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Anthony Pellicano will go into court today and ask for an expedited trial, possibly foregoing the use of a federal public defender, journalist Ross Johnson reports. Family members tell Johnson that the jailed, destitute Hollywood private investigator also "might use the trial as a forum to expose what he feels is the duplicity of the various state and federal prosecutors." Johnson posts the story at his new website, LAIndie, which launched last night and is devoted to the Pellicano case. He also has put up a story saying that Stanley E. Ornellas, the lead FBI agent in the investigation, claimed in a 2002 affidavit to be a licensed private investigator even though Johnson could find no record of a license in California. The site was inspired, Johnson writes, by his questions about the government's pursuit of the case against Pellicano:
This website is not about whether Pellicano deserves to be fried for allegedly being an asshole who wiretaps innocent citizens..I’ve never met Pellicano, and probably never will.
A week ago, I just wanted to know why one judge didn’t buy the government theory back in June of 2005.
It took me 45 seconds of using an Internet search engine to find out why.
Call it a pipe dream, but citizen journalism is supposed to be getting both sides of the story, unfiltered.
Johnson most recently has covered the business side of Hollywood on a freelance basis for the New York Times.
Photo of Anthony Pellicano: Los Angeles Times/George Wilhelm, via AP