Having dived into this project for my readers, I have to tell you being a “reporter” is tough. You sit and you listen, and you sit and listen some more! And then you try and make chicken soup our of chicken shit! The hours are sooooo bad, my day now starts at 0500 hrs. and does not end till sometimes 0100 hrs. the next day! My good friend Lisa Stanley of KRTH radio has had these hours for years (getting up early) and I was not too sympathetic…I am now. And to watch the reporters and how they interact to get the facts right is very impressive…nothing but pros!
Well, on Wednesday we had a true genius on the stand, Mr. Jeff Edwards, who has two masters in computer engineering. The feds examined him, and then the defense and Adam Braun, oh my god! Adam cross-examined Mr.Edwards for what seemed like years, and it was only about two hours! Chinese water torture would have hurt less…people were in wide-eyed comas! Zombies it was, everyone was dead and waiting for some more of that wuss Pfiefer, good old “what happened to my nuts?” But please Adam, no more scientific stuff! Look, this is easy Adam, your guy did this, he is smart! Arneson is guilty as hell, he did it too, Ray Turner, him too! Pellicano, hell there is more tape on him than a fat man getting measured for a suit! All guilty…let’s go home! But no, the games continue and some days are great and some, like Wednesday, terrible! I was shocked that Adam Braun did not fall over sound alseep, hell his lips would have continued moving…even the judge was moved to wishing that the Feds had kept Pellicano and his business a secret, that is a comment from one of their own!
At one point Pellicano gets up to fluff himself and asks Mr. Edwards, “had you heard of me before?” And the agent says “yes, I had heard about some of your work.” The back of the Pelicans head flexed — oh, how he loves to be looked upon as smart (he had no real education). However, in saying that this is one smart guy — a jerk, an egotist, diabolical, but smart. He loved his wiretapping abilities and was very proud of his work…I suppose he should be, after all look at what he did! Right Mr. Christensen?
And again we heard how tough a time the feds had trying to get into his computers, and Anthony Pellicano gleefully watching the F.B.I. and their geeks running in circles. Mr. Edwards did not run in circles, no he just opened as many as he could and told the court that he had accessed over 600 of the audio files!
You know, say what you will about Paul Barresi, but he is comical to watch and even funnier to listen to! Not as funny as me, but close. Paul got screwed around by Pellicano on several issues and has been vocal about a few of the things he did for him. I am watching and listening as I do at the breaks, and I overhear some blond female spectator ask Paul, in a condescending tone, what he did for a living. I am now holding my breath as Paul has a few choices, all wonderful and colorful! The former Pellicano legman replied, I loaf, in a decorative and highly charming manner. You had to be there! At the next break, the two of us were trying to decide who was sinking deeper into their seat as the days go by, Pellicano or Ray Turner! Mr. Arneson is standing tall…Hmmm a little like that statue of Saddam Hussein, you know the one the U.S. troops helped put a rope around the neck, which then got pulled down with a crash.