Sentencing is set for October
By Daily Press staff
A former Beverly Hills police officer pleaded guilty this week to selling confidential information about four people to a private investigator.
The officer and another individual faced federal criminal charges related to their involvement in investigations conducted by private investigator Anthony Pellicano, according to Acting U.S. Attorney George S. Cardona and FBI Assistant Director in Charge J. Stephen Tidwell.
A 24-year veteran of the Beverly Hills Police Department, Craig Stevens, 45, pleaded guilty Monday to seven felony counts and admitted that he accessed law enforcement databases for the purpose of supplying confidential information to Pellicano and employees of his now-defunct investigation agency.
Stevens, of Oak Park, pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Stevens also pleaded guilty to four counts of unauthorized access of protected computers to commit fraud. In doing so, he 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 FBI 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 entered his plea before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who is scheduled to sentence Stevens on Oct. 16. At sentencing, Stevens faces a maximum of 35 years in federal prison. Stevens, who started with the Beverly Hills Police Department in 1982, resigned on Friday.
In the second case, 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 knowing that Pellicano had wiretapped her ex-husband’s phone. The case against Carradine was made public Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi unsealed 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 Sept. 25. Pellicano is scheduled to complete a 30-month sentence he received for possessing illegal weapons early next month.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 11, 2006. Read the original PDF.