Phone Taps and Wiretapping News
Phone Tap Advisory Issued by Indianapolis PI
SB Wire, Monday, August 21st 2006
Public interest in the field of phone tap detection has heightened in recent months due to concerns about President Bush's wiretapping policies. As a long-trusted expert in the phone tap detection industry, Indianapolis PI, Tim Wilcox, has been fielding numerous queries about the subject. Wishing to arm the general population with a proper understanding of the real issues, he has published some helpful facts to clear up confusion, especially about cell phone tapping.
"First, it is important for people to realize that it's very unlikely they would be a target of a government phone tap unless they happen to be engaged in suspected terrorist-related activities," states the Indianapolis PI. "Moreover, people need to understand the difference between a 'phone tap' and 'cell phone tapping'. People generally believe that 'cell phone tapping' is when someone is listening in on their cellular phone conversations ... like a phone tap on their mobile phone. For most people, they'll be glad to know that there is no such device for cell phone tapping." Mr. Wilcox clarifies that the only way to eavesdrop on cellular calls is to intercept the signal, which is a difficult and complicated process, requiring expensive government-controlled equipment. "Just about the only people who have access to such equipment are select government organizations, who must undertake a considerable amount of training and effort to intercept and monitor all calls on someone's cell phone."
The main concern for most companies and individuals regarding cell phone tapping is when a cell phone is being used as a bug. According to the Indianapolis PI, "In the eavesdropping world, there's a big difference between a phone tape and a bug. A 'bug' is a transmitter and a 'tap' is a phone line intrusion."
Wilcox's Indianapolis PI firm performs countless bug sweeps each year across the US. He explains that people have become confused by the misnomer 'cell phone tapping', thinking that their cell phones are vulnerable. In reality, Wilcox's PI firm in Indianapolis has seen an increase in recent years where victims of eavesdropping have had a cell phone on their premises which silently rings and answers calls made to it. The phones then transmit everything audible within its range back to the caller. He states that cell phone tapping devices (or 'bugs) are generally found concealed in common items, such as lamps, clocks and ornaments. "In most cases, the perpetrator is someone the victim knows."
Further information regarding cell phone tapping and phone taps is available on his website at http://www.iiiweb.net/go/tscm.
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Hollywood losing interest as wiretapping scandal fizzles
GREG RISLING, Associated Press, Sat, Aug. 19, 2006
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood has seen its share of blockbusters this summer thanks to pillaging pirates, talking cars and returning superheroes.
But an off-screen saga starring a Hollywood private eye accused of running a widespread wiretapping scheme hasn't lived up to its billing.
Federal prosecutors said months ago that at least one more indictment was coming in the case against private detective Anthony Pellicano and 13 other suspects charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and other crimes.
The disclosure ignited speculation on movie sets and in corporate offices about who might be indicted next. But no new defendants have been named since "Die Hard" director John McTiernan was charged in early April.
Now, the case has lost its sizzle and sent the entertainment industry searching for scandal elsewhere.
"The beef on the bun has been smaller than the promotion," said publicist Michael Levine, who has represented pop star Michael Jackson and actor Charlton Heston, among others.
"Right now what is being talked about is all the hype associated with this," he said.
The initial indictment against Pellicano was unsealed in early February and detailed a shady underside of Hollywood where wiretaps were used to get dirt for threats, blackmail and in some cases to secure a tactical advantage in litigation.
It included allegations that Pellicano had illegally wiretapped the phones of Hollywood stars such as Sylvester Stallone and bribed police officers to run the names of more than 60 people, including comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through government databases.
More charges followed.
Among them, Terry Christensen, a prominent Hollywood attorney who represented billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, was accused of paying Pellicano at least $100,000 to illegally listen in on conversations involving Lisa Bonder Kerkorian during a 2002 court battle with the mogul over child support.
Christensen has denied wrongdoing.
Hollywood Records president Robert Pfeifer admitted hiring Pellicano to wiretap the phone of his former girlfriend. And McTiernan pleaded guilty to making false statements to an FBI agent about hiring Pellicano to wiretap a producer on his 2002 box-office flop "Rollerball."
Both are awaiting sentencing.
Federal authorities also questioned prominent entertainment attorney Bert Fields and studio bosses Brad Grey of Paramount Pictures and Ron Meyer of Universal Studios about their connections to Pellicano.
But thus far, no A-listers have been named as suspects, and nearly all the defendants are bit players.
The case has been slowed as authorities struggle to decrypt hundreds of recorded telephone calls recovered during searches of Pellicano's offices.
Prosecutors have said in court they have at least one wiretapped conversation, and that some of the calls involve Pellicano allegedly speaking to clients and others about wiretaps.
Prosecutors declined to comment further on the recordings or other aspects of the case.
They face two challenges when considering additional indictments: proving Pellicano's clients knew the detective was doing something illegal and ensuring that the wiretap evidence falls within the five-year statute of limitations. Many of the calls listed in the indictment occurred between 1999 and 2002.
Defense attorneys are challenging the validity of the search warrants, claiming they were a ruse to get inside Pellicano's offices and look for suspected wrongdoing. They also have complained that federal prosecutors haven't turned over all the evidence as part of the discovery process.
The disputes led U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer to postpone the trial until Feb. 13.
Pellicano has pleaded not guilty and is anxious to go to trial, said his attorney, Steven Gruel. However, Gruel believes his client won't have to stand trial at all if he can convince a judge the search warrants and resulting evidence should be thrown out.
As the case languishes without star power, Hollywood has turned its attention to new scandals such as Mel Gibson's drunken driving case.
Legal experts believe the wiretapping case could regain the spotlight if high-profile stars are called to testify during the trial.
