The Pellicano Trial: Opening Remarks

Federal Prosecutor Kevin Lally gave a rousing opening argument in which he told the jury that "this is a case about corruption in some of society's most fundamental institutions" including the phone company, the legal system and the police department." He noted at the center of this corruption was Anthony Pellicano, saying that the investigator wasn't "some gumshoe struggling to out a living in some seedy backroom office." Rather, Mr. Lally argued to the jury that Mr. Pellicano's outsized ambition was only matched by outsized desire for fortune and fame. Mr. Lally then went on to tell the jury that Mr. Pellicano put a system in place where he could help his wealthy clients discredit and in some cases, destroy their adversaries. Part of that system, according to the prosecutor, included using sources in the police department and phone company to get information Mr. Pellicano needed to implement his wiretapping system -- Telesleuth. A system, the government alleges, was developed by co-defendant Kevin Kachikian.

As for witnesses that the government will be calling, Mr. Lally mentioned that we'd be hearing from a number of Mr. Pellicano's employees -- one of whom actually assisted him with setting up one of his wiretaps. He also mentioned two criminal trials in which Mr. Pellicano allegedly assisted the respective defendants in wiretapping their adversaries. Both of the criminal trials -- including one against an allegedly multiple rapist -- resulted in acquittals. Mr. Lally also told the jury about a bitter litigation battle between a screenwriter, Vincent "Bo" Zenga and the head of Paramount, Brad Grey. (Mr. Grey was a manager back in mid-2000 when the litigation took place.) The prosecutor said that Mr. Grey's attorney's referred him to Mr. Pellicano. And, in February 2001, Defendant Mark Arneson allegedly conducted data base inquiries on law enforcement data bases on Mr. Zenga, his wife, his brother, and his attorney, Greg Dovel. The prosecutor noted that a former Pellicano employee, Tarita Virtue, will be testifying that over a series of months, she listened to hundreds of calls involving Mr. Zenga and his attorney as well as many between Mr. Zenga and family members. Apparently, she also made a few notes of those calls.

The defense attorneys have just concluded their opening arguments, with Chad Hummel making an impassioned statement to the jury about the lack of evidence against his client, former police Sgt. Mark Arneson. Mr. Pellicano spoke last and had a difficult time remembering to refer to himself in the third person. After being admonished by the Judge, he laughingly admitted that he'd gone over referring to himself in the third person all last night and yet, he'd still forgotten. Once he was off and running, Mr. Pellicano told the jury about his secretive nature and his unwillingness to share information with anyone -- which was probably his attempt to protect the other defendants who are charged with conspiracy and wiretapping. He told the jury that he recorded his own conversations with a one of a kind device -- telesleuth junior -- so as to remind himself of these conversations and for inventory and also for safe keeping. He said that Mr. Pellicano received a minimum of fifty phone calls a day. He noted that he never intended for those recording to be listened to by anyone but himself and had purposely put passwords and steps in place to keep others from being able to play back the recordings. "Mr. Pellicano's presumption was that those conversations would never be made available to anybody but Mr. Pellicano."

Mr. Pellicano ended his opening remarks by trying to preserve the integrity of his winning record in various high profile lawsuits. He stared at the jury and said, that Mr. Pellicano was paid for gathering information. "All of the wins that Mr. Pellicano and his clients were involved in was a matter of fact." He may end up spending the rest of his life in prison, but Mr. Pellicano still wants the jury to know two things -- one, he was the brilliant mind behind telesleuth and two, no matter whether he wiretapped people, threatened them or simply gave them the evil eye, he helped his clients win. And, in Hollywood, everyone knows that's all that really matters.

There's more to come. The government has just started calling its first witnesses.

Read more coverage of the Pellicano Trial here.