Bill Pavelic Forum | Information on William Bill Pavelic

The Toronto Star

February 23, 1995, Thursday, FINAL EDITION

Probe bungled, cop admits

BYLINE: AP)

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A4

LENGTH: 596 words

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

One of the detectives in charge of the O. J. Simpson case conceded yesterday the investigation was marred by failures to collect blood from a gate, preserve the contents of Nicole Simpson’s stomach and test blood splattered on her back. Testifying for the third day, Detective Tom Lange told the jury in the former football star’s double murder trial that blood spots on Nicole Simpson’s back were washed off by coroner’s assistants even though he had asked for them to be analyzed.  

In addition, he said, the contents of her stomach, which could have helped establish the time of death, were destroyed instead of being preserved.

Lange made his statements under cross-examination as Simpson’s lawyers pressed their theory that the investigation into the murders of Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman was slipshod and inadequate.

Simpson has pleaded not guilty to stabbing his ex-wife and Goldman to death last June 12 outside her condominium.

Meanwhile, in a setback for the defence, the only witness Simpson’s lawyers can use to portray Detective Mark Fuhrman as a racist doesn’t want to testify because of heavy publicity surrounding the case, prosecutors said in court pa-pers.

The defence has suggested Fuhrman planted a bloody glove on Simpson’s prop-erty.

The development involving the witness, Kathleen Bell, raises doubts as to whether the defence will ever be allowed to question Fuhrman about allegations of racism.

According to the defence, the Los Angeles-area woman contends Fuhrman ex-pressed hatred of mixed-race couples and used the word “nigger.”

Judge Lance Ito has disallowed other allegations of racism on Fuhrman’s part.

But Bell’s lawyer, Taylor Daigneault, said later Bell would testify if sub-poenaed.

During Lange’s cross- examination, defence attorney Johnnie Cochran suggested a photo of a cup of melting Ben & Jerry’s ice cream might have helped establish the time Nicole and Goldman were killed.

But Lange said he doubted a picture of the ice cream, found on a banister in Nicole’s home, would have helped, and he saw no reason to have it photographed.

Likewise, he said he did not order photographs to be taken of some nine can-dles found burning in her living room, bedroom and bathroom.

“Did it ever occur to you that by taking pictures of the candles and their state of burning we could extrapolate backwards to the time of death?” Cochran asked.

“No. I know of no way to do that,” Lange said.

He acknowledged, however, that he asked forensic technician Dennis Fung on June 13 to collect blood from a rear gate of the condo and found out that it was not done until three weeks after the slayings - long after the police crime-scene tape had come down.

“If you had known that Fung had not collected blood spots on the back fence, you wouldn’t have released that crime scene, would you?” Cochran asked.

“No,” Lange said.

Lange acknowledged no test was performed to determine if Nicole had been raped, but defended his decision.

“Sex was the last thing on the mind of this attacker,” he said. “It was an overkill. It was a brutal murder.”

It also came to light today that a sealed envelope, possibly containing a stiletto knife Simpson bought weeks before the murders, will not be part of the trial.

Newsday reports that transcripts of discussions Jan. 25 - out of the hearing of the jury or the public - Deputy District Attorney William Hodgman argued that the knife was a moot point. “Your honor . . . we don’t intend to introduce any-thing about the knife or anything,” he told Judge Lance Ito.

LOAD-DATE: February 24, 1995

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

GRAPHIC: AP PHOTO: Members of O.J. Simpson’s legal “dream team” examine a docu-ment in court yesterday. Fron left, Robert Shapiro, private investigator Bill Pavelic also known as William Bill Pavelic and Zvonko Bill Pavelic, Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey. PHOTO: Tom Lange: Detective testi-fied that crucial evidence was destroyed.

The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)

August 5, 1994 Friday Final Edition

Private eyes probed : State checks Simpson’s in-vestigators

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

SECTION: FRONT; Pg. A9

LENGTH: 429 words

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

Private investigators hired to sniff out flaws in the case against O. J. Simpson are themselves being investigated by the state consumer affairs depart-ment.

The probe follows complaints that Simpson’s investigators lack California li-cences and are taking jobs from in-state detectives.