"You could still have the parade of Hollywood witnesses even if you don't have further indictments," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School.
"This is the most egregious civilian wiretapping case I can think of. If you just put Pellicano behind bars, it was worth it," she said.
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Police bugging private phones
Kate Kyriancou, August 13, 2006
POLICE have secretly entered the homes and listened in on the phone conversations of hundreds of suspected criminals in South Australia.
And the number of secret recordings is expected to increase following the introduction of laws which widen the powers of investigators.
Under laws introduced by the Federal Government in March, anyone who has a loose association with a suspected criminal can be bugged by police and spy agencies.
This includes the friends and families of someone who has come into contact, even accidentally, with a suspect.
These people are referred to as a "B-party".
Figures provided in the Telecommunications (Interception) Act show authorities have taped and listened to the conversations of 7000 Australians between 2002/03 and 2004/05.
In SA, these included:
62 WARRANTS issued giving police permission to bug a phone or home in relation to a murder case.
SEVEN for kidnapping.
13 FOR serious personal injury.
TWO for serious arson.
156 FOR drug trafficking.
FOUR for organised crime.
SEVEN for bribery and corruption.
Two South Australians had their phones tapped for up to 150 days and agencies were given permission to secretly enter and install or recover bugging devices at the homes of 36 people.
The cost of bugging operations in SA over this time was $6 million.
SA Council for Civil Liberties chairman George Mancini said the laws were "intrusive" and violated the privacy of innocent citizens.
"That's a big step away from the traditional and usual legal basis for bugging someone," he said.
"Usually police would only interfere with a suspect's privacy because there is a good reason to suspect them of a crime.
"Now the net is being cast much wider and intrudes on the privacy of people where there is no legal basis to suspect them or any need to listen to their communications."
Mr Mancini said "associates" who are taped should be made aware of the recordings at the end of an investigation so they can have them destroyed.
"There might be all sorts of private information passed about which is of no use to anyone at all," he said.
"Not to mention it is a really expensive procedure. What it means is this is yet another intrusion into a fundamental freedom that everyone should enjoy."
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Yasuo Takei, 76; Japan's Richest Man Quit in Scandal
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
August 12, 2006
Japan's richest man, Yasuo Takei, who was forced to retire as chairman of consumer credit company Takefuji Corp. amid a wiretapping scandal, has died, a company spokesman said Friday. He was 76.
Takei died of liver failure at his home in Tokyo on Thursday, Tokyo-based Takefuji said in a statement.
Takei was listed as Japan's richest man, along with his family, in this year's Forbes magazine listing of the world's billionaires, with assets of $5.4 billion. The Takei family is 107th overall on the Forbes worldwide list. But Takei's reputation was tarnished in 2004 by his conviction on charges of ordering the wiretapping of a journalist who had written articles criticizing his company.
Takei turned to illegal snooping after the critical articles triggered a decline in his company's share price, making him suspect someone was working behind the scenes to discredit the company, the Tokyo District Court ruled.
Takei, who stepped down as Takefuji chairman in 2003, was given a three-year suspended sentence, and his company, one of Japan's biggest consumer loan corporations, was fined 1 million yen ($8,700).
A native of Fukaya, a city just outside Tokyo, Takei worked in his middle-class family's liquor store and then sold vegetables as a street vendor.
With the profits from his vegetable stand, he began lending money to individuals in 1966. The company Takei founded, Fuji Shoji, was renamed Takefuji in 1974.
Under his leadership, Takefuji became the country's consumer loan industry leader, and Takei became known for his autocratic management style and obsessive attention to the company's public image. "I built this business because I had a vision," Takei told an interviewer in 2001. "I lent to people who nobody else would lend to."
Among his survivors are his wife, Hiroko, and three children.
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Attorney sued for allegedly hiring private investigator to wiretap
Associated Press, August 10, 2006
LOS ANGELES - A lawyer indicted in a federal wiretapping case was sued Wednesday by an attorney who represented billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's former wife during a child custody battle four years ago.
Stephen Kolodny filed the lawsuit in Superior Court against Terry Christensen, a partner at Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro. The suit accuses Christensen and the law firm of invasion of privacy, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Kolodny is seeking general, special and punitive damages.
Messages left for Christensen and Kolodny's attorney were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Christensen is awaiting trial with six other defendants in a federal wiretapping case. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of intercepting wire communications. He is free on bond.
Christensen, a longtime attorney for Kerkorian, is accused of paying private investigator Anthony Pellicano at least $100,000 to illegally listen in on conversations involving the mogul's ex-wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, during a court dispute over child support.
Kolodny and Bonder Kerkorian, a former professional tennis player, claims the alleged wiretaps gave her ex-husband an unfair advantage in their child support case.
"Defendants' illegal conduct was part of a reprehensible scheme to covertly obtain information that gave Kirk Kerkorian a tactical advantage in his dispute," with Bonder Kerkorian, the suit said.
Kerkorian had a decade-long romantic relationship with Bonder Kerkorian but they were married for only a month in 1999.
Bonder Kerkorian originally sought $320,000 a month in child support, but a judge ruled she was entitled to $50,316 a month. The case is back in court because she's seeking more money. She has claimed the real upkeep for her 8-year-old daughter has risen to $150,000 a month.
Also named in the lawsuit is prominent divorce attorney Dennis Wasser, who also represented Kerkorian. Wasser's attorney said earlier this year that his client was told by investigators that he is a "person of interest" in the criminal case.
Prosecutors contend that Pellicano illegally wiretapped the phones of Hollywood stars such as Sylvester Stallone and bribed police officers to run the names of more than 60 people, including comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through government databases.
Fourteen people have been charged so far in the case, with six pleading guilty to a variety of charges, including conspiracy and wire fraud.
