Feds Charge Sleuth to the Stars

Celebrated private investigator Anthony Pellicano was charged Friday with possession of two unregistered hand grenades discovered as federal agents searched his office for evidence of his alleged involvement in a plot to threaten a Los Angeles Times reporter who was investigating actor Steven Seagal.

During the search Thursday of Pellicano’s West Hollywood office, authorities also seized what appeared to be plastic explosives “consistent with military C-4,” according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Attorney Donald M. Re said Pellicano had a “legitimate reason” for possessing the explosive, and denied that his client played any role in threatening the Times reporter.

“I don’t think there’s any factual basis” to those allegations, Re said.

Pellicano, who appeared in court wearing handcuffs and day-old clothing, was expected to remain in federal custody until at least Wednesday, when a hearing to determine whether he should be released before trial is scheduled to resume.

Prosecutors are seeking to have Pellicano held without bail, arguing that he is a threat to the community. Re countered that Pellicano is a solid citizen whose resume includes work for the government.

Pellicano is known as a sleuth to the stars; his clients have included Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and many others.

He offers clients a range of services and promises on his Web site: “When retained, your problem becomes my problem.”

During the search on Thursday, the explosive materials were found in a locked safe to which Pellicano allegedly told agents only he had the combination.

The grenades were designed as practice weapons, but had been modified into “baseball-shaped pipe bombs that were designed to fragment and to send shrapnel within the blast radius upon detonation,” according to an affidavit by FBI Agent Stanley E. Ornellas.

“They were nonlethal devices that had been altered for the specific purpose of rendering them lethal.”

The explosive material in the safe, the affidavit states, “could easily be used to blow up a car, and was in fact strong enough to bring down an airplane.”

Also in the safe were 15 to 20 bundles of cash, “the majority of which bore $10,000 wrappers.”

FBI agents obtained a warrant to search Pellicano’s office on Sunset Boulevard on Tuesday.

Though the warrant is sealed, Agent Ornellas stated in his affidavit that the application submitted to the judge who issued it “details evidence establishing probable cause to believe that Pellicano hired and paid Alexander Proctor to burn the car of a Los Angeles Times reporter who was writing a negative newspaper article about one of Pellicano’s celebrity clients.”

Proctor has been charged in connection with threatening reporter Anita Busch by allegedly placing a dead fish, a rose and a one-word note reading “Stop” on her car.

In a secretly recorded conversation described in a request for another warrant, Proctor allegedly told an FBI informant that he was paid by Pellicano to carry out the threat on behalf of Seagal, who wanted to dissuade Busch from her reporting on Seagal’s relationship with a reputed Mafia associate.

Busch had been working on a story about Seagal’s relationship with friend and former producing partner Julius Nasso.

Nasso was indicted earlier this year along with other reputed mob figures in connection with a plot to extort money from Seagal.

Seagal’s attorney, Martin Pollner, denied that the actor had anything to do with the threat on Busch.

In addition to carrying out the threat against Busch, Proctor allegedly told the FBI informant during one taped conversation that Pellicano had “other jobs” for him.

Proctor allegedly said Pellicano was waiting for his clients to pay him the money up front before he would hire Proctor.

One job, Proctor said, involved sneaking an Israeli national suspected of murder out of the United States and back to Israel, according to the affidavit. That job, Proctor said, was worth $100,000.