Thug Life

Pellicano hid his wiretaps from some clients and their lawyers, but he didn't spare them all, according to Susan Maguire, a client from 1996 to 1998 when she was divorcing her husband, a real-estate mogul. According to Maguire's testimony Thursday, Pellicano tapped her husband's phone then made her come to his office and listen to the illegal tapes to identify the speakers, thereby making her a party to the alleged crime. That lapse in judgment means she's testifying under a use immunity arrangement with the government that spares her from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. 

Pellicano seemed to enjoy his adversary's discomfort. In one excruciating episode, Maguire told jurors she sat with Pellicano as they listened to a recording of her husband's tearful conversation with his psychiatrist. "It was awful," Maguire testified, saying she found listening to her estranged husband's distress "really upsetting." Pellicano, by contrast, seemed to enjoy the man's anguish. "He was excited about it," she said.

Pellicano didn't shy away from intimidating his own clients, either. Maguire testified that Pellicano told her the taps were legal; he also warned her not to tell anyone about them, not even her lawyers. She complied. When Pellicano and her lawyers had a falling out, he made her write a letter of recommendation praising him. And he was relentless about asking her for more money. He had not made direct threats but "he was a threatening kind of person," she told prosecutors. "He would tell you about things that he had done [in the past], things that were threatening and violent." She got the message—although she also gave the impression she'd been largely happy with his work. In his brief cross-examination, Pellicano has not disputed her story thus far. But he asked her whether he "was loyal to you." "Yes," she answered. "He's still loyal to you," Pellicano said and sat down.

Even his billing methods seemed bizarre. Maguire testified that Pellicano came to her and asked for a $200,000 "loan" because he had what he called "a tax problem." She wrote him a check for the supposed loan. But he asked her write to record it as a "nonrefundable retainer"--and she said he never repaid it. Pellicano frequently asked her to pay him in $9,500 increments, she testified, as prosecutors showed jurors the canceled checks. Maguire added that Pellicano requested the odd sum because it would not "cause alarm," a sum which fell conveniently under the $10,000 federal bank-reporting requirements. He even asked her to sell her jewelry and give him cash. Instead, she gave him a pair of diamond-and-pearl earrings she believed were worth $100,000, but he only credited her account for $20,000 to $40,000. For less than three years' work, she told jurors, she paid Pellicano a sum she estimated at "up to a million dollars." (Pellicano has not disputed her account to date.)

She wasn't the only client who witnessed his aggressive methods of getting paid. A Tennessee physician named Charles Lull hired Pellicano in 2000 with a $25,000 retainer to harass California Web TV entrepreneur Laura Buddine, with whom he was feuding. He soon followed that with a $100,000 payment to Pellicano.

But it wasn't enough. In an April 2001 phone call that Pellicano taped and prosecutors played for the jury Thursday, Pellicano tried to convince the flustered Lull that he had actually agreed to pay a second $100,000—the first $100,000 was just "half" of the payment they'd agreed to, Pellicano insisted. When Lull balked, Pellicano backed off. But not far. He said he was "upset" over what he termed the "misunderstanding." Next Pellicano tried to make Lull feel guilty, claiming "I am going to have to eat" some of the expenses. Pellicano never got the added money—but then again, Lull never learned exactly what he'd gotten for his $125,000 except Pellicano's assurance that he was succeeding in making Buddine's life "absolutely f---ing miserable." With his reputation in tatters and his future freedom in doubt, Pellicano probably has a pretty good idea how she felt.

© 2008