Pellicano Trial: Audiotapes, Secret Information and A Studio Chief

An update from the first break Tuesday:

The government pummeled Mr. Pellicano today with his own words, playing audio tapes of the former private investigator threatening a target of one of his investigations and talking to client, John McTiernan. While the jury stared intently at their transcripts, Mr. Pellicano's profanities were blasted throughout the courtroom as he told attorney Peter Knect that his client, Bilal Baroody, owed his client, studio head Ron Meyer around $300,000. The audio was clear and loud as Mr. Pellicano explained to Mr. Knect that he'd just learned that Mr. Baroody was back in town and that "his life is about to change exponentially unless he pays this money back." Mr. Knect, keeping his cool, responded that he hasn't seen Mr. Baroody. Without any prompting, Mr. Pellicano told how his client, Mr. Meyer, lent this money to Baroody just because they were neighbors and he thought Mr. Baroody was "down and out." While chatting with Mr. Knect, Mr. Pellicano actually fields a call from former Sgt. Mark Arneson and asks Mr. Arneson to look up information on Mr. Baroody. Without missing a beat, Mr. Pellicano returns to the call with Mr. Knect and threatens that "this guy is fucking with the wrong person." Mr. Knect tries to figure out who that person is, inquiring, "Who? Ron Meyer?" And Pellicano responds, "Me. Me." Mr. Pellicano than promises that he'll put in a good word for Mr. Knect with Mr. Meyer if he finds out where Mr. Baroody is and tells the private eye. In response, Mr. Knect says that he's "not interested in getting brownie points" with Mr. Meyer, but wonders aloud if Mr. Meyer's debt has been assigned to Pellicano. Pellicano responds that it has and Mr. Knect ends the call, promising to call Mr. Pellicano back. It's unclear whether he did. (Mr. Meyer has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with Mr. Pellicano. He is on the government's witness list.)

After Mr. Knect left the stand, Charles Roven began his testimony about how he'd been a producer on the film Rollerball while Mr. McTiernan was the director. Speaking in show business lingo, Mr. Roven described his relationship with the director, John McTiernan as "cordial." When pressed to explain what he meant by cordial, Mr. Roven mentioned that McTiernan had most of the creative control on the film and that the two men had some creative differences during the making of the film. In regular language, that means that Mr. Roven and Mr. McTiernan were fighting about how to make the movie.

Mr. Roven was subdued and barely audible at times from the witness stand, but it didn't really matter because the government had yet another audio tape to play. While Mr. Rovan sat on the witness stand listening and avoiding eye contact with everyone, the jury heard Mr. Pellicano tell director John McTiernan and that he was in the middle of wiretapping Mr. Roven. On the tape, Pellicano made his usual complaints about the incredible volume of calls that he was being forced to listen to and made his usual pitch for more money. During this call, however, he was particularly rough on Mr. Roven, repeatedly complaining about how boring the guy was on his calls. Mr. Pellicano made a pitch to McTiernan, asking him to come help out and listen to the calls so he could figure out what was important in Mr. Roven's conversations. Mr. McTiernan replied that he was a bit too busy, but suggested sending his then girlfriend, Kate. Ever mindful that women are not to be trusted, Mr. Pellicano advised McTiernan not to send Kate because she wasn't his wife--and even though they were together at the moment, these things are subject to change.

Finally, Mr. Pellicano suggested that if he didn't get more money, he was going to take the wiretap down. Even though Mr. Pellicano pointed out that he'd prefer to wiretap Mr. Roven at home, Mr. McTiernan told him that it was time to stop.

After Mr. Roven, Robert Pfeiffer took the stand for the government. Mr. Pfeiffer has already been charged with aiding and abetting Mr. Pellicano in wiretapping his ex-girlfriend, Erin Finn. Although Mr. Pfeiffer was testifying in an effort to reduce his sentence on the wiretapping charges, he still came across as quite honest. Of all those witnesses for the government who clearly participated in wiretapping, Mr. Pfeiffer seemed to be one of the few who actually seemed remorseful and even a bit embarrassed as he described the campaign of harassment, lawsuits and wiretapping that he and Mr. Pellicano waged against his former girlfriend. Mr. Pfeiffer gave an inside perspective on how Mr. Pellicano's investigative strategy was to wage complete and utter war against a target until that target gave up and asked for a meeting--which Ms. Finn ultimately did.

Earlier Today:

Producer Charles Roven testified about working with director John McTiernan on the film Rollerball in the summer of 2000. After Mr. Roven was shown private DMV and other personal information about him found in Mr. Pellicano's computers, Mr. Saunders played an audio tape of a conversation between Mr. Pellicano and Mr. McTiernan in which the two discussed Mr. Roven's telephone call conversations. Mr. Pellicano asked Mr. McTiernan for more money and then complained that Mr. Roven talked forever about certain topics. "I want to scream when I hear this dialogue," Mr. Pellicano said of Mr. Roven's telephone conversations. After complaining that the conversations were dull--as if remarking on a bad script--Mr. Pellicano asked Mr. McTiernan's assistance in determining the important conversations from the merely routine ones.

Sitting in the stadium seating reserved for the defendants, Mr. Pellicano avoided eye contact with the jury and looked intently at the transcript provided for him by the government. As the jury listened to him laugh hysterically with Mr. McTiernan over the dull nature of Mr. Roven's calls, Mr. Pellicano's face remained impassive. Mr. Roven, sitting on the stand, looked tired and annoyed by the audio tape of Mr. McTiernan and Mr. Pellicano.

An attorney for businessman Bilal Baroody was also on the stand this morning. After he identified his DMV records and other personal information found on Mr. Pellicano's computers, the government played a tape of the attorney, Peter Knect, talking to Mr. Pellicano. Mr. Pellicano said on the audio tape that he was looking to collect on a debt owed by Mr. Baroody to his client, Ron Meyer. Mr. Pellicano bragged that his client, Mr. Meyer, head of Universal Studios, had graciously lent Mr. Baroody money and had not been repaid for two to three years.

Read all of HuffPost's coverage from inside the Pellicano courtroom.

Comments

[LAJonathan]

Gosh, I really wish it would get out that Hillary Clinton was one of Pellicano's best customers. Gennifer Flowers sure does too...