Plot Thickens in the Case of the Tainted Detective

The investigation of former Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano took a significant turn Tuesday with the disclosure that his onetime girlfriend and a veteran Beverly Hills police officer have pleaded guilty to lying about the detective’s use of wiretaps and other illegal tactics.

The pleas by Officer Craig Stevens and Sandra Will Carradine, the ex-wife of actor Keith Carradine, offered the first confirmation in the 3-year-old federal investigation that authorities have evidence of Pellicano’s long-suspected illegal use of wiretaps and confidential law enforcement records.

The documents also provide the first official link between the Pellicano case and the law firm of one of Los Angeles’ most prominent entertainment attorneys, Bert Fields.

The documents state that Stevens, who resigned last Friday after 24 years on the Beverly Hills force, used police computers to gather information on an individual who was battling a client of Fields’ firm, Greenberg, Glusker, Fields, Claman, Machtinger & Kinsella.

Fields could not be reached for comment. His attorney, John W. Keker, denied any illegal activity by his client.

“Bert Fields is completely innocent of any wrongdoing,” Keker said. “And if there is any wrongdoing involving Anthony Pellicano, he didn’t have anything to do with it and certainly didn’t benefit from it. And neither did anyone at Greenberg Glusker.”

The firm has acknowledged that Pellicano worked on a number of its cases. On Tuesday its attorney Brian Sun said: “Neither the firm nor any of its attorneys who worked on the [Stevens] case were aware of these illegal acts or would condone such conduct if they had been aware of it.”

Carradine’s and Stevens’ plea agreements with the government are under seal, but the deals are expected to be followed by criminal charges against other individuals -- perhaps including Pellicano -- by month’s end, according to sources close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry.

Pellicano, who is in federal prison on a separate weapons conviction, could not be reached for comment. His attorneys in that case declined to comment. The FBI also declined to comment, and federal prosecutor Daniel A. Saunders made only a brief remark about the pleas.

“Both police corruption and perjury are serious crimes that threaten the integrity of our entire system of law enforcement,” Saunders said. “Neither will be tolerated in this office’s pursuit of justice.”

The FBI’s closely guarded investigation of Pellicano has riveted the entertainment industry because of his ties to the highest rungs of Hollywood and the legal community.

Pellicano, who relished his role as Hollywood’s best-known PI, found himself with plenty of unwanted attention Nov. 21, 2002, when FBI agents raided his West Hollywood offices. They were searching for evidence that he had been involved in a threat against a Los Angeles Times reporter looking into one of Pellicano’s former clients, actor Steven Seagal.

During their search, authorities discovered $200,000 in cash, jewelry and gold bullion, two practice grenades that had been modified to function as homemade bombs and military-grade plastic explosives known as C-4.

Months later, the 59-year-old Pellicano pleaded guilty to illegal possession of the dangerous materials and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.

But his problems were far from over.

During the November 2002 search of Pellicano’s office and a second raid two months later, federal agents hauled away computers containing detailed bookkeeping records, wiretapping software and encrypted files of phone conversation transcripts.

Pellicano is scheduled to be released from prison Feb. 4.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, in its statement Tuesday, said Stevens had pleaded guilty the day before to fraud for using his police position to enrich himself. Stevens, 45, of Ventura County, also pleaded guilty to illegally accessing government computers for information he sold to Pellicano and to lying about it to the FBI.

Beverly Hills police declined to comment on the case other than to say that officials had cooperated with the FBI. Neither Stevens nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

In a seven-page charging document, authorities alleged that Stevens used Beverly Hills Police Department computers to obtain confidential California Department of Motor Vehicle information on four individuals.

Sources said one of the people, Aaron Russo, a former Hollywood producer and onetime gubernatorial candidate in Nevada, was sued in 2001 by a New York investment manager, Adam Sender, who was represented by Fields’ law firm. The other three people are Russo’s relatives.

Carradine, 58, pleaded guilty to lying to a federal grand jury about Pellicano wiretapping her ex-husband’s home phone. At the time, the couple were fighting over child support, said her attorney, Peter Knecht. Pellicano worked on Carradine’s case, and the two became romantically involved, Knecht said.

“She was, in fact, untruthful before the grand jury,” Knecht said. “It was only because she was trying to protect her boyfriend.” Carradine has continued to visit Pellicano in prison, he added.

While emphasizing that he has no firsthand knowledge of the government’s evidence, Knecht said that Pellicano even taped his own conversations with Carradine.

“This wasn’t even an important [case] ... it was only to determine where to file a civil case” for child support, Knecht said. “And soon it became clear he did everything that Richard Nixon did -- he taped everyone, including himself.”

Carradine, of Carpinteria, faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence and is scheduled to be sentenced in September. Stevens faces up to 35 years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in October.

Times staff writers Chuck Philips, James Bates and Robert Welkos and research librarian Robin Mayper contributed to this report.