Los Angeles- Anthony Pellicano, the high-profile private investigator whose clients included some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, was charged today with conspiracy and making threats against a Los Angeles Times reporter.
Anita Busch was researching a story in 2002 about the relationship between actor Steven Seagal and a reputed Mafia figure when someone fired a bullet through the windshield of her unoccupied car.
Left on top of the vehicle was a dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a sign reading: “Stop.”
The charges today were filed by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley after a lengthy investigation by state and federal authorities.
Pellicano is now serving a sentence of 30 months in federal prison after he was convicted of possessing two illegal hand grenades and a quantity of plastic explosives. The contraband was discovered during a search of his office related to the investigation into the Busch threats.
The explosive devices that resulted in his conviction were discovered in a locked safe during an FBI raid on his Sunset Boulevard offices in November 2002.
Alexander Proctor, a drug-dealing ex-convict, was subsequently charged with carrying out the threat. Proctor was charged today with conspiring with Pellicano.
In secretly recorded conversations with an FBI informant, Proctor allegedly said he had been hired by Pellicano to scare Busch.
Pellicano, whose clients have included a who’s who of Hollywood stars from Elizabeth Taylor to Michael Jackson, pleaded guilty to the weapons charges two years ago. Earlier this year, a federal appellate court ruled against Pellicano, who had challenged the legality of the search of his residence and office.
Both men, each age 61, are serving federal prison sentences.
According to the complaint, Pellicano, owner of Pellicano Investigative Agency Ltd. in West Hollywood, hired Proctor on April 9, 2002, “to threaten Anita Busch, a reporter working for the Los Angeles Times, to cause her to fear for her life.”
“Between the late evening hours of June 10, 2002, and the early hours of June 20, 2002, Alexander Proctor went to Anita Busch’s residence in Los Angeles County and threatened her by placing a dead fish with a rose in its mouth on the windshield of her car,” according to the complaint.
“He (Proctor) made a hole in the windshield with the intent to make it appear like a bullet hole. He also placed a sign with the word ‘stop’ on the windshield,” according to the charges.
Pellicano is in prison in Taft, Calif., for the firearms violations. Proctor is serving a 10-year term at a federal prison in Illinois on a drug conviction
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald Goudy of the Organized Crime Division will prosecute the case.