Private Investigator News and Information

GREG RISLING
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - A former Beverly Hills police officer and the ex-wife of actor Keith Carradine pleaded guilty to federal charges in a wiretapping investigation that authorities say involves imprisoned Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano.

Craig Stevens, 45, of Oak Park pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to two counts of wire fraud and four counts of unauthorized access of protected computers to commit fraud.

Stevens, who had worked for the Beverly Hills Police Department since 1982, could face up to 35 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 16.

Sandra Carradine, 58, of Carpenteria pleaded guilty during a closed court hearing Friday to two counts of perjury. Her attorney said Carradine and Pellicano were dating when she hired him to investigate her ex-husband.

She faces up to 10 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 25.

Authorities said the guilty pleas were part of an ongoing FBI case involving Pellicano, who is being investigated by a grand jury for possible illegal wiretaps on behalf of lawyers and their clients.

The private detective is scheduled to be released next month from federal prison after completing a 30-month sentence for possessing illegal weapons.

Both the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Tuesday about the investigation of Pellicano, who has worked for a number of celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Sylvester Stallone.

According to court documents, Carradine admitted she lied to a grand jury in October 2004 when she denied knowing that Pellicano wiretapped her former husband’s phone.

“There wasn’t really a sinister reason behind this,” said her attorney, Peter Knecht. “She was trying to do what was right by her kids. She agreed to plead guilty and accept responsibility.”

Stevens admitted he used Beverly Hills Police Department computers to obtain information from the Department of Motor Vehicles about four people, then sold it to Pellicano, authorities said. He also lied to FBI agents when he denied providing information to Pellicano or receiving payments from him, prosecutors said.

Stevens resigned from the department on Friday. His attorney, Michael Schwartz, did not return a call Tuesday.

Pellicano and a co-defendant have been indicted for allegedly making criminal threats against a Los Angeles Times reporter who was working on a story about actor Steven Seagal and possible links to the Mafia.

Pellicano allegedly hired a man who went to the reporter’s home in April 2002 and placed a dead fish with a rose in its mouth on a car windshield. A sign with the word “stop” was also placed on the windshield, according to court documents.

Units for monitoring vehicles are readily available on the Internet.
By RACHEL STEVENS

Tracking devices, such as the one former Columbia police officer Todd Smith allegedly placed in his ex-girlfriend’s car, are readily available on the Internet and are used for everything from monitoring teenagers’ driving habits to managing shipping fleets.

Police Chief Randy Boehm fired Smith on Dec. 30 after an internal investigation of allegations by Smith’s former girlfriend that the officer had stalked her with telephone calls, letters and a Global Positioning System tracking device that she discovered in her car. The accusations led to Smith’s arrest; Special Prosecutor Mason Gebhardt on Friday charged Smith with a single count of stalking.

Capt. Mike Martin said Smith’s case is the first Columbia police have seen involving the alleged use of a tracking device for stalking. He said he expects advancements in technology will bring an increase in such crimes.

A simple Internet search for “GPS tracking devices” brings up a list of options ranging in price and capability. Some must be installed, while others run on batteries and can simply be placed in a vehicle or attached to the outside with magnets.

There are two main types of GPS tracking devices — real-time and passive. Real-time devices are more expensive and allow users to use the supplier’s Web page to see in real time everywhere the tracked vehicle goes.

Passive units are cheaper and save data that the user later must download using software provided with the product. Some types allow the user to get the information remotely if his or her computer is close to the tracking device. Others require the user to either retrieve the unit or its memory card. Passive units record where the vehicle stopped, how long it was there and how fast it was driven.

What Martin described in an earlier interview is indicative of a passive device. It did not relay data in real time, he said, but “he knew where she was, when she got there and how long she was there. He knew every place she went and where she moved. This is not permitted.”

Wayne Johnson is director of sales for ­Discrete Wireless, a company that sells GPS tracking units for fleet management. He said tracking devices are becoming more popular.

“The market’s fairly new, and the cost of equipment is not conducive to get to the consumer model yet, but it’s coming,” Johnson said. “As scale and demand grow, you get more economies of scale to get to that marketplace.”

Besides helping companies manage fleets by tracking hours, fuel use and productivity, these deviceshave other common uses, Johnson said. They can enable parents to track the driving habits of teenagers and or allow people to track the vehicles of elderly parents to ensure their safety.

Johnson said the devices gather information from the GPS satellite constellation developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The tracking units must receive signals from at least three satellites to triangulate a point, revealing the location of the receiver in terms of latitude and longitude.

The tracking units sold by Discrete Wireless must be installed and are not the same as what he called “quick-tracker” units that can simply be placed in or attached to the outside of a vehicle. Johnson called this form of tracking “a very gray market.”

“Most of those guys who are getting information that way are pretty shady,” Johnson said.

Although Smith allegedly used a vehicle tracking device to stalk his former girlfriend, Columbia private investigator Ron Rugen said the devices do not deserve a bad name.

“Anything can be used in a wrong manner and abused, and it sounds like this was,” he said. “It is not a bad thing to be in existence as long as it is used within the law.”

Rugen said he has used a tracking device only a few times in instances involving parents concerned about their children. In those cases, he put the devices in vehicles with the owners’ consent. He said he won’t use the technology in other types of cases because he is unsure where the law stands.

“I would rather not use something when I don’t know for sure,” Rugen said. “I like to err on the side of caution.”

Rugen said he thinks the law will become more specific as the devices become more common.

Dawn Parsons, chair of the Criminal Law and Procedure Committee for the Missouri Bar, said that because this technology is relatively new, the law does not specifically outline how to deal with it. She said the legal risks vary with each situation.

“The monitoring device itself is not necessarily per se illegal,” Parsons said. “It’s what you’re doing with it.”

Parsons said she thinks misuse of the devices could be just beginning.

“I think as technology gets better and less expensive and more people get access, I think we’ll see more abuses,” Parsons said.

Although prosecutor Gebhardt said Smith’s alleged use of a tracking device is especially disturbing, he said Friday that it was not the only reason he charged Smith.

“The other things in and of themselves would have been enough for a stalking charge,” Gebhardt said. “It was a pattern of behavior not appropriate for an officer.”