Hollywood P.I. Sued by Oscar Winner

Actor Keith Carradine files civil suit against his ex-wife and former Hollywood P.I. Anthony Pellicano for illicit eavesdropping during couple's bitter divorce battle

By Josh Grossberg Mar 27, 2006 6:35 PMTags
Keith CarradineBuchan/Green/INFphoto.com

UPDATE (Feb. 8, 2010): Keith Carradine's ex-wife, Sandra, was sentenced to two years' probation and 400 hours of community service for lying to investigators about hiring Pellicano to wiretap her ex's phone calls.
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And the hits keep coming for Anthony Pellicano.

The former private eye to the stars who's now facing a litany of federal wiretapping charges for allegedly bugging Hollywood's rich and famous, is now facing a lawsuit from one of the alleged boldface-named victims.

In a complaint filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Keith Carradine accuses Pellicano of conspiring with the Oscar winner's ex-wife, Sandra Will Carradine, to illicitly wiretap his phone conversations during their highly contentious divorce in the late '90s.

Sandra Carradine hired Pellicano to help her after the couple separated in 1993, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of Carradine and his fiancée, Hayley DuMond.

Sandra and Pellicano were allegedly romantically involved at the time, and she wanted him to monitor all of her estranged husband's communications, which the suit calls a "reprehensible scheme to covertly obtain information that gave defendant Sandra Will a tactical advantage in her dispute with plaintiff Carradine" during their divorce proceedings. She then "engaged in scorched-earth litigation tactics that knew no moral, ethical or legal bounds," according to court papers.

Pellicano's legal eagle, Steven Gruel, declined to comment Monday. A lawyer for Sandra Carradine told the Los Angeles Times that his client was unaware of the alleged wiretapping and was simply trying to take care of their children by making sure the Oscar winner ponied up enough support.

However, the attorney wouldn't explain why Sandra Carradine recently pleaded guilty to lying to a federal grand jury about Pellicano's eavesdropping and now faces up to 10 years in the slammer.

Neither Carradine, nor his attorney, Brian Kabateck, was available for immediate comment. However, the son of actor John Carradine and a member of one of Hollywood's most esteemed acting dynasties told the Times that he was unnerved after learning that he was one of those allegedly tapped by Pellicano.

"I was really shocked and frankly dismayed, and I just felt completely violated," Carradine said. "It makes me really angry."

He's seeking unspecified damages for invasion of privacy, negligence and illegal interception, disclosure and use of communications. Other defendants named in the suit include two former employees of Pacific Bell, now AT&T, for plotting with Pellicano to monitor the phone conversations.

Carradine, who won his Oscar for writing the Nashville song "I'm Easy" and recently starred as Wild Bill Hickok in HBO's Deadwood, is not the only Hollywood figure the feds say were targeted by Pellicano. Sylvester Stallone, Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, and at least eight others are said to have been spied on by the P.I. and his goons.

Aside from wiretapping, Pellicano faces a 110-count federal indictment that also include charges he blackmailed celebrities and illegally obtained confidential police records on behalf of his clients.

In one infamous incident, authorities say Pellicano threatened former Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch in June 2002 by hiring an ex-con to smash her car windshield and leave behind a dead fish with a rose in its mouth along with a note saying "stop." The message was supposedly intended to frighten Busch off a story about an alleged mob shakedown of Hollywood tough guy Steven Seagal.

The man who did the dirty work, Alexander Proctor, initially told police that Seagal was the one who ordered Pellicano to go ahead with the scare tactic. Police in turn searched Pellicano's offices and discovered a cache of recordings and weapons, which touched off the current case against him.

Now, according to a Times report Monday, after several years of vehement denials put forward by the actor's legal team, an FBI investigation has cleared Seagal of any involvement in the case.