Files seized from a celebrity private investigator’s office included “corroborating evidence” linking him to a threat against a reporter who had been looking into a possible link between actor Steven Seagal and the mob, prosecutors said.
In federal court documents filed Thursday, the prosecutors said Anthony Pellicano had a file that included a physical description, license plate number and home address of Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch.
Prosecutors said investigators also seized from Pellicano’s office in 2002 a file labeled “Stephen Seagal matter,” which included an article Busch had helped write about the actor.
Busch was researching a possible link between actor Steven Seagal and a reputed Mafia associate in June 2002 when she found her car’s windshield smashed, a dead fish inside the vehicle with a rose in its mouth and a cardboard sign saying “Stop.”
Ex-convict Alexander Proctor, accused of making the threat, allegedly told an FBI informant he was hired by Pellicano.
Pellicano and Seagal have denied involvement and neither has been charged with trying to threaten the reporter. Seagal and the alleged Mafia associate had a business relationship, and Seagal has testified that mobsters threatened his life after he ended it.
The new court documents also note records showing a number of phone calls between Pellicano and Proctor, who still faces a state charge in connection with the threat and was sentenced this week on drug possession charges to 10 years in prison.
Pellicano, whose clients once included Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson, is awaiting sentencing Jan. 23 for possession of explosives, which were found as authorities searched for evidence linking him to Proctor. The documents filed Thursday are to support a sentencing request.
Pellicano’s attorney, Donald Re, said the government was piecing together “unproven, unsworn, untested and untrue” bits of information to make it appear Pellicano was involved in the threat.