So says U.S. District Court Judge Dale S. Fischer about allowing a private investigator act as his own lawyer.
A federal judge on Wednesday reluctantly allowed Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano to take over as his own lawyer in his trial on charges of illegally wiretapping celebrities...
It was the second time Pellicano has opted to become his own lawyer. He did the same thing a year ago but then rescinded his decision and used the services of attorneys Steven Gruel and Michael Artan, who handled pretrial motions.
Pellicano, handcuffed and wearing a green prison jacket, told the judge that he knew that his attorneys worked hard but that he no longer needed their help.
Pellicano's lawyers said outside court that his motivation was to save them from having to represent him for free in a long trial after the judge refused to appoint them at court expense.
Pellicano, once a highly paid investigator who was considered the secret weapon of big-time Hollywood lawyers to get dirt on famous litigants, has been in prison for nearly five years. He served a 2 1/2-year term for a weapons possession conviction, then was indicted along with five co-defendants on charges of illegally tapping phones and bribing police for information on celebrities including Sylvester Stallone and Garry Shandling.
There's the old saw about a man who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client, but, as the judge points out, the Constitution requires that defendants be allowed to do this. Judges work diligently to prevent defendants from doing so, knowing that cases can be overturned on appeal on technicalities. This is, however, the first time I've seen a judge actually discuss this Constitutional provision this way.
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