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Iosco undersheriff loses job, but may be able to avoid conviction
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
By ERIC ENGLISH
TIMES WRITER
TAWAS CITY - Tapping office telephones cost Iosco County Undersheriff Michael C. Bridson his job, although it appears he won't be convicted of any criminal wrongdoing.
Bridson appeared Monday in 23rd Circuit Court for sentencing on two counts of felony eavesdropping, based on charges that he secretly recorded and listened to employee phone calls at the Iosco County Sheriff's Department.
Circuit Judge Ronald Bergeron accepted a plea bargain that calls for delaying sentencing in the case for 12 months. In exchange, Bridson must step down from his job as second in command at the sheriff's department.
If Bridson complies with a number of conditions set in his plea agreement, he could ultimately have the case dismissed without a conviction on his record.
Bergeron said Bridson also is entitled to collect about eight months of compensation for accrued unused sick time and vacation time before his resignation is made official.
Bridson, 45, had no comment following the sentencing hearing. His attorney, Ronald Tyler of East Tawas, told the court that his client planned to move from the area, possibly to Florida.
Under terms of his plea agreement, Bridson is not allowed to carry a firearm in any job for the next year. Alcona County Prosecutor Thomas Weichel, who handled the case as a visiting prosecutor, said that means Bridson cannot work as a police officer during that time.
Bridson also was ordered not to threaten any Sheriff's Department employees and to stay out of the Sheriff's Department building in Tawas City.
Several current and former Sheriff's Department employees are suing Bridson and the department based on the eavesdropping. Those cases are pending in both Iosco Circuit Court and U.S. District Court in Bay City.
Bridson was ordered Monday to pay $960 in probation supervision fees, $680 in court costs and to perform 40 hours of community service if required by the Michigan Department of Corrections. He also must not consume alcohol and submit to alcohol testing.
Eavesdropping is a felony punishable by up to two years in jail and a $2,000 fine, plus court costs.
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3 Arrests In Royal Wiretap Complaint
British Police Investigate Possible Wiretapping in Prince Charles' Office
LONDON, August 8, 2006
(AP) British police arrested three men — including a tabloid newspaper editor — on Tuesday in an investigation that began with complaints from Prince Charles' office about possible phone-tapping, police and the paper said.
Police said they did not believe the phones of any members of the royal family had been tapped. But other public figures may have had their calls intercepted, raising potential security issues, the police said. They refused to specify who.
Police did not identify those who were arrested, but the News of the World tabloid said Clive Goodman, its royal editor, was among them.
Hayley Barlow, a spokeswoman for the Sunday newspaper, declined to comment further.
The investigation was prompted by complaints from Charles' Clarence House office to the police's royalty protection department.
"It is focused on alleged repeated security breaches within telephone networks over a significant period of time and the potential impact this may have on protective security around a number of individuals," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Charles' office declined to comment on the arrests.
Police said they had arrested two men, a 48-year-old and a 35-year-old, at 6 a.m. and apprehended another, age 50, at 9:30 a.m. All were arrested at their homes in London under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
Police said they had searched two of the residences, along with business addresses in the Wapping, Sutton and Chelsea neighborhoods.
Anti-terrorism officers are leading the investigation and police are working with phone companies in an effort to identify all those whose conversations were tapped, they said.
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Italy cracks down on wiretap leaks, eyes reporters
By Phil Stewart
ROME, Aug 4 (Reuters) -
Italy's government moved on Friday to punish journalists for publishing wiretap evidence after a year of leaks exposed a central bank chief, a 69-year-old prince and members of the business and sporting elite.
The main feature of the bill, which must go before parliament, is a fine of up to 60,000 euros ($76,760) against journalists and their editors for reporting transcripts from secretly recorded police wiretaps, a ministry official said.
It would also force authorities to destroy wiretap evidence after five years after the appeals process is exhausted and allow people to request the destruction of recordings of their conversations even sooner, in some cases.
"This is not in any way an elimination of press rights," said Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, adding that it would also not hurt the abilities of prosecutors to gather evidence.
The Order of Journalists, a professional body, condemned the bill, saying it would hurt press freedom.
Italy's politicians had widely called for a crackdown after a round of wiretap scandals that saw secretly recorded chit-chat of prominent people regularly make the front pages -- even though they had not been charged with a crime.
Prince Victor Emmanuel, the son of Italy's last king, was scandalised in June by telephone transcripts showing him and others talking about everything from sex to money and power.
Antonio Fazio, the central bank chief, stepped down last year over his role in a bank takeover scandal that even saw his wife's phonetaps making the front pages.
Italy's soccer elite were punished by their authority last month after wiretaps triggered a probe into match-fixing. And top-secret calls by Italy's spy chief also made the papers.
One complaint is that Italy is wiretapping excessively. In a country of 60 million people, nearly 30 million might have had calls recorded in the past decade, according to a study by the Eurispes research institute.
The government's draft law would reduce the number of eavesdropping centres across the country.
Journalists called on parliament to "reflect seriously" before approving a law which Vittorio Roidi of the Order of Journalists called "a limitation on the right to report".
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Former wife testifies in wiretapping trial
Web Posted: 08/02/2006 10:21 PM CDT
Elizabeth Allen, Express-News Staff Writer
"Angry. Humiliated. Embarrassed. Scared."
That's how Deanna Rickman felt in 2002 when she found out her husband had been taping her phone conversations as the two entered a rough divorce, she testified Wednesday in her ex-husband's felony wiretapping trial.
She and her ex, Richard Green, got to relive the unpleasant months at the end of their marriage and their divorce as prosecutors wrangled with Green's defense attorney over how much of the past to bring into the present trial.
