When Chad Hummel, attorney for Sgt. Mark Arneson, got a chance to
cross-examine LAPD Detective Lim, he managed to cast a bit of doubt on
the government's contention that Mr. Arneson personally used the LAPD
computers to look up criminal and DMV information on a large number of
Mr. Pellicano's targets. Mr. Hummel raised the possibility that
someone else might have been using Mr. Arneson's serial number and
"sparky" password when he noted that on at least one occasion, Mr.
Arneson supposedly made data base inquiries on himself and his wife.
Mr. Hummel also established that there were several other LAPD officers
who conducted data base inquiries on Anita Busch as well as on
Kissandra Cohen, an attorney that Mr. Pellicano is alleged to have
wiretapped. But when Mr. Lally stood up again for re-direct, he asked
Detective Lim if there was any other LAPD officer who on May 16, 2002
ran inquiries on former N.Y. Times' reporters Anita Busch and Bernard
Weinraub and James Casey (a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against
Michael Ovitz.) Detective Lim replied that no other LAPD officers,
besides one who signed in with Mr. Arneson's serial number and
password, conducted such an inquiry. But, it still left open the door
for the possibility that other officers in the LAPD were involved in
inquiries on at least a few of Mr. Pellicano's major targets.
The rest of the day was devoted to testimony from the government's
F.B.I. computer expert who spent one very long hour talking about how
he'd obtained data from Mr. Pellicano's computers. Thee F.B.I. expert,
who'd flown out from F.B.I. computer secret headquarters in Virginia,
seemed well cast for his role as a computer guy. He was sporting a
gray suit, gray hair, glasses and a blank expression. It was difficult
to hear him when he spoke, despite the fact that he was sitting on top
of a microphone. But, the fact that he was almost inaudible didn't
stop Mr. Pellicano from listening attentively, often scowling or
looking confused by the agent's testimony. Mr. Pellicano looked
extremely excited about the chance to once again unleash his newly
acquired super power--super-slow and incredibly confusing
cross-examination questions.
When it was time for the defense to cross-examine, Mr. Pellicano
announced that he'd prefer to start his cross-examination of this
witness on Tuesday--giving both Mr. Saunders and Mr. Lally the weekend to try and find some defense against Mr. Pellicano's new found superpower. Given Mr. Pellicano's
enthusiasm and tremendous knowledge of computers, it's likely that he's
going to give the F.B.I. expert a thorough going-over. We got a
glimpse this afternoon, when Mr. Pellicano agreed to start his
cross-examination with a few general questions designed to show that
a.) the F.B.I. witness knows nothing about computers and b.) Mr.
Pellicano is a computer genius who should be working for the government.
Although Tuesday's court testimony is going to feature a lot of
computer related testimony, several other witnesses are scheduled to
testify including some from the John Gordon Jones' matter who were
allegedly targeted by Pellicano as well as a former Pellicano employee,
Lily LeMasters. And then, the government is also expecting to finish
up the testimony of Asst. Prosecutor Karla Kerlin.... There are some
interesting witnesses coming up that the government hasn't announced
yet... so stay tuned. They may end up making a surprise appearance.
Read all of HuffPost's coverage from inside the Pellicano courtroom.