Warring Writers At Pellicano Trial
By Art Harris (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved
A key witness in the Anthony Pellicano wiretap trial, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who got a dead fish wrapped in a newspaper as a warning to stop writing about a Pellicano client, is now caught in the cross-hairs of two journalists once working with her on a book about the case — until she called it off.
It’s all in the latest dispatch from our intrepid trial correspondent, veteran PI John Nazarian, who has been sitting in the courtroom and lays out the lilterati war between ex LAT reporter Anita Busch, the dead fish target, Dan Modea, a veteran investigative journalist, and another writer, John Connolly, frequent Vanity Fair contributor.
From John Nazarian, April 11:
On the day that Ms. Busch gave her testimony she made statements as to her being “used” by two people who were to do a book with her.
Well, I sat next to one of these guys in court for almost a week and I have to say he seemed like a complete gentleman to me.
He introduced himself to me as a friend of Tom Lange (retired LAPD detective on the O.J. Simpson case) and that he had written Tom’s book. We spoke and even laughed at times through this trial. I knew him as “Dan,” I never put the name “Moldea” to this big powerful man that I had enjoyed speaking to for almost a week!
I received an e-mail from Mr. Dan Moldea this morning telling me what he thought of the comments I had received from John Connolly.
I (now) have a very large man who is angry with me. I recalled the first time I shook his hand and I may have even said, “wow, you could squeeze grapefruits.” A firm handshake — not one of intimidation, but strong!
When I said that John Connolly told me that the problem was that “Moldea was hitting on her,” I never gave it a thought. Anita is an attractive young woman.
Also when John Connolly told me that “Moldea” wanted to use “code names,” that too, did not seem like a big deal based on who they were dealing with. Also the comments were not my allegations, they were comments that John Connolly had given to me over the phone.
Having met Dan and now putting the name with the face, and based on my experiences with Anita Busch and John Connolly, I have to give Dan’s comments as much thought and respect as the others’. And if I did anything to upset Mr. Moldea, I apologize; however, the comments that John Connolly made about “Moldea” did not seem then and do not seem to me now to be terrible in the way they were said.
The following is a copy of Dan Moldea’s e-mail to me in its entirety:
FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, GO TO WWW.DESPERATEEXES.COM
April 13th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Stick to your guns JN they are someone elses words not yours.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Dear Art,
I don’t think I have the stomach, patience or intellect to follow this story.
Yours Truly,
Freida