Green faces three counts of wiretapping, which is a second-degree felony with a sentencing range of two to 20 years, for taping the phone conversations of his then-wife in 2002.
The couple had moved to San Antonio from California the previous year. Their marriage was deteriorating and they were fighting about parenting issues. Rickman had an affair.
She didn't know her husband was taping her calls — until she discovered that Green had turned them over to a psychologist who was making an evaluation in their custody battle.
When Rickman got hold of copies of the tapes, she took them straight to the FBI, which sent her to the San Antonio Police Department.
Though many people think of wiretapping as a federal issue, said Assistant District Attorney Nicole Thornbro, in this case the incident took place in Bexar County among family members and the feds deemed it a local issue.
In Texas, a person can record a phone conversation without the other's knowledge only if the recording party is part of the call.
Defense lawyer Adam Kobs is arguing that Texas courts have crafted an exception to the wiretapping law if there is a concern for children.
Rickman won custody of the couple's child in the divorce.
Green's counts include one for the actual interception, one for disclosing the information and one for using it in the custody battle.
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Hollywood Director Nabbed in Wiretap Case
LOS ANGELES, CA, United States (UPI) -- The director of 'Die Hard and 'Last Action Hero' has been snared in the federal wiretapping probe of Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano.
John McTiernan, 55, was charged Monday with lying to FBI agents when he said he did not hire Pellicano to put wiretaps on the phone of 'Batman Begins' producer Charles Roven, The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The indictment does not say when McTiernan allegedly hired Pellicano to spy on Roven, but the two worked together in 2002 on 'Rollerball,' the Times noted.
Pellicano has been charged with 110 count counts of wiretapping, conspiracy and racketeering. He is accused of spying on a number of people including Sylvester Stallone, Keith Carradine, Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon.
McTiernan, the 14th person charged as a result of the Pellicano investigation, will be arraigned in Los Angeles federal court April 17. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted
UPI
April 4, 2006
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Will Law Firms Be Able to Weather Wiretap-Related Suits?
Justin Scheck and Kellie Schmitt
The Recorder
03-28-2006
Indictments stemming from Hollywood's latest celebrity scandal have struck fear into L.A.'s legal community. But it's the civil fallout from private eye Anthony Pellicano's wiretapping indictment that instills true horror for law firms.
While top entertainment lawyer Terry Christensen is the only attorney indicted so far in connection with Pellicano, several others face litigation that could cripple their practices -- and possibly break up their firms.
The big problem, said Timothy Halloran, an expert in law firm liability at Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney in San Francisco, is that illegal activity such as wiretapping won't be covered by malpractice insurance.
"I would expect that in the Pellicano matter, if the wiretapping was in connection with big litigation, someone who was wiretapped can make a pretty big damages claim," Halloran said. "Your professional liability insurance can't cover you for that."
That's the issue that much of the L.A. legal community is looking at these days, as a small but well-armed armada of plaintiffs takes aim at lawyers who used Pellicano for wiretaps.
Developments during the past week indicate that while Christensen may be the first lawyer indicted, another top firm -- L.A. entertainment shop Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella -- may be feeling even more heat.
At least a half-dozen Greenberg Glusker attorneys are talking about leaving, according to a source within the firm.
And while some Greenberg Glusker attorneys said last week that they were confident that the firm's future was stable, others were unsure how the firm would weather Pellicano-related lawsuits.
A look at the first sit filed against the firm in connection with Pellicano shows why they may be nervous.
An amended complaint filed Thursday by Gregory Dovel, an attorney for screenwriter Vincent "Bo" Zenga, is based largely on federal prosecutors' allegations that Zenga was wiretapped by Pellicano in 2000. The complaint says Pellicano tapped nearly 1,600 phone calls, allegedly at the behest of top Greenberg Glusker partners.
Under state law, each illegal wiretapping count carries minimum statutory damages of $5,000, meaning defendants could be on the hook for about $8 million on the wiretapping claims alone, never mind punitive damages or other claims.
Dovel said Greenberg Glusker's insurance probably wouldn't pick up any tab unless a jury found negligence rather than intentional wrongdoing.
"You run into a problem there because you don't want to walk people out of coverage," said Guy Calladine, a law firm liability expert at Carlson, Calladine & Peterson in San Francisco. "You want to try to pigeonhole these as negligence."
That seems unlikely in cases like Dovel's and an ongoing suit against several smaller law firms accused of using Pellicano to wiretap litigants, since they allege intentional malfeasance.
So Dovel said he'll probably have to take aim at firm equity or the assets of individual partners who took part in wiretaps.
"That's one of the difficulties of law firms," he said. "They're very thinly capitalized. They take all the money out at the end of the year."
Greenberg Glusker isn't the only firm with such concerns. Plaintiffs lawyers -- including several firms known for a string of large verdicts -- have been retained by clients who were allegedly wiretapped by other firms, including Christensen's firm, Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro.
But the Christensen firm reportedly had relatively limited dealings with Pellicano and shows fewer signs of concern than Greenberg Glusker, which had a long-standing relationship with Pellicano.
At least three current or former Greenberg lawyers have hired attorneys in connection with the criminal probe.
Star partner Bertram Fields is known to have used Pellicano extensively, and partner Bonnie Eskenazi has been mentioned by several sources as someone who worked frequently with the private eye.
Eskenazi -- who said last week that she's not a target in the criminal investigation and that she doesn't have a lawyer -- would not elaborate on her relationship with Pellicano, saying "many people worked with him."
Another lawyer at the firm -- Ricardo Cestero, who has represented actor Tom Cruise -- worked for Pellicano prior to joining Greenberg. "I'm not going to comment," he said last week.
