From the testimony today, it became abundantly clear that before Mr.
Pellicano allegedly turned to a life of crime, the government really
should have made use of his obviously excellent skills and hired the
guy to help them out with their audio equipment. If Mr. Pellicano was
on the government side, we might have been spared listening to a
hideously inaudible tape of former telephone employee Teresa Wright
trying to get defendant Ray Turner to admit to wiretapping. As the
muffled sounds of Ms. Wright's conversation with Mr. Turner resonated
throughout the large courtroom, you couldn't help compare the poor
quality of this tape to the crystal clear conversations that we've
heard so far in court of Mr. Pellicano chatting away with his various
clients.
Ms. Wright's testimony also highlighted the difference between Mr.
Pellicano and some of the little people who worked for him and who are
now facing prison because of it. It's sad to say, but even when you're
dealing with criminal enterprises, the little people always seem to get
screwed. Although Mr. Pellicano was rolling in dough, allegedly
receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients (over a $1
million from just Susan Maguire alone,) poor Ms. Wright got a relative
pittance for providing him with the bedrock of his wiretapping
activities. Ms. Wright testified that Mr. Turner only paid her $250.00
for looking up proprietary phone information on former New York Times
freelance writer Anita Busch. While Mr. Pellicano was busy charging
$25,000 retainers to every client--including Mr. Ovitz who asked the
detective to investigate Ms. Busch, the telephone company worker was
getting $250.00 of that. No wonder she was crying on the stand.
With her two lawyers sitting in the courtroom, Susan Hughes, the
ex-wife of Herbalife founder Mark Hughes, took the stand to testify
about hiring Mr. Pellicano. Looking every bit the Hollywood wife with
her perfectly smooth skin, long blond hair and abundant lips, Ms.
Hughes' visage remained unreadable throughout most of her testimony.
Speaking at a glacier pace, Ms. Hughes told the courtroom that she
originally hired Mr. Pellicano back in 1997 to find out whether her
then husband, Mark Hughes, was cheating on her. Ms. Hughes testified
to paying Mr. Pellicano $125,000.00 to investigate her husband. Her
voice cracked dramatically as she recalled finding out from Mr.
Pellicano that her husband was cheating on her, but she appeared to
completely recover her composure before Mr. Saunder's next question was
out of his mouth.
Ms. Hughes sought to portray herself as a victim on Mr. Pellicano,
noting that she didn't find out he was wiretapping her ex-husband until
the investigation was already underway. She described going to Mr.
Pellicano's office and being asked to follow him into a room. "He
wanted me to listen to something," she explained. She next recalled
that Mr. Pellicano played her a recording in which she heard her then
brother-in-law talking to Mr. Hughes on the phone, saying "I wanted you
to know that I'm on your side." Three days later, she filed for
divorce. But, she didn't find any time to tell the authorities about
how Mr. Pellicano had wiretapped Mr. Hughes and she also didn't tell
Mr. Pellicano to stop wiretapping in the case. Apparently, as she told
the jury, she was "in shock." Fortunately, she came out of her shock
in time to hire Mr. Pellicano again about a year later to check up on
her husband's new girlfriend, Darcy LaPier.
Every time Mr. Pellicano takes a crack at a witness, I can't help but
think that the government should be paying him for his help with their
case. After Ms. Hughes' slow and often dispassionate testimony about
listening to Mr. Pellicano's wiretaps of her then husband, Mr.
Pellicano managed to get her to cry a little. "You had great concerns
about your husband, didn't you?" Mr. Pellicano asked softly. Although
Ms. Hughes' face didn't move, she sounded as if she was crying and she
did make a big production out of reaching for a tissue and dabbing at
her heavily mascaraed eyes.
At the end of her testimony, Mr. Saunders stood up to set the record
straight with his redirect. "You didn't authorize Mr. Pellicano to
wiretap Mark Hughes?" He asked. "No," Ms. Hughes shot back. And then,
Mr. Saunders ended by asking her a potentially ambiguous question.
"You didn't make $150,000 off of wiretapping Mr. Hughes?" He asked. As
Ms. Hughes paused, I wondered if maybe she was confused about whether
Mr. Saunders wanted to know how much money she made from off of Mr.
Hughes from getting the wiretap information or just how much money she
made from being married to Mr. Hughes. She never really answered the
question, although she did again emphasize that she'd never told Mr.
Pellicano to wiretap.
THE NEXT WITNESS WILL BE KEITH CARRADINE, ANOTHER ALLEGED TARGET OF MR.
PELLICANO'S WIRETAPPING.
Read all of HuffPost's coverage from inside the Pellicano courtroom