“If you’re doing traditional investigative work, such as interviewing people or scoping out the scene of a crime, then you need to be licensed,” said Louis Bonsignore, spokesman for the California Department of Consumer Affairs.

Bonsignore said Thursday the investigators being investigated were Zvonko (Bill) Pavelic of Glendale, a former Los Angeles Police Department detective; John McNally of New York; and Patrick McKenna of West Palm Beach, Fla.

They are part of the team working for Simpson, who has pleaded not guilty to charges he murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Gold-man. His trial is set for Sept. 19.

Under state law, private investigators must undergo a background check, apply for a licence, pass a test and pay a fee. The penalty for doing detective work without a licence is up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Simpson’s lawyers — Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran and Leroy Taft — did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Bill Pavelic also known as William Bill Pavelic and Zvonko Bill Pavelic has said he isn’t a licensed private investigator and has never claimed to be one. He says he is a defence consultant whose job is to look for mistakes, oversights and violations of police policy in the official investiga-tion.

“If he’s only doing analysis, then he’s probably not in violation of the law,” Bonsignore said.

Sue Sarkis, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Criminal Defence Investigators Association, said she was “very, very, very concerned about these out-of-state people.

“I’m afraid they’re going to impugn the integrity of the licensed investiga-tors,” she said. “They don’t know the laws. They’re not familiar with what our limits are.”

In another development Thursday, a Denver private investigator claiming to work for acquaintances of Nicole Simpson said a witness can place either Simpson or his vehicle near the murder scene at about the time of the killings.

Robert Peterson, head of the R.W. Peterson Investigative Agency, declined to identify the potential witness and said he could not vouch for her credibility. He said she had spoken to one of his investigators.

“I think she may be a valid witness, but I’m not sure yet,” he said.

Peterson declined to identify his clients and has not turned over any infor-mation to authorities.

LOAD-DATE: September 21, 2002

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

TYPE: News

Orlando Sentinel (Florida)

January 21, 1997 Tuesday, METRO

POLICE SEE NO CONNECTION BETWEEN ENNIS COSBY SLAYING, EXTORTION ARRESTS

BYLINE: Compiled From Wire Reports

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A1

LENGTH: 743 words

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

Police in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance picked up two possible witnesses to the killing of Ennis Cosby on Monday and turned them over to investigators for questioning.

Meanwhile, authorities in New York arrested two suspected extortionists in what was described as a failed attempt to blackmail comedian Bill Cosby.

Officials stressed Monday that they do not think the two investigations are connected.
A source familiar with both investigations said the extortion suspects were nabbed Saturday after they allegedly were preparing to take a story to the tab-loid news media accusing Bill Cosby of fathering an illegitimate child - an al-legation denied by Cosby’s spokesman.

Officials on both coasts conferred Monday about that case and last Thursday’s shooting of Bill Cosby’s son, graduate student Ennis Cosby, 27, and concluded that they are not part of a single plot against the Cosby family.

The two people thought to be witnesses were picked up at a Torrance drugstore and turned over to Los Angeles police investigators. KCBS-TV said police went to the drugstore after a neighbor reported seeing a blue hatchback that appeared to match one driven by the witness shown in a police sketch.

Police said that the witnesses were not suspects, and wouldn’t say whether they matched the sketches or the information about the car.

“The most I can tell you . . . is they are being identified as witnesses,” said Torrance Police Lt. Steve Gilliam.

The suspect in the Cosby killing was described as a white man, 25 to 32 years old, of average height and weight and wearing a light-colored knit cap. Police also were seeking a white man in his late 20s to early 30s with a mustache, a goatee and possibly a mole on his left cheek, who was wearing a dark-colored be-ret and driving a blue hatchback car.

Driven in part by the release of composite photographs and in part by an es-calating tabloid reward derby, Los Angeles police detectives are being forced into a sort of investigative triage as they try to separate factual from fanci-ful accounts of Ennis Cosby’s slaying.
By midday Monday, police were sifting through more than 300 tips, some possi-bly serious clues, others passing observations or dubious suggestions.

