Ex-Reporter Sues Private Eye Over Threats

By: (AP) A former Los Angeles Times reporter is suing a celebrity private investigator who she claims led a campaign of threats to discourage her research into an alleged Hollywood extortion plot.

The lawsuit against Anthony Pellicano claims his clients and coconspirators joined in the effort to intimidate the plaintiff, Anita Busch, and it names the city of Los Angeles and a phone company, SBC Telecommunications, as defendants.

The threats and assaults so traumatized Busch that it ended her career, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. She is seeking unspecified damages for assault, invasion of privacy and negligence.

Busch was researching a possible link between actor Steven Seagal and a reputed Mafia associate in 2002 when she found her car's windshield punctured by an apparent bullet hole. A dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a sign saying "Stop" were left on her car.

Police investigating the incident searched Pellicano's office and found evidence suggesting he had been conducting illegal wiretaps. He remains the subject of a grand jury investigation into whether he conducted illegal wiretaps of celebrities.

Pellicano is serving a federal 2 1/2-year prison term for possessing firearms and explosives, also found during the search.

The lawsuit claims Busch's phones were tapped with help from unidentified SBC employees and Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson. The department suspended him last year for allegedly accessing confidential police databases on Pellicano's behalf.

Arneson has since retired, said police spokesman Officer Jason Lee, who declined to comment on the lawsuit citing department policy.

Spokesmen for Pellicano and SBC did not return phone calls for comment.

Seagal, a Pellicano client known for his action movies, was not named in the lawsuit.

As for Busch, "She's trying to get on with her life in terms of a new career," said her attorney, Matthew Geragos. He declined to identify that career but said it was outside the media. Busch's contract with the Times ended last month and she chose not renew it, he said.