Prosecution Says Late Billionaire's Ex-Wife Is Liable in Wiretapping Case

The ex-wife of a late billionaire should be held liable for invading the privacy and causing emotional distress to the wealthy man's three children and former personal assistant with a wiretapping scheme created by disgraced private eye Anthony Pellicano, an attorney told a jury Friday.

Attorney Lawrence Segal said Jacqueline Colburn—who was married for less than two years to philanthropist Richard D. Colburn—knew Pellicano was wiretapping all calls going in and out of her spouse's estate for almost a year.

"This is not a victimless crime here, ladies and gentleman," Segal said during closing arguments in the trial of his clients' civil suit. "This is something that impacts people."

All of Pellicano's actions were done with the "knowledge, ratification and consent" of Jacqueline Colburn, he said.

However, the woman's attorney, Stanley McKiernan, countered that the plaintiffs waited too long by filing the suit in December 2007. He said the deadline to file their claims was two years earlier. He also said the case was whittled down to just two claims by the time testimony concluded.

"The case is crumbling because of the lack of evidence," McKiernan said.

The plaintiffs maintain they did not know someone was listening to what they thought were private conversations until someone emailed one of them a story from The New York Times about Pellicano's eavesdropping victims. Jacqueline Colburn allegedly sought Pellicano's help in getting an edge in her divorce proceedings against Richard D. Colburn, according to the story.

Richard W. Colburn and two other children of Richard D. Colburn from a prior marriage—Carol Colburn-Grigor and Keith W. Colburn—along with Colette McDougall, former assistant to Richard D. Colburn, sued Pellicano and Jacqueline Colburn. They allege that in 1999 Jacqueline Colburn paid Pellicano in cash and jewelry to install remote listening devices near the philanthropist's Beverly Hills home to enable them to listen to calls going in and out of the residence with a software program called TeleSleuth.

Richard D. Colburn, who died in 2004, made a fortune in construction and endowed the Colburn School of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. Jacqueline Colburn's sister is Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanchez-Gordon.

The couple married in 1998—Jacqueline Colburn was 38 and Richard D. Colburn was 85—and divorced in 2002.

McDougall and the Colburn children believe hundreds of conversations between Richard D. Colburn, his family members and business colleagues were recorded over a period of 10 months from mid-December 1999 to early October 2000, according to the suit.

McKiernan said there is no evidence Pellicano ever conducted any wiretapping on Jacqueline Colburn's behalf. However, attorney Wayne Skigen, who conducted the second half of the plaintiffs' closing argument, scoffed at the claim and said the woman's former physical therapist, David Powers, testified she admitted to him that she knew about the wiretapping.

Skigen also said another witness testified he set up Jacqueline Pellicano in the private eye's office with headphones so she could listen to the conversations from the Colburn home.

"She wasn't going to Anthony Pellicano's office to listen to music," Skigen said.

The jury deliberated the entire afternoon and will return Monday. Pellicano was convicted in 2008 of conspiracy, wiretapping and other charges and is serving a 15-year federal prison sentence. The Colburn children and McDougall are seeking a default judgment against him.

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