Prosecutor: Private eye had ears on Hollywood

LOS ANGELES -- Private eye Anthony Pellicano was the architect of a criminal enterprise that raked in more than $2 million by spying on Hollywood's rich and famous, a federal prosecutor said Thursday during opening statements in Pellicano's wiretapping trial.

Clients "would pay a premium fee to discredit, and in some cases destroy, their adversaries," prosecutor Kevin Lally said while laying out the government's case against Pellicano and four co-defendants.

Pellicano, 63, is accused of wiretapping phones and bribing police and telephone workers to intercept conversations that could give his clients an advantage in legal disputes. Among those allegedly targeted were Sylvester Stallone and comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon.

Lally called Pellicano a prolific snoop who also taped his own discussions with clients. He said a treasure trove of recordings seized during a 2000 FBI raid on Pellicano's office paint a "clear and crystal" picture of the detective's shady dealings.

In that sense, "he's the biggest government informant in this case," Lally said.

Prosecutors plan to introduce more than 70 audio recordings as evidence but will play only one wiretapped call involving the wife of a businessman who believed she was having an affair and paid Pellicano more than $200,000 to investigate, Lally said.

Pellicano, acting as his own attorney, spoke for only 10 minutes during his opening statement, contending he recorded and encrypted his own calls only as a way to create a referencing system.

Because he was acting as his own lawyer, Pellicano was told by the court to refer to himself in the third person when he addressed jurors.

"His presumption was that these conversations would be made available to no one but him," Pellicano told the panel.

He also said he prided himself on being a secretive person who treated the problems of his clients as his own.

Lally said Pellicano took extreme measures to cloak his alleged illegal activities, recruiting senior law enforcement officers and telephone company employees who didn't need much supervision, then talking to them in code.

In addition, he rigged a wiretapping software program known as Telesleuth so no one else could access the recordings, Lally said.

Omerta, an Italian word meaning code of silence, was used as a password.

Among those allegedly enlisted by Pellicano were retired Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson and former telephone company employee Rayford Earl Turner. Other co-defendants in the case are Kevin Kachikian and Abner Nicherie. All have pleaded not guilty.

Seven people have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges including perjury and conspiracy. Six of the seven, including film director John McTiernan and former Hollywood Records president Robert Pfeifer, are expected to be called as witnesses.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Adam Braun, who represents Kachikian, said Pellicano hired his client to develop the eavesdropping software.

Braun said Kachikian thought the software would be marketed to law enforcement agencies: "He didn't know it was going to be misused on wiretaps."

Pellicano could provide some fireworks when he cross-examines some of his former clients and employees. Federal prosecutors have released a list of 127 potential witnesses that included Stallone, Chris Rock and Shandling. It was not clear, however, how many people would actually testify.

Other prominent Hollywood players on the potential witness list include one-time Walt Disney Co. president and agent Michael Ovitz; Brad Grey, chairman and chief executive officer of Paramount Pictures; and Ron Meyer, president and chief executive officer of Universal Studios.

One of the first witnesses will be retired baseball player Matt Williams, who had a bitter divorce battle in 2002 with his second wife, actress Michelle Johnson.

Prosecutors said in a court filing they have an audio recording of Williams and Pellicano but didn't elaborate on its content.

The trial is expected to last about 10 weeks.