On Sunday, Bill Cosby, speaking through his publicist, challenged print and electronic tabloids to stop paying for information about the case and instead use that money to offer a reward. The National Enquirer was quick to respond, posting $100,000 for information leading to apprehension of the killer.

Monday, Globe Communications, parent company of The Globe tabloid, upped the ante, offering a $200,000 reward. The Globe also intends to create a toll-free telephone line to accept tips about the case.

Stan Goldman, a Loyola University law professor, cautioned that - just as in the O.J. Simpson murder case - the tabloids could do more harm than good.

He pointed out that a witness testified before a grand jury that she saw Simpson driving away from the crime scene at the time of the killings of his ex-wife and her friend. But because she sold her story to a tabloid, the prosecu-tion feared she was tainted and never called her.

At the Los Angeles Police Department, Cmdr. Tim McBride said police would prefer to have witnesses go straight to authorities. “We are encouraging people to come to the police,” McBride said. “We’re not in partnership with the tab-loids.”

Bill Pavelic, also know as William Bill Pavelic and Zvonko Bill Pavelic, a former LAPD detective who works as an investigator and con-sultant, said 99 percent of the calls to the police department are likely to be worthless - some from psychics.

In the extortion attempt, Autumn Jackson, 22, who allegedly claims Bill Cosby is her father, demanded the money to keep from going to a tabloid, officials said. She and Jose Medina, 54, who was to write her story, were arrested Satur-day at a New York law firm representing Cosby after signing a purported $24 mil-lion settlement to “end everything,” said U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.

According to an FBI affidavit, the family of Bill Cosby apparently had made payments to Autumn Jackson for educational purposes for several years, as he does for numerous other young people in need of assistance.

A family spokesman confirmed the details of the arrangement to ABC News and said Cosby categorically denied that this woman is his daughter. Spokesman David Brokaw said Cosby’s lawyers had a copy of the woman’s birth certificate proving he is not her father.

LOAD-DATE: January 21, 1997

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

United Press International

November 21, 1995, Tuesday, BC cycle

SECTION: Domestic News

LENGTH: 889 words
Compiled by VALERIE KUKLENSKI UPI Entertainment Editor

 DRUMMING UP BUSINESS: The drum set played by Ringo Starr on the Beatles’ last U.S. concert tour is enshrined in a museum, as Beatles buffs would expect it to be. But it isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleve-land, or even the Smithsonian in Washington, as one might presume. The Ludwig drum kit is set up in Huntsville, Ala., at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The drum set, last played by Starr on Aug. 29, 1966, at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, had been in storage until representatives of the space center asked the owner for permission to show it in an exhibit of cultural happenings of the late ’60s, when the Apollo moon program was in full swing. ‘’It’s sort of a bonus,'’ curator James Hagler said. ‘’Our visitors expect to see space shuttles, rockets and missiles, but they really stop dead in their tracks when they spot those drums. It’s icing on the cake for a generation that grew up with the Beatles and the space program.'’ With the ‘’Beatles Anthology'’ craze in full swing, the space center no doubt is hoping to see a few more visitors.

 COOP DIDN’T DO IT: Actor Gary Cooper’s family thought the movie legend’s prized framed letter from President George Washington was a cherished gift, but it turns out it was hot property. It seems the letter, written in 1777, had been stolen from the Massachusetts archives nearly 50 years ago. The letter, valued at about $24,000, was about to be sold by Christie’s auction house when its rightful origin became known. When Christie’s advised Cooper’s daughter, Maria Cooper Janis, that the document was one of 17 stolen Washington letters, she told state officials she would return it. Massachusetts Secretary of State Wil-liam Galvin says Cooper apparently received the letter in the mid- 1940s as a gift and had no role in its disappearance. Janis does not know who gave Cooper the letter, which hung in the family library for years.

