Judge to Rule on Request From Pellicano on Friday

A federal judge will decide Friday whether to honor celebrity private investigator Anthony Pellicano’s request to withdraw his guilty plea to one of two illegal-weapons charges against him.

Pellicano is set to appear in court that day for sentencing on the explosives charges.

In October, Pellicano pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of illegally possessing plastic explosives and hand grenades. Pellicano later filed a motion to withdraw the guilty plea relating to the grenades, citing a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In that filing, defense lawyer Donald Re argued that the appeals court had found that Congress’ power over commerce does not extend to homemade weapons, according to a Daily Journal article.

Re said the ruling appeared to cover the first count of the Pellicano indictment, which involves homemade hand grenades. Under the October plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Pellicano admitted to possessing two “practice hand grenade bodies that had been redesigned as weapons by sealing the vent holes and inserting into each grenade ... explosive flash powder.”

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian will rule on Pellicano’s request at his sentencing Friday.

Federal authorities searched Pellicano’s offices in November 2002 as part of a probe into threats made to Times reporter Anita Busch. Pellicano was not charged with those threats.