Former Beverly Hills Police Officer Admits Supplying Law Enforcement Information to Investigator,and Client Acknowledges Lying about Knowledge of Wiretapping
LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Two people have pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges related to their involvement in investigations conducted by private investigator Anthony Pellicano, Acting United States Attorney George S. Cardona and FBI Assistant Director in Charge J. Stephen Tidwell announced today.
A 24-year veteran of the Beverly Hills Police Department pleaded guilty yesterday to seven felony counts, admitting that he accessed law enforcement databases for the purpose of supplying confidential information to Pellicano and employees of his now-defunct investigation agency.
Craig Stevens, 45, of Oak Park, appeared in federal court Monday afternoon and pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud for depriving the citizens of Beverly Hills of his honest services as a sworn police officer. Stevens also pleaded guilty to four counts of unauthorized access of protected computers to commit fraud. In pleading guilty to the unauthorized access counts, Stevens admitted that he used the Beverly Hills Police Department’s computers to obtain information about four individuals from the Department of Motor Vehicles and sold that information to Pellicano and his employees. Stevens also pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he denied that he had ever provided information to, or received payments from, Pellicano, when in fact he had repeatedly sold information to Pellicano.
Stevens pleaded guilty before United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who is scheduled to sentence Stevens on October 16. At sentencing, Stevens faces a maximum possible sentence of 35 years in federal prison. Stevens, who started with the Beverly Hills Police Department in 1982, resigned on Friday.
In the second case announced today, a former client of Pellicano, Sandra Will Carradine, a 58-year-old Carpenteria resident, pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of perjury. Carradine, who hired Pellicano in relation to her divorce proceedings, admitted that during a grand jury appearance in October 2004 she lied when she denied having any knowledge that Pellicano had wiretapped her ex-husband’s phone. The case against Carradine was made public this morning when United States District Judge Robert M. Takasugi unsealed a criminal information and documents related to Friday’s proceedings. Judge Takasugi is scheduled to sentence Carradine, who faces up to 10 years in prison, on September 25.
These cases are the result of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Pellicano is scheduled to complete a 30-month sentence he received for possessing illegal weapons early next month.
