Pellicano Probe Nets Its Fifth Guilty Plea

A former music company executive pleaded guilty Friday to paying Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano at least $125,000 to illegally wiretap an ex-girlfriend who had testified against him in a business dispute.

With the plea, Robert Pfeifer, 51, of Hollywood becomes the fifth person to plead guilty to federal charges in the burgeoning investigation of Pellicano, his associates and several clients accused of wiretapping or conducting illegal background checks on dozens of celebrities, spouses and business executives.

Pellicano and eight others still face charges laid out in a 110-count federal indictment for allegedly obtaining “confidential, embarrassing, or incriminating” information, typically to help clients gain an advantage in civil or criminal litigation.

Pfeifer, once president of Disney-owned Hollywood Records, was arrested Feb. 4 by the FBI and later charged by a federal grand jury with witness tampering and wiretapping. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest.

In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer, federal prosecutor Kevin Lally said Pfeifer hired Pellicano in July 2000 in connection with litigation against Pfeifer’s former employer, Z-Axis.

Within a month, Lally said, Pellicano had allegedly begun to wiretap the telephone of Pfeifer’s ex-girlfriend, Erin Finn, who had given a deposition “adverse” to Pfeifer in the litigation.

In previous court documents, authorities have said that Finn testified about Pfeifer’s alleged drug use and that he and Pellicano launched the wiretap in an effort to get her to change her testimony.

Lally said that Pfeifer and Pellicano discussed the intercepts of Finn’s telephone calls, including calls between Finn and her attorneys. The prosecutor also said Pfeifer paid Pellicano more than $125,000 between July and December 2000 with the understanding that at least part of the money was for wiretapping Finn.

Then, more than three years later, Lally said, Pfeifer tried to intimidate Finn, this time in an effort to stop her from cooperating with the Pellicano investigation. Pfeifer called Finn just after midnight June 23, 2003, and asked Finn if she was a “snitch,” Lally said.

In brief remarks to the court, Pfeifer acknowledged hiring Pellicano. “He was to investigate the case, and part of the investigation was to include wiretapping,” said Pfeifer, who was handcuffed and in prison garb. “And we gained knowledge from that,” he said.

The plea agreement, as read in court, did not include one of the original charges against Pfeifer: witness-tampering.

However, Lally said the charge would remain pending until Pfeifer’s sentencing June 26. Both Lally and Pfeifer’s defense lawyer, Evan A. Jenness of Santa Monica, declined to comment on whether Pfeifer had agreed to cooperate with the government as part of his plea agreement.

They also declined to discuss what agreement they had made about a sentencing recommendation to the judge.

Jenness said that if the defense fulfilled all its obligations under the plea agreement, the witness-tampering charge would be dismissed at sentencing.

After the hearing, Jenness said she hoped that her client would not have to serve any more jail time. “He already has served more time than he should have,” she said.

The maximum prison sentence facing Pfeifer is five years, although under federal sentencing guidelines, he could receive a sentence of a year or less.

Former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson said that the government’s agreement to drop the more serious witness-tampering charge against Pfeifer was a sign that he was cooperating in some way with the government. Pfeifer’s plea, said Levenson, a Loyola law professor, “also sends a message to the other defendants -- your best deals are now, when you come in early.”

After Pfeifer entered his plea, the judge agreed Pfeifer could be released on $1-million bond next week, after presenting a deed for his house to secure most of the bond.

In an interview earlier this year, Pfeifer’s ex-wife, Maria, said that he and Pellicano had been friends for years and that Pfeifer referred to the flamboyant private eye as his godfather. Before Pellicano’s arrest in 2003, Pfeifer had twice hired the private investigator in connection with civil lawsuits, she said.