 CHILE AWAITS ELTON JOHN: Chilean newspapers are predicting a conservative performance in the capital’s National Stadium when British pop star Elton John and his band of six musicians swing into town. They’re scheduled to play a 2 -hour show before an estimated 40,000 fans, but the Santiago newspaper La Epoca said no ‘’great novelties'’ are planned. John will only spend a few hours in Chile — flying in from Brazil just before the concert and flying back to Brazil the next morning.  Tuesday, 30,000 of the 45,000 tickets had been sold, and po-lice planned tight security involving 1,200 Carabineros, despite expectations of a quiet night. The stadium will have 300 of its own security personnel on hand, and a barrier between the fans and the stage will be set up, despite reported objections from the singer. Stageside seats are going for $150, and the cheapest tickets are $20.

 EVERT BABY: Tennis great Chris Evert and husband Andy Mill are expecting their third child in June, according to an announcement from her Boca Raton, Fla., office. They have two sons, Alexander, 4, and Nicholas, 1 . ‘’Andy and I could not be happier,'’ Evert said. ‘’We think it will be great to have another brother or sister for Alex and Nicky.'’ Evert, 40, won at least one Grand Slam title each year for 13 years.

 JAZZ MECCA: More than 1,000 of the music industry’s most influential jazz professionals from around the world convened at New York’s Loewe’s hotel over the weekend for the 11th annual JazzTimes convention, which boasted record at-tendance. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, a leader in the neoclassic approach to the acoustic jazz that predated fusion, was the keynote speaker. Other young players showcased included pianist Brad Mehldau, saxophonist David Sanchez and guitarist Mark Whitfield. The public was allowed to sit in on one showcase: the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation’s 1995 Mid-Atlantic AllStars, featuring Roy Haynes, Geri Allen, Rufus Reid, Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard. The Finnish big band UMO Jazz Orchestra celebrated its 20th anniversary with a series of performances at Birdland, Tattou and Michael’s Pub, where they were joined by guest pianist Gil Goldstein. The experimental 12-tone Swedish jazz band Mwendo Sawa, led by keyboardist Susanna Lindeborg and tenor saxophonist Ove Johansson, made a rare American appearance at La Place On the Park.

 THE SEARCH CONTINUES: O.J. Simpson vowed on Oct. 3 after his acquittal of murder charges to find ‘’the killers who slaughtered Nicole (Brown Simpson) and Mr. (Ronald) Goldman.'’ Since then, Jay Leno, David Letterman, comedians every-where — even ‘’Doonesbury'’ cartoonist G.B. Trudeau — have been having a field day with quips alluding to Simpson’s intense search of prestigious country club golf courses, cruise ships and other unlikely venues. But Time magazine reports Simpson does have an investigator on the job. He is Bill Pavelic, a former Los Angeles police detective turned private eye who worked for Simpson’s defense team. ‘’I'm basically coordinating the efforts,'’ he told the magazine. As for his strategy, he said, ‘’Nothing is in, nothing is out. I won’t get into specif-ics, but I know exactly the direction I want to go in.'’ It was Bill Pavelic who found housekeeper Rosa Lopez, whose testimony never was seen by the jury.

LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1995

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Copyright 1995 U.P.I.

Los Angeles Times

February 10, 2006 Friday 
Home Edition

Pellicano’s Ties May Leave Many in a Bind;
The indicted private investigator forged extensive relationships with law enforcement.

BYLINE: Greg Krikorian and Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writers

SECTION: CALIFORNIA; Metro; Metro Desk; Part B; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1216 words

