This being the Easter Holiday weekend, I was reflecting on the events of the last two weeks, and wondering whether if I were in trouble, in litigation as a defendant or lawyer, what would I do? Being that I was baptized a Catholic and did attend as a child, and spent years in churches as an adult working as an embalmer, so I have been places where Jesus should have been hanging out!
Some pray, and others go reach for their cellphone and call their lawyers for help. Praying can be cheaper, but for the rich? Instant satisfaction is the only way to go, and church for them is the City National Bank located in Beverly Hills! Just down the street from the Good Shepherd. When they reached out to a select group of some of the sharpest legal minds in Century City and Beverly Hills, those select, sharp legal minds in turn reached out. Did these titans of law call Batman? Their clergy? No…they called Anthony Pellicano! Also, funny as it may sound, NONE of these guys ever called my office for any services. Oh, for sure I have worked for some of the big guys too — the difference is that the lawyers I worked with understood the limitations of real investigations. For sure some would tell me that “Pellicano is on this, too” — that was a given as to the names of the lawyers involved on the other side! I doubt very much there is another private investigator that has had as many encounters with “Anthony the Entertainer.” That was cool with us, as we knew what was going to happen and for us there was no surprise. We would get prepared for the games, and depending on the firm, the landslide of legal paper (a tactic to try and overwhelm some smaller practitioners, and perfectly legal!).
Oh, I am certainly no hero and I do have fears — fear of the big dirt nap, fear of not being able to drive a Bentley, and a fear of not having a nice resting place when the time comes! But to fear any man? And for me to fear some “gunsel” in a tailored suit…I have walked in the valley of the dead and I am not easily frightened, least of all by some huckster like Pellicano. This is not “strutting”… I grew up in Boston and my father had friends who drove black Cadillacs and were “class guys,” and very well connected, if you get my drift…and never, ever did you hear anyone talk about “the Mafia!” Bozo boy on Sunset almost had it on his business cards, but those who really do this and know stuff will never advertise it!
Winning is important to any reputation, and as a lawyer you will win with good lawyering skills……or you will cheat and find ways to get what you need and “win” almost every time! Many lawyers I worked with often spoke about the “select group” of lawyers who used Pellicano and knew about “shady” events putting a “fix” on trials and issues in divorces. They “won” based on acquiring dirt and inside information and now we’re hearing how they got it. Most of which, ironically could not actually be used in court due to how it was acquired — but there are other effective ways of using it. Now the gloves are off, and even John Connolly, the author, sits with his mouth open as the crimes are revealed and the real names are attached! John is writing a book about Pellicano ,and was being stymied by lawyers at the publishing house, I am sure so as not to get in trouble! LMAO, these were issues that some lawyers in this town never gave a shit about, trouble! Write a book, be careful…screw with someone’s life or ability to earn a living, who cares!
I will be asking these questions many more times to come, “what took them so long to stop the wiretaps?” and “why weren’t more lawyers brought down in this investigation?” The government prosecutor asked in open court, “why did people keep using him time and time again?” How must some of the lawyers on the other side of these cases that they lost feel now? Some were probably ready to give up the practice of law, as they were finding they could never win! But now I think some of the guys with the great batting average may be spending a lot more time on the bench in months and years to come. Pellicano supplied the steroids, artificially pumping up their homerun stats, but now the juice has run dry.
Paul Barresi, an employee and long time friend of Anthony Pellicano, put it this way, “I had no idea what a notorious con man and shake down artist Anthony Pellicano truly was until after the trial began. Pellicano sees himself as a mafia-like hero. He boasts of loyalty as if he is reading from The Godfather, yet comes off like a calculating sneak.” Paul works here in Los Angeles as a private investigator and has a very colorful background that gives him a certain, let’s say perspective of the underbelly of Hollywood!
One very obvious issue that is raising its ugly head is extortion and blackmail. Ms. Maguire with her lawyers in tow looked and sounded like a woman who had been extorted and blackmailed — again I am thinking as a cop, not just a spectator. Hearing the recording of Dr. Lull was another interesting encounter, I can only guess that Pellicano “read” him wrong! When you walk into a room full of dead bodies, and someone hands you a gun that was used to kill all of these people, how do you say I did not do it?! Likewise, when you sit and listen to tapped phone calls…at some point did someone say, “you know this is illegal”… but is it not interesting? One of the feds stated early on that a wiretap on a phone is the “gold standard” for information…I can only guess that when you have that kind of information, “How Can You Lose?”
Getting back to my original thought, Jesus or Pellicano, I suppose if you are rich and have bad knees that Pellicano might have been able to give you faster satisfaction, but he too made an interesting comment in the early stages of his downfall: “one too many sins”…I wonder if Jesus is listening?!