Today, yet another major Hollywood figure, Freddie DeMann, the well
known music manager and film producer, found himself in the middle of
the Pellicano trial. In keeping with the trial's theme of not charging
major Hollywood players or lawyers who hired Mr. Pellicano, Mr. DeMann
is also not charged with doing anything illegal despite the fact that
he admitted under oath to paying Mr. Pellicano to wiretap, listening to
the wiretaps and then, playing wiretaps to someone. Ah, you've got to
admire how all of these powerful Hollywood fellows are managing to walk
away from this Pellicano mess almost completely unscathed. Unlike the
mostly unknown defendants in the courtroom, seated in the stadium
seating for audience viewing, these big Hollywood guys get to come,
testify and are often done with the whole mess in time to make lunch at
The Grill. I actually don't think Mr. DeMann was on the stand for more
than thirty minutes. Frankly, by the time this trial goes to the jury,
I doubt if any of them will even remember what he looks like.
Although we never really found out all the gruesome details about why
Mr. DeMann hired Mr. Pellicano, we did learn in the opening minutes of
Mr. DeMann's testimony that he's definitely a front-runner for the
title of "worst in-law of the century." Appearing tense, but not
particularly remorseful, Mr. DeMann testified that he actually paid Mr.
Pellicano $135,000.00 to prove that his son-in-law was cheating on his
daughter. Seems that Mr. DeMann wasn't content to just snear at his
son-in-law over family dinners like most in-laws. Rather, Mr. DeMann
testified that he took matters into his own hands and hired Mr.
Pellicano to prove that his son-in-law was unfaithful. After paying
out a $25,000 cash retainer, Mr. DeMann oversaw the investigation into
his then son-in-law, visiting Mr. Pellicano's office on a number of
occasions to get updates on how Mr. Pellicano's investigation was
going. He also told the jury that at least five or six occasions, he
went to Mr. Pellicano's office to listen to wiretaps of his then
son-in-law. "I assume I heard a recording each time," he explained
coldly. He said that after listening to the recordings, he was able to
confirm that his then son-in-law had not been faithful. Even though he
was cautioned by Mr. Lally not to reveal the contents of the wiretapped
calls that he heard in Mr. Pellicano's office, Mr. DeMann told the jury
that he heard his ex-son-in-law speaking about "dalliances." He
basically spat the word out before the Judge could instruct him not to
go into any details. After learning that his son-in-law was up to no
good, Mr. DeMann recalled that he confronted his daughter with the
information. He said that he actually only "played her one second of
one conversation." I'm guessing that it was a bad conversation...
Mr. Hummel's cross was one for the ages--and probably what everyone in
the courtroom was thinking by that point. "Do you consider your
daughter better off today because of Mr. Pellicano," Mr. Hummel said
quickly as the Judge sustained Mr. Lally's objection to the question.
Although Mr. DeMann didn't respond, it was clear from his demeanor that
he was pleased with Mr. Pellicano's work.
Although Mr. DeMann was the most well known of today's witnesses (and a
major Hollywood figure), most of the goverment's case today was devoted
to showing how the phone company assisted Mr. Pellicano in wiretapping
his targets. The bad news is that it seems like just about anyone who
works for the phone company can get an individual's address, phone
numbers, social security number and even, credit information. The
government called David Lopes, the phone company's asset protection
guy, to talk about his investigation of various SBC employees who were
found to have engaged in misconduct or illegal activity. Mr. Lopes let
everyone know that if an employee had the right card or code or
password, getting into the phone company's data bases for all of L.A.
would be pretty easy. And, that if that employee gave the data to
someone like, say Ray Turner, that Mr. Turner could install a wiretap
with relative ease.
Looking through a bin of phone equipment seized from Mr. Pellicano's
storage locker, Mr. Lopes described the items as the stuff needed to
install wiretaps. "Any reason for an SBC employee or anyone to have
this material other than for the purpose of listening into phone
lines?" Mr. Saunders asked. After a strong "no" from Mr. Lopes, Mr.
Saunders continued with "Any reason for a private investigator to have
these materials other than to listen to phone lines?" "Not that I can
think of," Mr. Lopes replied.
The essence of Mr. Lopes' testimony was really that there were a few
telephone employees who had access to phone company database
information (and anything needed to wiretap someone) and that these
employees gave that information to defendant and former phone company
employee, Rayford Turner. Mr. Lopes also testified that Mr. Turner
could have gotten quite a bit of the information on his own, but that
he was able to confirm that some of it was supplied by Teresa Wright
(who took the stand at the end of the day) and also by Michele Malkin.
Both of these women are no longer with the phone company.
The cross-examination of Mr. Lopes lasted several weeks--it actually
was just a few hours, but it felt like several weeks. Mr. Pellicano
took yet another opportunity to point out that he knew more than the
witness about phone company procedures, databases and central offices.
He was extremely proficient in phone company lingo--even showing up
Mr. Turner's lawyer, Mona Soo Hoo, who had difficult during her cross
with the technical phone company language. The good news for Mr. Turner
was that both Mr. Pellicano and Ms. Soo Hoo managed to make Mr. Lopes
sound like he was completely in bed with the government because of fear
of the myriad of civil lawsuits being brought against the phone company
by Mr. Pellicano's many alleged victims. And to further make the point
that Mr. Lopes was trying to testify the phone company out of liability
by putting all the blame on Mr. Turner (and other SBC employees), Ms.
Soo Hoo pointed out the number of phone company attorneys who were
sitting in the courtroom today, watching Mr. Lopes' testimony.
Before the end of the day, Ms. Wright had testified that she'd helped
Mr. Turner get information from phone company data bases that could be
used to install a wiretap on a phone line. Ms. Wright, who began to
sob during her testimony, told the jury that she looked up phone
information for Mr. Turner on Johnny Friendly (Sly Stallone), Bo Zenga,
Anita Busch (two lines) and Mark Hughes.
Read more of HuffPost's coverage from inside the Pellicano courtroom