Well, it seems as if Anthony Pellicano's cross of Anita Busch yesterday has unleashed the beast within him and he's newly emboldened. While cross-examining some confused phone company repairman who said he found some sort of a wiretap on Anita Busch's phone, Mr. Pellicano was hostile, abrupt and confrontational. Unlike the personality he adapted at the beginning of the trial--an obsequious, overly polite attorney anxious to not break any of the court's rules--the post- Anita Busch Pellicano is so confident that he's actually yelling out comments during other attorney's cross-examination. When Mona Soo Hoo, Ray Turner's attorney, pointed out on cross that the phone company repairman had admitted to Mr. Pellicano that he didn't know the difference between two types of wires, Mr. Pellicano yelled out "that's right." It seemed as if he was cheering Ms. Soo Hoo on and she definitely needed the support. As usual, her cross-examination was heavy with phone company terminology that was so inside that the phone company repair guy testifying, Clifford Shillingford, seemed lost at times.
This morning the government refused to turn over materials that they would use if three of the defendants decide to take the stand. Despite complaints from the defense attorneys--particularly Mr. Hummel--that they had a right to see these impeachment materials, the Judge seemed to side with the prosecution for the time being. The bottom line, though, is that it's looking more and more like a few of the defendants, in addition to Mr. Pellicano, might be taking the stand.
Back to court. On deck, witnesses testifying about the wiretapping and targeting of Sly Stallone during his legal dispute with Ken Starr. (Not the Clinton administration's nemesis, Ken Starr, but a different fellow.) Mr. Starr, shockingly enough, was referred to Mr. Pellicano by none other than Bert Fields. And, despite being the guy who sent most of the witnesses to Anthony Pellicano and who told them about his "unorthodox methods" and "great results," Mr. Fields remains ensconced in his Malibu enclave, free to serve up legal advice to clients looking for an attorney with a winning record. In fact, the revelations that Mr. Fields used someone like Pellicano in many of his cases seems to have only made him more popular among his Hollywood clients. Why not hire a lawyer who's willing to do anything to help you win your case? If anything, the Pellicano trial has been good advertising for Mr. Fields who continues to represent all kinds of "A" list clients, including Tom Cruise.
Next up this morning was Kevin Templeton, a long time employee of Sylvester Stallone's and an integral part of Mr. Stallone's lawsuit against his former business manager, Kenneth Starr. Mr. Templeton was accompanied into court by Martin Singer, a well known entertainment litigator who often represented Mr. Stallone in the past. However, in this particular lawsuit, Mr. Stallone chose to be represented by an attorney named Lawrence Nagler. After Mr. Templeton testified about having all kinds of telephone conversations with Mr. Stallone and Mr. Nagler during the course of the 2002 lawsuit, Mr. Nagler took the stand. Mr. Nagler chatted about how he'd filed a lawsuit against Mr. Starr alleging that Mr. Starr had violated an agreement with Mr. Stallone to watch over the actor's business affairs and engaged in a conflict of interest and breach of fiduciary duty. (Mr. Nagler wanted to chat about his lawsuit a lot more, but Mr. Saunders fortunately cut him short. Nothing like an attorney being able to sit on a witness stand and relive a glorious lawsuit....Mr. Nagler was definitely enjoying the moment.)
Then, Mr. Saunders got down to basics--painting a picture of the tangled web of attorneys who were involved in the Starr litigation and how Mr. Pellicano made one threat too many this time around. "Who represented Mr. Starr in this litigation brought by Mr. Stallone?" Mr. Saunders asked as if we all didn't know the answer. "That was Mr. Bert Fields," Mr. Nagler responded. "How did you learn that Anthony Pellicano was on the case for Mr. Fields and Mr. Starr?" Mr. Saunders wondered. "I sent a letter before filing my complaint to Mr. Starr and gave him a week to respond. During that week, my client called saying that Anthony Pellicano had contacted his business lawyer, Jake Bloom, and threatened that if things were not dropped, bad things would happen to Mr. Stallone."
Hear exclusive audio of Marty Singer admonishing Pellicano for going to far with Stallone
Okay, so what we've got at this point is Anthony Pellicano threatening Jake Bloom about one of his major clients, Sly Stallone. Not good business for good old Anthony. It's okay to threaten Anita Busch or even someone like Bo Zenga, but in Hollywood, you don't go threatening Jake Bloom. Mr. Nagler told Mr. Saunders that he met with Mr. Bloom who told the story of Mr. Pellicano's threat. According to Mr. Nagler, Mr. Pellicano called Jake Bloom and said that he was calling on behalf of a guy in New York. Mr. Nagler understood that guy was Ken Starr because Starr was in New York. (Well, basically, everyone understood that Pellicano was calling for Starr because Starr was represented by Bert Fields and where Bert goes, so goes Anthony Pellicano.)
Mr. Nagler, sensing that it was time to call off Bert Fields, wrote Mr. Fields a letter and said that he looked forward to deposing Anthony Pellicano in this case. (Clearly, Mr. Nagler wanted Mr. Fields to know that Mr. Pellicano's threat to Jake Bloom wasn't going to be swept under the proverbial rug like so many of Mr. Pellicano's other threats.)
Mr. Nagler, concerned that Mr. Pellicano might have wiretapped Sly, had all the phones in the Stallone house swept. But as all good Pellicano watchers know by now, Mr. Pellicano didn't wiretap phones in the house. (Just ask Gavin DeBeker who had Gary Shandling's house swept.) The sweeping didn't turn up anything because the wiretap--if there was one--was in the phone box where nobody bothered to sweep.
And then, Mr. Saunders played a tape of Mr. Pellicano chatting with Mr. Starr and basically spilling the beans on all of Nagler and Sly Stallone's legal strategy. Yep, you could call it a major invasion of the attorney client privilege... or maybe, you could call it "game over." Mr. Pellicano made sure to tell Mr. Starr that Mr. Pellicano would use this information in the best possible way. "You have to keep these conversations between you and I," he instructed. "Now, you are not going to tell Bert this. I am."