Sunday May 18, 01:56 PM

Celebrity sleuth found guilty

Sleuth to the stars Anthony Pellicano has been found guilty of wiretapping the foes of his celebrity clients.

The private investigator spearheaded a scheme that used wiretaps and ran names through police databases to dig up dirt on Hollywood's rich and famous.

Pellicano passed the information - on celebs such as actor Sylvester Stallone and comedian Garry Shandling - onto their rivals.

The investigator showed no emotion as a jury at LA Superior Court found him guilty of 76 out of 77 federal racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges.

The jurors took two weeks to reach their verdicts.

During the two-month trial, prosecutors painted a picture of Pellicano, 64, as a pit bull for the powerful who ruined lives and sabotaged lawsuits in the process.

"This case is not about Hollywood," Assistant US Attorney Daniel Saunders told jurors last week.

"This is a case about corruption, cheating, greed and arrogance and perversion of the justice system, and it just happened to take place in Hollywood."

But Pellicano, represented himself during the trial, insisted he acted as a "lone ranger" while gathering information for his clients - and did not lead a criminal enterprise.

"There was no criminal enterprise or responsibility," he said in closing arguments, under court rules which require him to refer to himself in the third person.

"Mr. Pellicano alone is responsible. That is the simple truth."

During the trial the jury was played tape recordings of conversations between Pellicano and SBC field technician Rayford Earl Turner.

"I called and checked on it and they said it's working," Turner told the P.I. in one conversation.

"It I call right now, her voicemail picks up."

Turner, a co-defendant in the case, was found guilty of 16 out of 21 charges he was facing, including racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Retired LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson was convicted of all 46 charges he was facing, including racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Computer whiz Kevin Kachikian, who designed the Telesleuth wiretapping software, was found guilty of just two of the 11 counts he faced - conspiracy to commit wiretapping and possession or manufacturing of a wiretapping device.

Abner Nicherie was convicted of a single charge of aiding and abetting a wiretap.

Sentencing of all five defendants has been set for 2.30pm on September 24.