Two decades ago, a fast-talking former bill collector from Chicago blew into Los Angeles to help unravel the U.S. government’s drug case against carmaker John DeLorean.
Part salesman, part sleuth, Anthony J. Pellicano quickly made a name for him-self as the kind of bare-knuckles fighter that celebrities and entertainment mo-guls wanted in their corner. Someone who could make problems — including law-suits — go away.
At the same time, Pellicano was forging relationships with law enforcement officers that helped back up his reputation as Hollywood’s ultimate fixer.
“These relationships were vital to Anthony,” said a former associate, who re-quested anonymity because of the ongoing FBI investigation. “As a P.I., you can only go so far getting information. And he had cop friends everywhere.”
Detectives. Prosecutors. Federal agents. He helped them. And as a still-unfolding FBI investigation suggests, some returned the favor by providing him with the kind of information that only someone in law enforcement can access.
This week, a federal indictment charged Pellicano and former LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson with running a vast racketeering enterprise that wiretapped, blackmailed and intimidated the private eye’s investigative targets.
Pellicano pleaded not guilty and Arneson will enter his plea Monday. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment.
The indictment followed a guilty plea last month by veteran Beverly Hills Po-lice Officer Craig Stevens to charges of illegally accessing government com-puters to dig up dirt for Pellicano.
Both police departments describe the charges as aberrations. But sources close to the investigation say other law enforcement officials have come under scrutiny. And the former Pellicano associate told The Times how he regularly had contact with about a dozen law enforcement officers throughout the region.
Pellicano’s legitimate ties to law enforcement may have emboldened him to think he was “cloaked in some sort of quasi-judicial role with law enforcement,” said veteran Los Angeles defense attorney Mark Werksman, who has tried a number of high-profile cases.
And those connections, Werksman said, could not help but be used by Pellicano to drum up new clients. “I have no doubt that he would sell his services by pro-moting his special relationship with the government,” said the former federal prosecutor.
An audio forensics expert, Pellicano’s specialty was enhancing or authenti-cating garbled or faint tapes.
Dozens of times, authorities across the country turned to Pellicano to apply his expertise to problem cases. In an especially high-profile prosecution, Pel-licano testified against Thomas Blanton Jr., a former Ku Klux Klansman accused in a 1963 church bombing in Alabama that killed four African American girls.
Pellicano was able to enhance nearly 40-year-old tape recordings on which Blanton can be heard telling his wife about a meeting to plan the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, bolstering the government’s case. Blanton was convicted in 2001 of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
“Through your tireless efforts we were able to produce to the jury an audible recording of a critical conversation in which the defendant clearly admitted his involvement in this horrible crime,” G. Douglas Jones, the prosecuting U.S. at-torney, wrote Pellicano after the trial.
The letter, one of many written on Pellicano’s behalf over the years by law enforcement officials, could only bolster his reputation. And as time passed, he found more work as both a government witness and a high-priced private eye.
“He tried to play both sides against the middle,” Werksman said. “He would allegedly try to obtain things clients were not entitled to get. And on the other hand, he had the government hiring him because of his professed ability to analyze audiotapes as a result of his years of dealing with electronic surveil-lance.”
Of all the relationships with law enforcement officers that have so far sur-faced, none seems to have been tighter than his alleged connections with Arne-son, the former Los Angeles Police Department detective.
A decorated 29-year veteran who spent a large part of his career as a homi-cide detective in South Los Angeles, Arneson could be seen in Pellicano’s of-fices as often as three times a week, according to the former Pellicano associ-ate.
Colleagues considered Arneson a whiz at mining state and federal databases for information.
“He was the guy people would go to to help them get information on someone for their case,” said one of his former police supervisors. “He knew better than anyone how to negotiate the database.”
One former colleague described the ex-LAPD officer as charismatic but arro-gant.
He was “a prima donna,” said retired LAPD Det. Zvonko “Bill” Pavelic, who said he was in Arneson’s Police Academy class in 1974.
“You could tell he had the absolute police personality, the kind they look for: He was cocky, masculine, a tough dude,” said Pavelic, a private investiga-tor who worked for O.J. Simpson and John Gordon Jones, who was acquitted of mul-tiple rape charges in 2001.
(A former Pellicano client, Jones was allegedly wiretapped by Pellicano, the indictment said. Federal authorities also charged this week that Arneson ac-cessed confidential police records for eight of Jones’ alleged victims.)
When Arneson filed for bankruptcy in 1998, he described himself as a self-employed private investor, with an income of about $8,000 a month. He made no mention that he was a police officer or received income from the LAPD, according to court records.
From 1997 to 2002, the indictment said, Pellicano paid Arneson nearly $189,000 in checks and an unknown amount of additional cash to dig up dirt and help bug celebrities and business leaders.
But in 2003, Pellicano was convicted of explosives charges and went to prison, and Arneson retired from the LAPD. At the time, Arneson was facing dis-ciplinary action for allegedly tapping into department databases for Pellicano.
Less is known about Pellicano’s connections to former Beverly Hills cop Ste-vens.
The two lived two miles apart in Oak Park, a Ventura County bedroom commu-nity, where their children went to the same schools and played soccer together.
Much of Stevens’ work focused on residential burglaries, said lawyers who worked with him. Robert Savitt, a retired prosecutor who knew Stevens in Beverly Hills, said Stevens was well-respected in the courthouse.
“I was very surprised to read about the indictment,” Savitt said. “He came across as very strait-laced.”
Since Stevens pleaded guilty to lying about his knowledge of Pellicano’s ac-tivities, neither he nor his attorney have been available for comment.
Merrick Bobb, who monitors the Sheriff’s Department for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said the Pellicano case shows the challenges for law enforcement.
“The Pellicano case, if the facts are proven, will be an example of the dif-ficulties that prosecutors face in all criminal cases regarding the credibility of witnesses they put forward. That goes for police witnesses as well as expert witnesses,” Bobb said.
John Nazarian, a private investigator from Beverly Hills, put it more bluntly, saying:
“Cops should avoid private eyes like poison ivy.”
*
Times staff writers Peter Hong and Richard Winton contributed to this report.

