Los Angeles - Ex-celebrity sleuth Anthony Pellicano, who's serving a 15-year prison term in a federal racketeering, conspiracy and wiretapping case, pleaded no contest today to a criminal threats charge involving a news reporter.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William N. Sterling immediately sentenced Pellicano to three years in prison --- to be served at the same time as the 65-year-old defendant's federal prison term.
Co-defendant Alexander Frederick Proctor, 66, also pleaded no contest to the same charge. He was ordered to serve three years in prison, which is to be served at the same time as his 10-year federal prison term in a drug case.
A conspiracy charge against Pellicano and Proctor was dismissed as a result of their pleas on the criminal threats charge, according to the District Attorney's Office.
The two were charged by Los Angeles County prosecutors in June 2005 involving an attempt to scare Anita Busch, who was then working for the Los Angeles Times.
Pellicano hired Proctor between April and June 2002 to intimidate the reporter "to cause her to fear for her life," and Proctor went to Busch's home that June and "threatened her by placing a dead fish with a rose in its mouth on the windshield of her car," according to the criminal complaint.
"He 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 document.
At a preliminary hearing in August in which the two men were ordered to stand trial, retired FBI agent Stanley Ornellas said the reason for the threat was a series of articles Busch was working on that probed actor Steven Seagal's purported relationship with Mafia figures. Seagal has strongly denied the allegations.
A search of Pellicano's office turned up computer records containing Busch's driver's license number and other information, the retired federal agent testified.
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