Michael ovitz trial

He tells Mr. Pellicano that he needs to see the detective about "the single most complex situation imaginable. Ovitz replied, "We were in an extraordinarily tenuous time. We were being battered in the press on a consistent basis. As for the call to Mr. Pellicano, Mr. Ovitz said he may have exaggerated when he made the call, "but I needed information. Ovitz's consistent theme as to why he called Mr. I had no one feeding me information," he said, explaining why he needed Mr.

Pellicano's help. As for why he hired Pellicano and not another private investigator, Mr. Ovitz was quite clear.

Ovitz continued to complain that he needed Mr. Pellicano to deal with the barrage of negative articles coming out of the New York Times , being written by Anita Busch and Bernard Weinraub. But, his focus wasn't on the reporters, he explained irritably. His focus was on the people he believed were sourcing those reporters. Ovitz has been targeted by Busch for allegedly putting Pellicano up to no good.

The private eye remains in prison, having been sentenced in to 15 years for running a wiretapping enterprise on behalf of some of the most powerful figures in Hollywood. Busch, who was also an editor at The Hollywood Reporter , came to suspect that her reporting might have triggered someone who wished to stop her. The initial suspicion centered on Steven Seagal and a former producing partner, but the FBI later said there was "no evidence" of a Seagal link.

Later, speculation turned to Ovitz, the subject of many of Busch's stories from , when the rose-and-fish attack happened. According to court papers from the case, on the day of the attack, an FBI agent mentioned Ovitz's name, and Busch laughed it off as a joke.

In , she jotted down in notes, "Dear God According to documents, Busch's lawyer said she only figured out "Ovitz's liability" in when The New York Times reported, based on FBI summaries, that Ovitz acknowledged hiring Pellicano a few months before the rose incident. The timing matters. Busch was on the clock for statute-of-limitations purposes from the moment she connected the dots about what happened.

In other Pellicano-related lawsuits, Tom Cruise and Brad Grey have been able to beat claims on similar statute of limitations grounds. In this case, Busch originally filed her lawsuit in May against anonymous John Does.

Two years later, she amended her lawsuit with names. At Friday's hearing, Judge Berle threw out a wiretapping charge that Busch had brought because the statute of limitations for that cause of action is just one year.

But the judge denied a summary judgment motion on the other charges. The judge made the ruling based on a code that was enacted in that extended the statute of limitations from one to two years on the personal injury causes filed by Busch. On cross-examination by Mr. Nicherie's lawyer, Lawrence Semenza, Ms. Shafrir explained that she owned and operated a number of businesses, including a phone sex business. Over repeated objections from the prosecution, Mr. Semenza tried to establish that it was Ms.

Shafrir and not Abner Nicherie, who was really Mr. Pellicano's client. Even as Ms. Shafrir continued to testify that it was Abner Nicherie who without her real consent hired Mr. Pellicano and got him to wiretap and harass her ex-husband, Mr. Semenza managed to get her to admit that while she was busy being forced to harass her ex-husband, she was also busy being forced to contact the F. In one of the only amusing anecdotes of her testimony, she said that she'd driven Mr. Nicherie to Mr.

Pellicano's office at least twenty times because Mr. Nicherie didn't want to pay to park in Mr. Pellicano's building. So, apparently Abner Nicherie didn't mind paying thousands of dollar to Mr.

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