LOAD-DATE: February 10, 2006

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: CONNECTIONS: Private investigator Anthony Pellicano built a reputation as a problem-solver for Hollywood’s elites.  PHOTOGRAPHER: George Wilhelm Los Angeles Times PHOTO: (OC) SLEUTH: Anthony Pellicano has been serving time in prison on a charge of possessing explosives. The new indictment came this week.  PHOTOGRAPHER: Brian Vander Brug Los Angeles Times

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Los Angeles Times
 

February 12, 2006 Sunday 
Home Edition
 

Pellicano Case Shines Spotlight on Private Eyes
 

BYLINE: Peter Y. Hong, Times Staff Writer
 

SECTION: CALIFORNIA; Metro; Metro Desk; Part B; Pg. 1
 

LENGTH: 1257 words
 

The federal indictment of Hollywood private investigator Anthony J. Pellicano for allegedly using wiretaps and police bribes to dig up dirt on celebrities and business executives has cast a spotlight on the often murky but growing practice of commercial sleuthing.
America’s appetite for litigation, a rise in corporate snooping on employees, partners and rivals, and the trafficking of vast stores of private information on computer databases have fueled a boom in private investigations.
The burgeoning industry and its darker practitioners have alarmed privacy advocates, federal regulators and legitimate investigators, who say the Pellicano case underscores the need for more public scrutiny of investigators and their employers.
California has nearly 10,000 licensed private investigators, up from about 6,000 in 1990. As their ranks multiply, “we’re unable to tell the good players from the bad players,” said Robert H. Townsend, a Dana Point private investigator with 40 years’ experience.
Pellicano and six others were indicted last week on charges of conspiring to wiretap, blackmail and intimidate dozens of celebrities and other targets, including Sylvester Stallone and Garry Shandling. Prosecutors believe the private eye illegally obtained confidential information to gain advantage for clients in legal disputes.
Pellicano has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He remains in federal custody.
Although the investigator’s alleged tactics might put him at the fringe of his trade, the demand for Pellicano’s services came straight from the mainstream. For years, private lawyers and government prosecutors paid for his work.
Whether in a criminal case or a messy divorce, personal information such as financial, criminal or even telephone records can help a lawyer build a case or destroy an opponent’s. “A lawyer without an investigator is like a gun without bullets,” said Zvonko “Bill” Pavelic, a Los Angeles investigator.
But Pavelic and others acknowledge that requests from clients can sink to the lowest depths.
In one instance, Pavelic said, a defense lawyer asked him to find nude pictures of a prosecutor who had once been a Las Vegas showgirl. Pavelic said he refused. “The sleaze is unbelievable” among private investigators, he said, adding that lawyers’ requests are often “the most sleazy of them all.”
The demand for confidential information coupled with the amount of money one can make obtaining it encourages rogue tactics, Pavelic said. According to the 110-count indictment, Pellicano is accused of paying a former Los Angeles police sergeant nearly $189,000 for scouring law enforcement databases for information and to help bug celebrities and business leaders.
“Are there people in the LAPD, the Sheriff’s Department, the courthouses selling information?” Pavelic asked. “There is no question the answer is yes.”
*
As a hired detective who often worked for the rich and famous, Pellicano evokes an image — whether intentionally or not — of investigators deeply rooted in Hollywood lore.
Hard-boiled private eyes navigating the city’s seamy underside are well established in the public’s imagination, from Raymond Chandler’s 1930s gumshoe Philip Marlowe to Jack Nicholson’s snooping Jake Gittes in the 1974 film “Chinatown.”
Indeed, the popular image endures. When Richard Riordan was mayor of Los Angeles, a private investigator worked out of a backroom of his famous old downtown steak-and-eggs restaurant, the Original Pantry Cafe. Riordan and the investigator, Phillip Burruel, have never publicly commented on their relationship.
