Pellicano Trial: Slashed Tires, Ransacked Houses and Nasty Hollywood Divorces

After Keith Carradine split with his wife in 2000, bad things started happening to him. Not only did he find himself in the middle of a nasty, contentious divorce, his ex-wife started dating Anthony Pellicano.
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Wearing a beautifully tailored dark suit and red tie, actor Keith
Carradine testified today about how he'd been wiretapped and harassed
by Anthony Pellicano during his divorce from ex-wife, Sandra Carradine.
Apparently, after Mr. Carradine split with his wife in 2000, bad
things started happening to him. Not only did he find himself in the
middle of a nasty, contentious divorce, his ex-wife also started dating
Anthony Pellicano. On top of that, Mr. Carradine testified that his
then girlfriend (and now wife), Hayley Dumond, was "aggressively"
followed by an unknown man, the tires of her car were slashed and her
parents received numerous phone calls and hang-ups in the middle of the
night. He got a call from a guy with a bad, fake accent, who offered
to help him with his divorce. In response, Mr. Carradine, sounding
very unlike the vicious serial killer he recently portrayed the CBS'
series "Criminal Minds," asked him not to call again. "I told him I have
no reason to operate on that level," Mr. Carradine testified. "I'm an
upstanding person with nothing to hide."

And there was more... Mr. Carradine explained that when he went off to
Australia to film a movie, his home was broken into and ransacked. He
and Hayley were living in a trailer in Valencia and in the spring of
2001, his phone stopped working. (I don't know what's worse--the
trailer or the wiretapping.) Mr. Saunders then asked Mr. Carradine to
identify a series of documents which--you probably guessed by now--had
his DMV information and all his criminal history. And of course, there
were documents that showed look-ups of his then girlfriend and even her
parents.

When Mr. Pellicano got up to cross-examine Mr. Carradine, the actor
looked somewhat amused. It must be a bit strange to have your ex-wife's
boyfriend cross-examine you--especially when you think that he was
responsible for making your life a living hell. Mr. Pellicano's
cross-examination mostly consisted of getting Mr. Carradine to agree
that his ex-wife was a nasty piece of work. "Would you characterize
her as a vindictive person?" Mr. Pellicano asked, knowing that Ms.
Carradine is set to testify against him in just a few days. When Mr.
Carradine agreed that his ex-wife was vindictive, Mr. Pellicano then
suggested that perhaps it was Sandra Carradine who was behind all
those phone calls, tire slashing and break-in at the trailer. It was
an interesting attempt by Pellicano to get the jury to dislike Ms.
Carradine before she even takes the stand on Tuesday.

After Mr. Carradine walked out of the courtroom, nodding towards Mr.
Saunders and saying a quick "thank you," the government called former
Pellicano employee Richard Campau to the stand. Wearing an ill-fitting
blue blazer and tan pants, Mr. Campau listed back and forth on the
witness stand as he testified about working for Mr. Pellicano back from
1998 to 2001. With his almost childlike demeanor and tendency to
repeat phrases, Mr. Campau came off as a younger and slightly more lucid
version of Dustin Hoffman's "Rain Man" character. When Mr. Saunders
asked him if Mr. Pellicano answered a call from defendant and former
SBC employee Ray Turner, Mr. Campau replied quickly, "Oh no, Anthony
never answered the phone. We answered the phone." Another really
strange Rain Man moment came when Mr. Campau was asked to identify Mr.
Arneson. While Mr. Arneson looked down at his notes and tried to be
invisible, Mr. Campau stared at all the defendants in their stadium
seating for more than a few seconds while everyone wondered if he'd
ever find the former LAPD Sergeant in the crowd. Just when it seemed
that he'd forgotten who he was even looking for, he suddenly yelled
out, "Oh Mark is behind Anthony, I believe."

And then, along with the repetitive "no, no, no's" that sounded a lot
like "People's Court, People's Court, People's Court," there were also
moments of lucidity where Mr. Campau's testimony sounded guileless,
truthful and incredibly accurate. When asked about whether he knew
that Mr. Pellicano was wiretapping, Mr. Campau not only replied yes,
but explained that he found out when "Anthony was out of the office."
"I was asked to transcribe two recordings," he explained. The
recordings were in the Jacqueline Colburn matter--yet another young
woman married to a wealthy man who was having problems at the mansion.
Mr. Campau testified that Ms. Colburn was divorcing her husband and "I
saw her listening with head phones on."

Then there were times where Mr. Saunders didn't really have to do much
more than stand by the podium and look intense. "I also knew Ray
Turner," Mr. Campau volunteered in response to nothing in particular.
"Do you know where Mr. Turner worked?" Mr. Saunders inquired, awkwardly
trying to go with the flow. "I believe he worked for SBC. Ray would
go into the conference room and Anthony would come and get him," Mr.
Campau said. "Sometimes they'd meet in the war room." Mr. Saunders
tried to get in a question, but Mr. Campau continued with his speech,
"and then sometimes in the office, office."

On cross-examination, Mr. Campau occasionally got flustered, but he
still seemed to be answering questions in a freakishly honest
fashion--much like a child. After testifying that at one point, Mr.
Pellicano had asked him to shred all documents bearing Mark Arneson's
name, Mr. Campau admitted to Mr. Hummel that he couldn't explain why
there were still lots of documents in Mr. Pellicano's files with Mr.
Arneson's name on it. When asked about whether he thought Mr.
Pellicano had wiretapped the office phones, Mr. Campau smiled and
replied, "That was just office gossip." When asked about whether Mr.
Turner ever hid in the office, Mr. Campau shook his head, emphatically
saying that "Ray was not hiding at all."

The day ended with Mr. Campau being cross-examined by his former
employer. Mr. Pellicano, speaking in a voice reminiscent of a first
grade teacher, asked Mr. Campau how Mr. Pellicano's office worked.
(He's still having to refer to himself in the third person.) "You
didn't bring Mr. Arneson back to Mr. Pellicano's office when Mr.
Pellicano was with a client, did you?" Mr. Pellicano asked, trying to
lead Mr. Campau to the right answer. Mr. Campau thought about it for a
minute and then replied with his head cocked to the side, "No, we'd
just tell you as soon as Mark arrived. We didn't just bring him back
there." "And," Mr. Pellicano continued as if speaking to a severely
retarded six year old, "You didn't see Mr. Arneson hiding in the
kitchen, did you?" "I don't recall Mark in the kitchen," Mr. Campau
agreed. (I waited for Mr. Campau to blurt out, "But I did see Colonel
Mustard in the study with the candlestick.) "Now, are you familiar
with the word salient?" Mr. Pellicano asked, his left hand placed
commandingly behind his back. "No," Mr. Campau replied. As Mr.
Pellicano struggled to find another word, Mr. Campau excitedly
interrupted, "how about pertinent?" "Pertinent," Mr. Pellicano said
with approval. "Thank you."

The vocabulary lesson and cross-examination of Mr. Campau continues on
Tuesday. The trial is not on session on Mondays. Up next, batting for
the government on Tuesday, are the following: Ex-Pellicano employee,
Denise Ward, the allegedly vindictive ex-spouse turned government
informant Sandra Carradine and Lisa Gores, the ex-wife and alleged
wiretapping victim of Alec Gores. On Tuesday, the government believes
that it will call Adam Sender, a former Bert Fields' client and alleged
wiretapper as well as Andrew Stevens, also a former Bert Fields' client
and alleged wiretapper of entertainment attorney John LaViolette. Mr.
LaViolette is also expected to testify. STAY TUNED.....

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