Brian Sun, the Jones Day partner representing Greenberg Glusker, would not comment on civil litigation.
Brian Panish, who represents a client who claims she was wiretapped, said Friday he's talking to potential clients and may have several suits in the works.
Kabateck Brown Kellner partner Brian Kabateck, who also represents wiretap plaintiffs, said it's likely law firms such as Christensen Miller will be implicated in future suits.
"I've spoken to people whom it's safe to say are clearly victims of law-firm-directed wiretapping," he said.
Lawyers at Gaims, Weil, West & Epstein, a firm with a much lower profile than Greenberg Glusker, are also facing civil liability in a suit filed by Kissandra Cohen, a lawyer who worked with the now-deceased L.A. toxic tort attorney Edward Masry.
In an ongoing federal suit, Cohen says she was wiretapped by Pellicano at the behest of attorneys with the L.A.-based Gaims firm.
That firm had an ongoing relationship with Pellicano: partner Alan Weil, who didn't return repeated phone calls, represented Pellicano in the 2002 criminal case that sent him to jail for possession of illegal explosives. And Victor Sherman, who worked on Pellicano's defense with Weil, confirmed that Pellicano had worked for Weil prior to that case.
Ami Shafrir, who was engaged in litigation with a Gaims Weil client, said last week that a lawyer at that firm hired Pellicano to wiretap him. That wiretap is cited in the Pellicano indictment.
Gaims Weil partner Marc Epstein, Shafrir said, asked questions in a deposition about information that could only have come from private conversation that were likely wiretapped.
Epstein did not return phone calls for this story, and a partner at the firm would not say whether they have a lawyer in the criminal case.
The firm's lawyer in Cohen's suit, Dorothy Wolpert -- a partner at Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks & Lincenberg in Los Angeles -- would not comment on the suit last week, but said it's set for trial in July in L.A. federal court.
That case will likely be the first indication into how firms will handle the wiretap charges. But Halloran, the law firm liability lawyer, has an idea of what will happen to firms in the event of a big verdict.
"Bankruptcy may be the only alternative," he said.
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Pellicano Wiretap Witness Admits Scheme
A Valencia businessman who said he hired the investigator to get illegal information decides to cooperate with the federal investigation.
By Greg Krikorian and Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writers
March 18, 2006
A Valencia businessman admitted Friday to conspiring with Anthony Pellicano to illegally dig up information about a teenager who had accused him of sexual assault, becoming the latest witness cooperating in the federal probe of the indicted private eye.
"I hired Mr. Pellicano because he told me he could listen in" to the young woman's phone calls, a shaken George Kalta, 37, told U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer, as he entered his guilty plea. "That was the only reason I hired Mr. Pellicano."
The plea makes Kalta the fourth person to acknowledge that they hired — or helped — Pellicano to illegally investigate others using wiretaps, confidential police record searches or other methods.
Once one of Los Angeles' best-known private investigators, Pellicano is at the center of a wide-ranging FBI investigation that has shaken Hollywood and its legal community. To date, 13 people have been charged, including an entertainment attorney, a record company executive, two former police officers accused of selling him confidential data and several telephone company employees.
Without exception, the many attorneys and celebrities who hired Pellicano over the years have said since his indictment that they were unaware that his alleged hardball tactics may have crossed the line into lawlessness.
But criminal defense attorney Leslie Abramson, representing Kalta, said outside court on Friday that Pellicano bragged to her client about listening in on other people's conversations and about having connections within law enforcement. The connections included "a contact" in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and a police officer who he said could get him a district attorney's memo for $5,000.
"He bragged about how he did this [wiretapping] for other clients," Abramson said. "He said that is why people pay him so much.
Abramson said Pellicano also boasted of his celebrity clients, including Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson.
Kalta, owner of a lighting manufacturing company, was charged by the district attorney's office in early 2002 with sexual battery by restraint and false imprisonment.
County prosecutors said his victim was an 18-year-old woman who was assaulted in October 2001, when she was making a delivery to Kalta's Canoga Park store.
Kalta eventually pleaded guilty to felony assault without a deadly weapon and was granted probation. The charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor and dismissed, Abramson said.
During Friday's federal court hearing, Assistant U.S. Atty. Kevin Lally said authorities could prove that Kalta hired Pellicano on Oct. 17, 2001, to investigate his accuser and to listen to the woman's telephone conversations. Kalta paid Pellicano $50,000 for the information.
Outside court, Abramson said her client went to Pellicano after searching the Internet for a private investigator who could help prove his innocence.
She said Kalta later began to suspect that Pellicano was bugging his telephone because on four separate occasions between March and May of 2002, the investigator called Kalta right after Kalta spoke with Abramson. "Every single time we had a conversation about Pellicano, as soon as we hung up, he would call George and badmouth me," she said.
The events outlined by Abramson parallel those of another criminal defendant who also hired Pellicano and was represented by attorney Danny Davis. Davis represented Kalta before Abramson.
Last year, Abramson said, federal prosecutors played her and her client a recorded conversation in which Pellicano urged Kalta not to fire another attorney in order to hire Abramson. "He said I was not a lawyer he could trust," Abramson said.
Kalta, however, hired Abramson, who brought in another private investigator.
After that, Abramson said, Kalta found the locks in his office glued shut. One of the doors had a knife jammed into a keyhole.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Dan Saunders said he could not discuss evidence in the case that had not yet been made public. Pellicano's attorney, Steven Gruel, could not be reached for comment.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney said she was unaware of claims that Pellicano had a contact within the office and urged anyone with information to come forward.
Davis' attorney, Harland Braun, disputed the notion that Pellicano had any special relationship with Davis. He said Davis became involved in the two cases after Pellicano had been hired.
