Fields not called in Pellicano trial

Entertainment lawyer Bert Fields will not testify today in the trial of Los Angeles private detective Anthony Pellicano.

Chad Hummel, the defense attorney for former Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Mark Arneson, a co-defendant, had planned earlier to call the well-known lawyer but decided against it Thursday. “The reasons are confidential,” Hummel said.

Fields’ testimony has been eagerly awaited by trial observers.

Fields’ attorney, Brian Sun, said it was Hummel’s decision not to call Fields, who had employed Pellicano on multiple occasions. Fields, accompanied by his lawyer, was at the courthouse Wednesday waiting to testify. “We were on call,” Sun said.

Instead, the federal prosecutor cross-examined Arneson for most of the day, leaving time for only one other witness, retired FBI Special Agent Stanley Ornellas.

Hummel plans to have Ornellas back on the stand today to field questions about the FBI’s investigation of the private eye, who is charged with wiretapping and racketeering.