Posted on 01/05/2007 6:50:22 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano can trade his trench coat for legal briefs after a federal judge granted him permission Friday to act as his own lawyer in his wiretapping and racketeering trial.
Pellicano must "follow all the same rules as lawyers," U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer said. "And I will not help you. You will not receive special treatment from me at all."
No reason was given in court to explain why Pellicano wanted to dismiss his current attorney, Steven Gruel. Pellicano, 62, has maintained he is broke, but Gruel said he offered to work on the case for free.
"I was willing to do it, but he was too proud of a man" to accept, Gruel said in a telephone interview.
Prosecutors contend in a 112-count indictment that Pellicano illegally wiretapped the phones of Hollywood stars such as Sylvester Stallone and bribed police officers to run the names of more than 60 people, including comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through government databases.
The information gathered was used to get dirt for threats, blackmail and in some cases to secure a tactical advantage in litigation, prosecutors alleged.
Fourteen people have been charged in the case.
Pellicano ping
This should be interesting. Please post any updates when they're available.
I bet the National Enquirer would give him a bundle of money to spill the beans on Hillary. Then, he could pay for an attorney.
yep, standard clinton mo
What is happening to the cops he bribed?
Nothing, I guess.
Yep, Hillary's private eye(dick).
"A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client."
If the trial judge fails to do that there is a reasonable probability that an appellate court would send it back for retrial because of some overreaching by the prosecutor who, like most of them, will not be able to resist the easy temptation to engage in prosecutorial misconduct. In his customary zeal to obtain a conviction contrary to his oath of office to see that justice is done, it would be the rare prosecutor who will be able to resist the overkill opportunities that are inevitable when he's dueling with an unarmed defendant.
I doubt that any judge, especially in a high profile case, would permit a defendant to appear without some assigned support irrespective of the idiot defendant's wish to proceed without a trained and skillful defense counsel as back-up and advisor.
Then his heirs can pay for his funeral.
Thank you for your service to our country. I read your webpage. I agree with your assessment of the current administration.
Pro-life dittos. Living in Phoenix for 8 years has given me a view of the flood of illegal aliens, soon to have their own navigation devices provided by Mexico and some American dolts as well.
Back to Pellicano - the goon who aided the Clintons helped our nation get into this trance of ignoring horrible crimes as long as the victims were silenced one way or the other. Witnesses clonked, killed, threatened, humiliated. Journalists beaten into silence, etc.
We got used to looking away from the filth of the Clintons as long as stocks were high. We got used to arrogant presidential leadership.
This case could get interesting.
Middie's comments make me think Pellicano could be angling for a re-trial and for the prosecution to give up, perhaps under a Hillary (No! No!) administration.
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