Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts of Los Angeles, California and the U.S.

June 19, 2009

Convicted Private Investigator is Arraigned

LOS ANGELES – Imprisoned private investigator Anthony Pellicano and a man he allegedly hired to threaten a Los Angeles Times reporter in 2002 both pleaded not guilty today to conspiracy and making a criminal threat.

Pellicano and Alexander Frederick Proctor, now both 65, allegedly conspired to threaten writer Anita Busch while she was working for the Los Angeles Times in 2002. Proctor was first charged in 2003 with making a criminal threat. A second case filed in 2005 charged both men with conspiracy and Pellicano with making a criminal threat against the reporter.

Neither man was ever arraigned because of the federal cases pending against them at the time. The two cases will be combined later.

According to the 2005 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,” the charging document added.

Both men are scheduled to return June 29 to Department 30 at the Criminal Justice Center for a preliminary hearing. Both men, who are serving lengthy federal prison sentences, are being held without bail. If convicted, each faces up to three years in state prison.

Deputy District Attorney Ronald Goudy of the Organized Crime Division will prosecute the case against the two men.

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CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER

JOSEPH SHEMARIA

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Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts of Los Angeles, California and the U.S.