Pellicano Trial: Day Two

March 6, 2008

Here we are, day 2 of the Pelicano “Find Me Guilty” escapades…I say that due to some semblance to the Vin Diesel movie of the same title. There is a little of that, but at this point not much. When Pellicano addressed the jury and had a hard time speaking of himself in third person, the judge helped him along and the prosecution was patient.

Adam Braun, lawyer for computer wiz Kevin Kechikian, presented his case and thoughts via Powerpoint and it went off very well, though a bit dry as he was talking about computers and wiretap technology. This was fascinating as it was all Anthony Pellicano’s idea and his thinking on developing technology for law enforcement. This I believe, and it gave all of us another perspective on this guy — he is pretty smart, and I guess to make sure it worked right, I suppose it was a good idea to see that it worked! Mr. Braun ran through the background of his client, a self-taught guy who lives with his mother and hopes that he will be able to continue to do so, and not have to call some big hairy guy “Mother” at the end of this ordeal.

The prosecutors mentioned that the “Gold Standard” of information gathering is wiretaps, and who can argue about that? However the ultimate response to that is an even simper one, “don’t do the crime if you cannot do the time!” How about that for a standard? Not me, as a former cop and prison guard you know I won’t be attempting any of that BS. Too old, and I am seeing the wear and tear on Anthony — he does look shallow and not the swaggering figure that we saw years ago. Federal time is easy time — ask any convict — doing time in federal joints is much nicer. But he shows up in his green prison-issue windbreaker and looks like an old guy who just did not know when to quit.

Click here for the AP courtroom artist’s renditions to get a look.

It is being stated in court that Anthony paid LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson $180,000.00 and much more. He paid Sgt. Mark $2,500.00 a month from 2/98 to 2/02, and the cash? I dont think they have a real handle on that. Mr. Arneson’s lawyer is one Mr. Chad Samuel Hummel and to watch him dance around the acts “committed” by his client was as smooth as watching my old (dearly departed) friend Fred Astaire float along the dance floor.

As Mr. Hummel spoke, I was expecting the gang from Disneyland to bust out from the judge’s chambers marching with Mickey, Goofy, Donald Duck, and all of the rest. Hello! this guy was a police detective/sgt. and did not know when he got the secret page code “1111″ that it was time to call “mother” and get the next assignment! His lawyer would have one believe that this was all Sgt (29 years in the department, he was hired in 1974!) Good Cop’s duty to his good friend, Mr. P.I. to the stars, and that he had no idea what he was doing with the information that was being given or sold to Mr. P.I.  OMG, I guess you can throw it and see if it sticks! Mr. Hummel tells all of us that Sgt. Arneson would come in uniform to Mr. Pellicano’s fancy offices and he would bring his “squad” to see the good work Anthony was doing for cops! And the even better work he was doing for BIG SHOT lawyers and their very rich clients! LMAO…again Mr. Hummel is going to bring in all these cops and they are going to tell the jurors what a hell of a nice guy the Sarge was, and then the government gets to bring the victims and the rest and they will tell us how TERRIFIED they were that Anthony and his friends were calling and visiting them…check with reporter Anita Busch and see how much she loves Sgt. Arneson!

Ray Turner, “The Phone Guy,” was paid in excess of $ 30,000.00 plus bonuses. And he was “boinking” someone in Pellicano’s office and it was a great day for everyone! But here is the problem: it is called “immunity.”

When the U.S. Prosecutor mentioned IMMUNITY, Pellicano was the most animated that I had yet to see him! He scrunched his face as if he had passed gas and it had backed up! He grabbed his pad of paper and I am sure wrote the word twice and made a note to himself…after all, he is representing himself. Well, all of those people who got IMMUNITY will be coming in and singing like Easter Sunday at a Baptist Church! And the skies will open like a revival meeting in Alabama when these voices of IMMUNITY begin to sing their song.

Now the other copper, of Bevery Hills fame, Craig Stevens, plead guilty to 7 felonies — he cannot even work as a security guard. He confessed and fell on his sword and is sooooo done. Will we see him? I doubt it. But we are going to get the former staff of Pellicano Investigations, and I thought I heard a herd of horses snorting in the garage.

And more DIVORCE stuff came up again, when Hummel was telling the jury about rich people and their miserable divorces and the child custody issues and sorta like “you know how they are” and we should not believe anything they say…these are my people! No, you cannot trust them but they pay P.I.s to help them come to God! Or is it Bank of America!

My last thought on Hummel is that he, too, must feel as I did about the jury; however, after seeing them this morning up close and personal, and after yesterday’s weedout, they don’t look bad…and thank god the air was clear in the box!

From the prosecution an interesting little nugget was given to us about the working of Mr. Pellicano: in his passwords the word “Omerta” was always included, which is that mafia oath about keeping the faith and not talking! WOW, but what about taping many of your calls? Oh, I get it that is “Omerta OOPs,” now everyone gets to hear. This too was one of Pellicano’s inventions, a mini version of one of the other machines that would keep track of his calls, hell he got “50 calls a day”….his words.

The first witness was Matt Derrick Williams, major league baseball player who gave Pellicano $25,000.00 for him to assist with his wife. She lived in Arizona and this is another hit for the Sarge, as it would appear that he ran these people in Los Angeles when they were not even here! A funny part came when Mr. Williams was asked if Pellicano had helped with his problem and he said no! Hey get this, it was his business manager who found Pellicano for him! I wonder if he is still the business manager. And it was all caught on tape, the interview process of Pellicano and Mr. Williams! It was a great sales job…I have used some of the same techniques in closing a deal myself a few times. One of his funny ones was when he tells Mr. Williams, “I don’t want to take advantage of you” — no, absolutely not, and while I am at it, have you ever seen moth balls?