PI Pellicano Convicted In Hollywood Wiretapping

The Hollywood shamus to the stars Anthony Pellicano, who sniffed dirty laundry in some of the biggest hampers in Tinseltown, was convicted Thursday of conspiring to run a criminal enterprise that employed illegal wiretaps and crooked cops to dig up insider dirt on the rich and famous -- and their cheating spouses.

A federal jury in Los Angeles found Pellicano guilty of all but one of the 77 counts against him, including charges of racketeering, wire fraud, identity theft, wiretapping and making the equipment he used to intercept telephone calls. When the judge read the verdicts, Pellicano, 64, stayed true to his tough-guy stylings. He didn't utter a peep. Just stood there with his arms crossed.

Pellicano served as his own defense attorney, which most people, including the judge, thought unwise -- and they were proven right.

Pellicano raised few objections during the two-month-long case brought by federal prosecutors; he didn't do much on cross-examination; he called only one witness for his defense, who didn't help him. Pellicano declined to take the stand, and during closing arguments he basically said that he was a private eye and he did what needed to be done. He suggested his business cards should have read: "I deliver."

Ever since the FBI raided his Sunset Boulevard offices back in 2002, the entertainment media corps speculated that the Pellicano case was going to expose serious bad behavior among the Hollywood titans. But it didn't. Pellicano clients such as Brad Grey, head of Paramount Pictures; former super-agent Michael Ovitz; and attorney Bert Fields all said they never knew Pellicano was wiretapping their opponents, and the federal government did not bring any charges of wrongdoing against them.

The trial was not without a few glimpses of naughty behavior. Chris Rock hired Pellicano to gumshoe a Hungarian model who was insisting that Rock was her baby's daddy, which proved to be untrue, according to several paternity tests. Comedian Garry Shandling had some choice words to describe Grey, his former manager, who hired Pellicano after Shandling sued him for overbilling. Ovitz hired Pellicano to find out whether two of his many rivals -- Universal Studios head Ron Meyer and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen -- were dishing dirt to the press.

The federal prosecutors sought to portray Pellicano as an unglamorous goon who listened in on telephone calls and threatened people -- "this very well-connected and very well-paid thug," as the government put it, who charged a $25,000 retainer just to get started.

In his defense, Pellicano described himself as a "lone ranger," a keeper of secrets and trusts. As for his methods, Pellicano said of himself: "His job was problem-solving through the acquisition of information with the purpose of having a positive outcome. In other words, winning, that's what it was all about."

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 24. Pellicano's co-defendants were found guilty of various charges, and included former telephone company field technician Rayford Earl Turner; computer expert Kevin Kachikian; businessman Abner Nicherie; and Mark Arneson, a former Los Angeles Police sergeant who used his cop computer to dig for license plate numbers and arrest records for his employer, Pellicano.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.