Pellicano
Prosecutors on Friday turned their attention to the individuals Anthony Pellicano allegedly used to conduct illegal wiretaps and background checks for clients.
Former Pellicano staffer Tarita Virtue ended four days of dramatic and often tearful testimony Thursday by running out of the courtroom, paving the way for the prosecution to call a slew of new witnesses who could reveal further details on how Pellicano conducted his business.
The former private investigator is on trial in federal court on illegal wiretapping and racketeering charges.
The spotlight was trained on former Los Angeles Police Dept. Sgt. Mark Arneson at the end of the week, as prosecutor Kevin Lally asked LAPD Det. Helen Lim to reveal the results of an investigation she conducted on the officer.
She reviewed searches made on the LAPD's computer databases using Arneson's serial number and password, "sparky," between 1999 and 2003.
In these searches he looked into individuals' criminal histories and Dept. of Motor Vehicle records, allegedly sending the results to Pellicano.
One of those individuals was Garry Shandling, with the comedian's driver's license and vehicles registered to him, as well as any traffic violations, searched in 1999. Using the computers, Arneson also accessed police reports to search for any criminal history on Shandling, according to Lim.
Similar searches using Arneson's access codes were made in 2002 on reporter Anita Busch and former New York Times reporter Bernard Weinraub, but Lim didn't know why the two were being investigated. They were penning critical articles on Michael Ovitz at the time, but his name wasn't mentioned outright during the trial. Searches were also made on attorney Kissandra Cohen and James Casey, a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against Ovitz.
Arneson's defense attorney, Chad Hummel, was able to cast some doubt as to whether Arneson conducted all of the searches himself, raising the possibility that other officers could have used his personal access codes.
On one occasion, for example, Arneson's codes were used to look up himself and his wife, Lim acknowledged.
The trial resumes Tuesday with former Pellicano staffer Lily LeMasters set to testify. Pellicano will also begin his cross-examination of an FBI computer expert. Deputy District Attorney Karla Kerlin will be called to the stand, while Shandling's ex-girlfriend, Linda Doucett, could also make an appearance sometime this week.
Contact Marc Graser at
marc.graser@variety.com