Pellicano was changed along with a former Los Angeles police officer and five others. He is being held without bail. Acting U.S. Attorney George Cardona said that Pellicano also gave huge financial incentives to cops to get private information on Hollywood stars, "These charges allege a disturbing pattern of criminal conduct in which money flowed freely to encourage sworn law enforcement officers to violate their oath to uphold the law to provide the means for Pellicano and his associates to violate the rights of others." he said.
According to the 110-count indictment, in some of the cases, Pellicano was hired by others to dig up dirt on stars so as to get a tactical advantage in some pending litigation. Pellicano's former clients include pop star Michael Jackson, actor Tom Cruise and Elizabeth Taylor.
Among those whom he supposedly threatened are an ex-New York Times reporter, many Hollywood agents, journalists and lawyers. Pellicano was released last week after serving two and a half years in prison for possessing illegal firearms. He is currently lodged in San Bernardino County Jail and his trial for the new charges is slated to begin April 4.
Among the co-accused are Mark Arneson, a retired sergeant, who received $189,000 from Pellicano to check up law databases for incriminating information on stars and Rayford Earl Turner, who worked for Pacific Bell and whose duty in this saga was to obtain " proprietary telephone company information and facilitating illegal wiretaps." He allegedly received $36,655 from Pellicano.
Turner and Kevin Kachikian developed a wiretapping program called Telesleuth. The prosecutors are also hoping to recover $1.9 million that Pellicano, Arneson and Turner supposedly collected as blackmail.
