Pellicano convicted

The Hollywood gumshoe was found guilty on 76 of the 77 charges he faced. Those charges included racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft, conspiracy to intercept or use wire communications and manufacture or possession of wiretapping device. All four of his co-defendants were also found guilty. They are former LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson, former phone company technician Ray Turner, computer expert Kevin Kachikian and businessman Abner Nicherie. Kevin is also following the verdicts over at LAO. Lots of coverage, as you might expect.

The early LAT story said that when Pellicano realized the jury had found him guilty, he crossed his arms, took his glasses off and looked around the courtroom without expression. Pellicano had been accused of using wiretaps to obtain all kinds of nasty information about some of L.A.'s biggest players in business and entertainment. Several celebrities got brought into the case, among them Chris Rock, but the Hollywood tabloid trial that the press jackels had been hoping for never materialized. Of course, it's not quite over: L.A. attorney Terry Christensen has been charged with conspiring with Pellicano to tap the telephone of Kirk Kerkorian’s former wife. Christensen, who has pleaded not guilty, awaits his trial.

Here's a writethru from the LAT, most of it background on the case. It doesn't appear as if many reporters were actually in the courtroom when the verdict was announced - understandable considering that jurors have been deliberating for almost two weeks.

Much of the evidence for the prosecution came from the 2002 FBI raid on Pellicano's offices high above Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Explosives found in a safe sent Pellicano to federal prison in November 2003 for a 30-month term for illegal possession. Agents stumbled on something even more unexpected: a recording of a wiretapped conversation. They found only one. By the time the FBI returned a few months later, Pellicano had cleaned house, prosecutors alleged. But, on computers seized during the first raid, authorities also discovered tapes of phone conversations between Pellicano and his clients. The tapes, many of which were played in court, caught Pellicano talking about wiretapping, prosecutors contended. And that was just as damning, prosecutors contended. "I can't even listen to it all. It's too much," Pellicano whined to one client, action movie director John McTiernan, in a phone call that prosecutors said was a discussion of the private eye's wiretaps on producer Charles Roven.

McTiernan was one of seven people who pleaded guilty before Pellicano's trial to charges connected to the case.

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