Without disputing that her client broke the law, Abramson said Kalta was hardly the most important figure in the Pellicano investigation.
"There are much bigger fish to fry," she said. "As far as I'm concerned, George is a minnow."
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Phone Tap Fears
FaifaxDigial, The Age
March 18, 2006 - 4:24PM
People calling the terror hotline could have their phones tapped but only to follow a potential lead to a terrorist suspect, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says.
Mr Ruddock today rejected claims that proposed telephone interception powers could be randomly used to tap the phones of anonymous callers to the National Security Hotline.
He said information provided to the hotline was always treated with the strictest confidence and could be given anonymously.
"I am satisfied the strict reporting and oversight mechanisms will ensure this additional power is used responsibly by police and agencies whose duty it is to protect our community from a terrorist attack or serious criminal activity," he said.
News Limited newspapers today reported the Australian Federal Police as saying they would use proposed new telephone tapping powers covertly on civilians who offer information about suspected terrorists.
Under what are known as B-party warrants, police who can't identify the phone service used by a suspect or can't intercept a target phone service will be permitted to tap phones belonging to the target's family, friends and associates.
Mr Ruddock said changes in the Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Bill 2006 were part of the Government's ongoing commitment to providing appropriate tools to law enforcement and national security agencies.
He said the laws would be available in only very limited circumstances to target the communications of terrorist or criminal suspects when all other investigative means had been exhausted.
Interception of third party telephone conversations would be permitted only when an issuing authority such as a judge was satisfied there were reasonable grounds for suspecting a person was using or likely to use that telecommunications service.
The judge also had to be satisfied information obtained would assist in investigation of a suspected serious offence such as terrorism, murder or kidnapping.
Mr Ruddock said that could only happen when the police or security agency had exhausted all other methods of identifying the telecommunications service likely to be used by the suspect.
"To ensure the use of the proposed new laws is strictly limited, the issuing authority must also consider additional factors such as the impact on the privacy of any person, the gravity of the alleged offences, the usefulness of the material likely to be intercepted and to what extent alternative methods of investigating the offence have been used," he said.
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Kidman 'Questioned by FBI Over Wiretapping'
By WENN| Thursday, March 16, 2006
Photo GalleryHOLLYWOOD - Nicole Kidman was reportedly questioned by America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over private detective Anthony Pellicano's alleged, illegal wiretapping.
A recording of the Cold Mountain actress talking to her ex-husband Tom Cruise was found in Pellicano's office in 2002, reports gossip site PageSix.com. The recording was made shortly after the golden couple announced they were splitting in February 2001.
During their divorce, Cruise hired Los Angeles matrimonial lawyer Dennis Wasser--who had often used Pellicano's services--while Kidman was represented by New York lawyer Bill Beslow, who consulted private detective Richie Di Sabatino.
Sabatino admits he was stunned to hear Kidman had allegedly been taped, saying, "We swept her phones and put on an encryption device, so she couldn't be wire-tapped. We tried to keep one step ahead. (The tapes the FBI heard) was probably from Tom's phone. Pellicano used to tap his own clients.
"They (Cruise and Kidman) settled quietly and relatively fast, and nothing came out except for one story in the National Enquirer, which was Pellicano's tabloid of choice."
Pellicano, 61, pleaded not guilty last month to charges of racketeering, interception of electronic communications and other offences in a Los Angeles court.
Besides Kidman and Cruise, Pellicano has also been accused of tapping the phones of Sylvester Stallone, Keith Carradine and producer Aaron Russo.
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Woman Charged in Eavesdropping on Husband
The Empire Journal, Tuesday, July 19, 2005
GLENS FALLS—A Glens Falls woman is facing up to four years in state prison after being arrested Wednesday on a charge of felony eavesdropping.
Kelly A. McGarr, 25, was charged with allegedly listening in on and recording her estranged husband’s phone conversations during 2003. Court records indicate that the listening devices had been illegally installed on the man’s phone by a friend of the woman who was a Verizon employee.
Her husband, Patrick McCarr, told police that he found listening and recording devices on his phone at home and his business. After she confronted him about telephone conversations he had been having, he contact ed his phone provider, Verizon who opened an investigation into the matter.
According to his affidavit filed in the case, McGarr said that Verizon security told him that the “device was not something that you can buy, that they are used by Verizon and that their employees are not supposed to give them out”.
At this point, the Verizon employee has not been criminally charged although police said more arrests were possible in the case.
According to court records, a woman identified as Patrick McGarr’s girlfriend, Brittani Brand, says that Kelly McGarr had admitted to her that she had the devices installed and was allegedly using the information against her husband in Family Court. The devices were voice activated and recorded both incoming and outcoming calls. According to the court papers, Kelly McGarr routinely changed the tapes on the recorders.
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Use of wiretaps escalating in N.J.
NewJersey.com, May 22, 2005
Chances are, they can hear you now.
Authorities bugged more cellphones and intercepted more e-mails, faxes and pager digits than ever in 2004, causing a rumble of concern among privacy rights activists.
Although the number of wiretaps increased across the country, the jumps were particularly large in New Jersey. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark requested 26 wiretaps, more than double the dozen it sought in 2003.
State prosecutors in New Jersey, meanwhile, spent about $8 million to monitor 144 wiretaps, the third-highest number in the country. And New Jersey had a greater increase than other states, jumping by 23 percent over the previous year.
Prosecutors attributed the increases to a confluence of crime and more investigations of drug and money-laundering cases, the basis for most wiretap requests. Racketeering and gambling also were frequently cited in wiretap applications.