Unlike some others in the private eye business, authorities allege that Pellicano had inside help. He is charged with paying former LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson and veteran Beverly Hills Police Officer Craig Stevens to search for information in the National Crime Information Center, a secured FBI database. The NCIC contains information ranging from criminal histories to records of stolen vehicles.
Putting such police information into the hands of private parties “shows how vulnerable we all are,” said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. A former federal prosecutor, Levenson said the Pellicano case raises “the question of, do we have a bad egg here or another systemic problem at the LAPD? It does indicate that police computer systems can be easily abused.”
Pavelic, who retired from the LAPD in 1992, said he often entered law enforcement databases on behalf of private investigators when he was on the force. “That happens day in and day out,” he said. “I don’t believe there’s a cop on the beat who has not accessed a police computer for some type of personal reason.”
But not all private eyes operate that way.
“Most of your private investigators are very legitimate operators running small mom-and-pop businesses,” serving clients such as insurance firms and plaintiffs’ lawyers, said Townsend, who opened his business after serving as an investigator in the Marine Corps. He said his main clients are plaintiffs’ lawyers and a nonprofit group seeking to prevent boat injuries.
At the top of the industry’s food chain are multinational companies, such as Kroll Associates, serving mainly corporate clients. The firm has grown from a single office in New York in 1985 to a global practice with 63 offices and 3,000 professional staff members, including lawyers, accountants and journalists.
Henry Kupperman, a lawyer, heads Kroll’s Los Angeles office. The company’s business, he said, includes working for corporations investigating internal fraud and embezzlement or checking the financial condition of a potential acquisition.
“When you have prosecutions and investigations like the one involving Pellicano, it helps our business,” he said. “We pride ourselves on being legal and ethical.”
At the bottom rung of the sleuthing trade are fly-by-night operations on the Internet that for a fee offer to dig up copies of phone bills and Social Security numbers. Federal officials say such companies routinely engage in deceptive practices to obtain information, such as pretending to be an account-holder when requesting a copy of a phone bill, or paying an employee of a store to pass on customer information.
Chris Hoofnagle, a San Francisco-based lawyer for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a group focused on privacy issues, said the lack of widespread licensing standards for private investigators was a problem, noting that six states do not require licenses.
One of those states, Colorado, was the site of the first Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against a private detective for “pretexting,” using deception to gain information. James J. Rapp and Ragena L. Rapp, whose Denver-area business obtained bank and phone records through various techniques, paid the government a $200,000 settlement in 2000. James Rapp also served a 75-day sentence for racketeering.
Rapp drew the attention of authorities when the LAPD suspected his firm of selling home addresses and phone numbers of organized-crime detectives to a reputed mobster.
California’s licensing requirements are among the most stringent, requiring three years of paid work experience for an investigative agency such as a police department or insurance company, passing a written exam and undergoing a criminal background check.
Yet Pellicano’s alleged transgressions occurred while he was a licensed investigator. He obtained his license in 1983; it expired in 2004, while he served prison time for possessing hand grenades and plastic explosives.
*
Times staff writer Henry Weinstein contributed to this report.
 

LOAD-DATE: February 12, 2006
 

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
 

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper