Pellicano Trial: Pellicano Does a Cross Examination and Digging for Proof

Session 1:

Mr. Pellicano started off this morning's session of his trial on wiretapping and conspiracy with a brief comment, noting that he no longer wished to cross-examine F.B.I. Agent Stan Ornellas because he "no longer has any belief in the fairness of the trial." He didn't elaborate on when or how he'd come to that conclusion, but the judge wasn't inclined to ask him to elaborate.

Mr. Ornellas did return to the stand where Mr. Lally asked him about the nature of this investigation. Mr. Ornellas described it as an "historical criminal investigation" which he explained meant that by the time the F.B.I. executed a search warrant, all the criminal activity has already taken place. It was a bit difficult to understand the explanation because it does seem possible that the F.B.I. could have monitored Mr. Pellicano's activities before executing the search warrant and maybe, just maybe, have caught him in the act of wiretapping. As Mr. Pellicano pointed out when he did finally get up to cross-examine Mr. Ornellas (which I know seemed to contradict his earlier statement), he actually managed to zero in on what might be the major weakness in the government's case--the lack of any actual wiretapped recordings beyond the conversation between Lisa and Tom Gores.

Mr. Pellicano calmly asked Agent Ornellas if he'd ever had a case like this before. "No," replied the agent. Then, in what was his best cross of the trial (which doesn't mean all that much), Mr. Pellicano asked if on the date of the first search warrant, Mr. Ornellas found anything evidence of wiretapping. "No," Mr. Ornellas replied. "And how about with the second search warrant?" Mr. Pellicano pressed. "Well, there was a compact disc found with wiretapped conversations of the Gores." Mr. Pellicano remained focused, getting Mr. Ornellas to admit that he couldn't recall where they'd found the compact disc. And then, in one of his best questions to date (again not qualifying for trial lawyer of the year except for in this particular trial), Mr. Pellicano asked Mr. Ornellas how he knew that the Gores' conversation was a wiretap. Mr. Ornellas answered that he'd questioned both parties to the wiretap and both had testified that neither had given their consent to be wiretapped. But then Mr. Pellicano asked a question that some had been wondering about, was it possible that the person who paid the phone bill (and was the account holder as in Mr. Alex Gores), had given permission to having Mr. Pellicano record conversations coming from his home. Mr. Ornellas persisted in saying their was no permission given, but finally, Mr. Pellicano had raised the question that maybe the conversation between the Gores wasn't an actual wiretap.

And then, it was time for Mona Soo Hoo, who represents Ray Turner, the former telephone repair man, to call witnesses. Ms. Soo Hoo's soft voice and stuttering questions combined to make the examination of her witnesses mind-numbingly dull. As Ms. Soo Hoo fumbled her way through questions, stopping constantly to check her notes or overcome a steady stream of objections from Mr. Saunders, the jury seemed to be staring at their hands, presumably going somewhere else in their minds to avoid inadvertently falling into a coma. At one point, Mr. Saunders managed to get objections sustained in a row to Ms. Soo Hoo's questions due to her failure to lay a proper foundation for many of her questions. Mr. Sauders' objections became so constant that he didn't even bother to rise out of his chair--just irritably listing off the many problems with the form and substance of Ms. Soo Hoo's questions.

There was only one witness so far this morning that managed to show some personality and loyalty to Mr. Turner, despite Ms. Soo Hoo's dull, steady stream of questions that seemingly failed to elicit anything but objections from Mr. Saunders and yawns from the jury. The witness, Berry Barnett swaggered into court, wearing a leather jacket and a big smile, seemingly at ease with the giant courtroom and large panel of jurors. Mr. Barnett asked the judge for permission to remove his leather jacket and then, after draping it over the witness chair, settled in and began answering questions. After identifying himself as a long time friend of Mr. Turner's and currently a phone company technician with over twenty years of experience, Mr. Barnett talked about how in order to get access to certain information, company technicians had to be escorted by other employees into an area called the "frame room." But he also testified to the fact that many of the telephone boxes out in the field are not locked and gave the general impression that anyone off the street could get phone company information. His easy-going attitude about security and procedures mirrored that of the other telephone company witnesses--something that in and of itself, is cause for concern to anyone worried about their private phone company information ending up in the wrong hands. As Mr. Barnett left the stand, he told the Judge, "This ain't no Judge Judy. This is Perry Mason all the way up here." The judge smiled at the Judge Judy reference, noting that "she's short too."

Session 2:

It turns out that former phone repair man, Ray Turner, has decided not to testify in his own defense. Instead, during the second session of today's trial, Mona Soo Hoo called a few witnesses to impeach the government's self-proclaimed star witness, Tarita Virtue. Patricia Perez, yet another gorgeous ex-Pellicano employee, took the stand to chat about an allegedly threatening call that Mr. Pellicano made to Ms. Virtue's father, Dr. Virtue. Although she wasn't on the call--and strangely enough Mr. Pellicano didn't record it--Ms. Perez testified to hearing Mr. Pellicano's side of the conversation. She described the call as not containing any threatening language and Mr. Pellicano's demeanor as calm, yet concerned. When Mr. Lally tried to point out on cross-examination that Ms. Virtue calls with Mr. Pellicano stopped after his conversation with her father, Ms. Perez noted that Ms. Virtue still maintained contact via email. Although Ms. Soo Hoo was unable to get in the content of that email or the fact that Ms. Perez had seen it because of a series of sustained objections from the government, she was able to establish that perhaps, Mr. Pellicano hadn't threatened Ms. Virtue's father. But as the government then had Ms. Perez admit, she didn't know hpow Dr. Vitue interpreted the call. Given the problems with Ms. Virtue's original testimony--she had a some moments where her credibility was effectively challenged by the defense--the veracity of her testimony concerning Mr. Pellicano's threatening phone call was always a bit in question until he managed back during his cross of Ms. Virtue to reduce her to tears. So at this point, I'd say that the jury might conclude that everyone involved in the threatening call is lying--Ms. Virtue, Ms. Perez and Mr. Pellicano.

Next up was Mr. Turner's work-out partner and sometimes phone repair assistant who seemed resigned to what he described as doing Mr. Turner's "grunt work." The witness, Alphonse Arnold Jr., told the jury that he'd met "T" [Mr. Turner] at the gym and they worked out together. He also said that he went around with Mr. Turner putting in jacks and doing other telephone repair work because Mr. Arnold was considering a job with the phone company. The main part of his testimony was that a.) he accompanied Mr. Turner to Mr. Pellicano's office where Mr. Turner swept Mr. Pellicano's phones for bugs, and b.) he saw Mr. Turner pay the phone company employee Teresa Wright (who has plead guilty to giving Mr. Turner confidential SBC phone information) money for catering his parties. Mr. Arnold noted that Ms. Wright would bring a "dish to Ray's parties/ He'd pay her to make her chicken dish which was very nice."

On cross, Mr. Arnold admitted that beyond sweeping Mr. Pellicano's phones for bugs, he had no idea what Mr. Turner did for Mr. Pellicano and that he didn't know how much Mr. Turner paid Ms. Wright for her "nice chicken." And so, Mr. Arnold didn't really undo the government's case against Mr. Turner, but it appeared that he testify truthfully about the excellent quality of Ms. Wright chicken dinners.

Read all the coverage from inside the Pellicano courtroom