Anita Busch attackers plead out

Jailed private eye Anthony Pellicano and his sidekick, Alexander Proctor, pleaded no contest today in that 2002 threat on reporter Anita Busch, who they thought was working on a story for actor Steven Seagal for the Los Angeles Times. They got three years in state prison for the criminal threat, to be served concurrently with their other sentences, the DA says. From the LAT:

Busch, who was then working for the Los Angeles Times, found a fish with a rose in its mouth on the broken windshield of her car along with a sign reading "Stop," court documents allege.

The windshield was punctured and made to appear like a bullet hole, prosecutors wrote in the complaint against the two men.

In June, both men pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The case against Pellicano and Proctor was put on hold while the closely watched federal trial against Pellicano and his accomplices moved through the courts. At the conclusion of that trial in December, Pellicano was sentenced to 15 years in prison on a long list of federal wiretapping and racketeering charges.

In response, Busch told me by email:

I'm relieved that I no longer have to testify in what would have been two more criminal trials. It's been seven years since my life was threatened and my phones illegally wiretapped. What they did to me was an act of domestic terrorism. I'm comforted to know that they can't threaten a journalist in this country and get away with it.

When she got a chance to confront Pellicano in court in 2008, she blasted her treatment by the Times, and drew a strong response from California Editor David Lauter.