Who’s next, Paul Drake?

In a Perry Mason-like turn of events, federal prosecutors in the criminal trial of private detective Anthony Pellicano put a witness on the stand Friday to further impeach Pellicano’s co-defendant, former Police Sgt. Mark Arneson -- only to have Arneson’s attorney impeach the witness and raise the specter of a mistrial for the former cop.

Pellicano is facing multiple counts of wiretapping and racketeering. Arneson, one of four co-defendants, faces charges of racketeering and illegal access of law enforcement databases to get confidential information for Pellicano.

The government had already done a nimble job last week of laying out evidence that Arneson lied about the extent of his illegal involvement with the private detective. To add more fuel to the fire of their contention that Arneson is a liar, prosecutors showed the jury a 1998 bankruptcy petition filed under Arneson’s name. It misstated his profession and his income -- which is fraud. The government said Arneson filed it to save his Rancho Palos Verdes house from foreclosure.

But Arneson denied that he ever filed the petition, even as Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel Saunders incredulously pointed out that the document was signed. “That’s not my signature,” Arneson insisted.

The government then showed the jury a letter written by a businesswoman to a mortgage company recommending that Arneson get a refinanced loan on his house. The woman wrote that she was aware of Arneson’s bankruptcy filing.

On Friday, as part of the government’s rebuttal after the defendants finished presenting their cases, Saunders called the businesswoman, Phyllis Miller, to the stand. She confirmed what she wrote in the letter and that she knew of Arneson’s bankruptcy.

But when Arneson’s attorney, Chad Hummel, cross-examined Miller, he whipped out the bankruptcy filing -- and led her to a surprise question: Why was a mail-order company once owned by Miller listed on Arneson’s bankruptcy filing? And why was it in her husband’s handwriting?

“Did you and your husband file a fraudulent bankruptcy petition on behalf of Mark Arneson?” Hummel asked.

“Don’t answer that,” Judge Dale S. Fischer blurted out. Fischer quickly sent the jury out of the room and told Miller she needed a lawyer. Now.

Hummel told the judge he believed that Phyllis Miller and her husband “have attempted to defraud Arneson out of his house.”

He continued, “The issue Mr. Saunders has pursued with such vigor has been disproved.”

Miller declined to answer more questions.

The judge set a hearing for Monday to decide what to do next.

“The remedy is more than striking the direct testimony,” Fischer said in court. “Whether it’s a mistrial, I don’t know.”

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carla.hall@latimes.com