"It's safe to say that most of the large racketeering cases where there are a lot of people involve wiretapping," said John Molinelli, the prosecutor in Bergen County, where all 23 wiretaps planted last year were for racketeering. "It is an enormously helpful investigative tool. You hear the suspect's voice and there's no doubt about what they said."
Wiretapping is one of the most expensive and labor-intensive tools, yet authorities say the payoff can be worth every penny. Catching a suspect talking about a crime is often one of the most incriminating pieces of evidence.
The image of a couple of detectives sitting in a room silently listening in on phone conversations is pretty accurate. In Paramus, confiscated money helped build a new wiretap room that allowed Molinelli's investigators to monitor 10 phone lines at a time. (The tap is turned off if a call is deemed irrelevant.)
Although Molinelli refused to say how the taps were used, his office busted a mob gambling ring in December and a pharmaceutical drug-smuggling racket in March. Altogether, at least a dozen arrests were made as a result of wiretaps, he said.
Legal experts and privacy rights activists are alarmed by the rising numbers, which are higher than in the months just after Sept. 11. They say prosecutors have been emboldened by the Patriot Act and lingering terrorism fears.
"The Patriot Act is responsible for creating an atmosphere where government in secret is OK," said Grayson Barber, a Princeton Township lawyer who sits on the state board of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Secret government procedures, secret surveillance and secret searches are very much on the rise."
Although the Patriot Act, which was passed after Sept. 11, 2001, loosened the requirements for prosecutors requesting wiretaps in terrorism cases, the legislation had a ripple effect in the law enforcement community, said Ronald Chen, associate dean of academic affairs at Rutgers Law School in Newark.
"The Patriot Act is not the direct cause of this increase, but I would certainly say it has caused law enforcement to be more aggressive," Chen said. "It has changed the mindset. At the state level, the legal landscape hasn't changed, but it's the mindset that has."
Federal authorities say they have to pass stringent requirements to get a wiretap and then must reappear before a judge every 10 days to report on the status of the tap.
"It's very tedious, time consuming, and often extremely rewarding work," said Michael Drewniak, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie.
In fact, New Jersey was home to the most active federal wiretap in a 2004 counterfeiting investigation. Authorities intercepted 206,444 e-mail messages over 30 days, leading to 21 arrests, the report said. Those charged in the case allegedly operated one of the largest illegal online centers for trafficking in identity information and stole 1.7 million credit card numbers and 18 million e-mail accounts.
As technology advances and criminals use e-mail or instant messaging programs to communicate, wiretapping may become less expensive and even more widely used among law enforcement. After all, intercepting e-mail and instant messages requires no transcription, said lawyer John Fahy, a former assistant U.S. attorney.
"If it's e-mail, that's not as intensive," Fahy said. "E-mail is simple. It's already transcribed and it doesn't have to be real time. Same with faxes. They're not manpower-intensive and make it real easy."
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Sheriff's deputies seek right to conduct wiretaps
The Associated Press, May 16, 2005
HARRISBURG, Pa. - Permitting deputy sheriffs to wiretap could conflict with their courthouse duties and is not justified simply because deputies have police training, a lawyer for the state police told the state Supreme Court on Monday.
The high court heard oral arguments Monday in a case brought by four sheriffs, five deputies and three district attorneys seeking to force the state police to enroll the deputies in a wiretapping class. The deputies were permitted to take the class but under a consent order will not be certified unless they prevail.
The state police won an earlier decision by Commonwealth Court, which ruled deputies may perform only limited police functions and that does not include surreptitious wiretapping.
Barbara L. Christie, chief counsel to the Pennsylvania State Police, told the justices that the investigative powers of sheriffs have been "displaced and replaced" in the centuries since they first emerged in medieval England.
Justice J. Michael Eakin asked Vincent J. Grogan, attorney for the plaintiffs, whether it was a "dangerous prospect" to have elected sheriffs deploying their deputies to investigate crimes within the territory of municipal police departments or state police.
"Now we're talking about a third, countywide body with equal ... jurisdiction?" Eakin asked. Grogan said that sort of overlapping police authority already exists among local, state and federal agencies. Deputies have long had common-law investigative powers, he argued.
"We have looked for evidence that there has been a diminution of that authority in the statutes ... and it does not exist," Grogan said.
Christie predicted that adding wiretapping to the powers of deputies could make it more likely for confidential information from intercepted communications to leak out and violate individual privacy rights. The state police also is concerned that evidence could be thrown out if it is collected by a deputy without legal authority to wiretap, she said.
Previous Supreme Court rulings have allowed deputies to make arrests when they witness motor-vehicle violations, conduct field-sobriety tests and file charges for driving under a suspended license. Deputies investigate prison escapes and courthouse bomb threats and participate in drug and terrorism task forces.
The lawsuit was brought by deputies, sheriffs and prosecutors in Warren, Bradford, Cumberland and Mercer counties. Two of the plaintiffs, Bradford County deputies Michael Van Kuren and Christopher Burgert, were shot and killed in March 2004 while serving a warrant.
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Ex-reporter for WBTW accused of wiretapping
The Robesonian, May 2005
LUMBERTON - A former news reporter with WBTW-13 in Lumberton was arrested Wednesday by federal agents and charged with five counts of wire tapping.
Shea Ann DeJarnette was taken into custody at her Lumberton home, according to Tim Gannon, a senior agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Fayetteville.
DeJarnette, 36, appeared in federal court in Fayetteville on Wednesday wearing street clothes and leg shackles.
Magistrate Judge William Webb released DeJarnette at the end of the proceedings, and the leg shackles were removed. She remains free on an unsecured bond as long as she reports to a federal probation office as required.
DeJarnette ignored questions from reporters as she left the courthouse. She could not be reached for comment.
Gannon declined to give a motive for the wiretap, which allegedly took place between January 2001 to March 2002.
