Hollywood Private Eye's Trial to Begin

LOS ANGELES — Private investigator Anthony Pellicano, acting as his own attorney in his federal wiretapping case, says he may cause some fidgeting in the witness stand if any of his former Hollywood A-list clients take the stand to testify against him.

Jury selection is set to start Wednesday in the case that has made Hollywood power players nervous about who else might be charged and what secrets might be exposed.

Since his indictment two years ago, the crafty, bare-knuckled private eye has refused to flip on his rich and famous clients.

Pellicano said he won't violate anyone's confidence, but celebrities who testify against him could face a rough time during cross-examination.

"I'm not going to willfully hurt anyone," Pellicano told The Associated Press during a recent telephone interview from federal prison. "But I might ask questions ... that might make people uncomfortable."

In court documents filed Friday, federal prosecutors laid out much of their trial strategy.

They portrayed Pellicano, 63, as an ambitious investigator-to-the-stars who ran a criminal enterprise that included wiretapping phones and bribing police and telephone workers to get the "gold standard" of confidential information.

He is accused of charging at least $25,000 for dirt that could be used to gain an edge in divorce and business disputes. Some of the information even involved rape and murder cases, according to the court documents.

Prosecutors estimate that Pellicano, retired Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson and former telephone company employee Rayford Earl Turner collected nearly $2 million from what authorities call a racketeering scheme.

For the most part, however, prosecutors failed to determine that Pellicano's clients were aware of the illegal tactics.

Prosecutors have said those targeted included Sylvester Stallone and comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon.

It was unclear whether any of them would testify, since prosecutors won't file a list of possible witnesses until the trial begins. Stallone told the AP last month that he would be willing to testify, even though he had not yet been subpoenaed.

Despite having a treasure trove of Hollywood secrets, Pellicano said he won't reveal them to help his case.

"There are a lot of celebrities' secrets I still hold and I haven't broken a vow, even to the people I don't like," he said. "If I was going to say something, I would have said something a long time ago."

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