The charge doesn't say whose conversations she recorded, but sources tell The Robesonian the victim was Tasha Oxendine, a fellow reporter at the WBTW bureau office in Lumberton. Oxendine and DeJarnette were co-workers at WBTW from 1994 to 2002. Oxendine still works at of the bureau, but DeJarnette left that job in 2002.
DeJarnette was the girlfriend of Robeson County sheriff's drug agent James Woodrow "J.W." Jacobs at the time, but the indictment does not name Jacobs. Jacobs pled no contest in January to a misdemeanor for failing to discharge his duties and was given a 45-day suspended sentence and a year of probation. Jacobs had been facing felony obstruction of justice charges. He no longer works at the Sheriff's Office.
Elisabeth Regan, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, also declined to provide any details.
The indictment accuses DeJarnette of possessing a tape recorder, a telephone recording control device and a two-line telephone adapter for the illegal purpose of wiretapping.
In North Carolina, it is a crime to use any device to "overhear, record, amplify or transmit" any part of the private conversation of others without the consent of at least one of the parties. One-party consent means that someone may lawfully record his own conversations. He may also record conversations of other people as long as he has received permission from at least one party to do so.
Wiretapping is a federal offense. DeJarnette could face a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine.
Oxendine referred questions about the case to the station in Florence, S.C., but Michael Pumo, vice president and general manager of WBTW-13, would only say, "We were aware of a criminal investigation and we cannot comment further."
DeJarnette now works as a 4-H extension agent with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Lumberton. Everett Davis, director of the agency, says her job status remains the same.
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Glendale cop pleads guilty in illegal wiretapping case
The Arizona Republic, May. 3, 2005
Illegal wiretapping marks the latest embarrassment in a round of scandals rocking the Glendale Police Department.
Michael Duane Manning, a former senior investigator, has entered into a plea agreement over allegations that he used city equipment to eavesdrop on a female acquaintance, authorities said.
Manning, 49, a computer expert and nearly 28-year police veteran, abruptly retired June 30 after he came under investigation
On April 21, Manning pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to a charge of attempted interception of wire, electronic and oral communications.
The charge is a felony but can be designated a misdemeanor upon successful completion of probation.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Manning will be placed on probation when he is sentenced May 18. He also will surrender his peace-officer license.
Neither Manning nor his lawyer, Kerrie Droban, could be reached Tuesday for comment on the criminal case.
Officer Michael Peña, a Glendale police spokesman, declined to comment.
Glendale police has suffered public-relations setbacks since March 21, when Police Chief Andrew Kirkland was placed on paid leave amid allegations of a hostile work environment and an "inappropriate relationship" with a female officer. He resigned April 8.
Four days later, Brad Moore, a veteran detective, was fired by the city for bungling about 250 domestic-violence cases since at least January 2002.
In Manning's case, investigators believe that in early 2004, he engaged in illegal wiretapping of the female acquaintance, then 37, and surreptitiously taped phone calls at her Glendale home.
Manning came under investigation after a tape recorder and a tape of several conversations were found in a police vehicle that had been assigned to him, authorities said.
The case was turned over the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and Manning, who had special training in electronic investigations, unexpectedly retired in the face of the criminal probe, they said.
Manning pleaded guilty after his lawyer and a prosecutor engaged in a round of negotiations, court records show.
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Wiretaps in U.S. Jump 19 Percent in 2004
Associated Press, April 28, 2005
The number of court-authorized wiretaps jumped 19 percent last year as investigators pursued drug and other cases against increasingly tech-savvy suspects. Every surveillance request made by authorities was granted.
Federal and state judges approved 1,710 applications for wiretaps of wire, oral or electronic communications last year, and four states — New York, California, New Jersey and Florida — accounted for three of every four surveillance orders, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That agency is required to collect the figures and report them to Congress.
The numbers, released Thursday, do not include court orders for terror-related investigations under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, which reached a record 1,754 warrants last year, according to the Justice Department.
In non-terrorist criminal investigations, federally approved wiretaps increased 26 percent in a year, to 730 applications, while state judges approved 980 wiretaps, an increase of 13 percent.
Department of Justice spokesman Kevin Madden said the numbers reflect "an increase in the resources geared toward targeting very serious federal and state offenses for which electronic surveillance is often the most, and sometimes the only, effective investigative method."
Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said traditional law enforcement work is catching up with increases in anti-terror wiretaps.
"We're still seeing a huge trend toward increased surveillance," said Edgar.
Evan Barr, a former federal prosecutor in New York City, now in private practice, said authorities are responding to changes in the ways criminal suspects use technology.
"Drug dealers now are making use not just of traditional cell phones but a variety of devices, including Blackberries, pagers, and Nextels. So most likely these increased wiretap numbers simply reflect law enforcement's continuing efforts to keep pace with both the tactics and technology that is being used on the street," said Barr.
Officials said most of the applications, some 1,308, were for drug investigations, while racketeering or gambling wiretaps accounted for a combined 128 wiretaps around the country.
Homicides and assaults produced 48 wiretap orders.
Some 1,507 wiretaps — or about nine out of every ten — targeted portable devices, such as cell phones and pagers.
By the end of the year, the surveillance had generated 4,506 arrests and 634 convictions based on wiretap evidence.
Federal and state judges are required to file a written report about each application within 30 days of the expiration of the court order.
Between 1994 and 2004, the number of wiretap authorizations have increased 48 percent, according to the report.
In 2004, New York reported 347 wiretaps, California 180, New Jersey 144, and Florida 72 authorizations.
While judges authorized more wiretaps, the average length of time in which a wiretap could occur decreased in 2004 from 44 to 43 days.