Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1094
"Honey, why did you change to another hotel? Did something happen this afternoon? Director Penny Marshall was a little worried, she was afraid that you would have other ideas about the project."

Diane received Ronald's notice and went directly to the Wilshire Hotel to meet Ronald.When the production cost of a movie is tens of millions, there is a lot of pressure to pay back.In many cases, a change of an executive's mind or turbulence in the market situation will cause many changes, and it is not uncommon for the project to be suspended or even cancelled.

Diane thought that Ronald was making several films at the same time, fearing that he would be under financial pressure, so she took the initiative to ask.Penny Marshall had said to herself that she would go with Diane.

"There's nothing wrong with that, it's not what I'm worried about...Diane, I have something to tell you, don't be nervous..." Ronald supported Diane's shoulders, let her sit down on the sofa, and then Tell Diane about being bugged.

"Who would do this? Is it to eavesdrop on me?" Diane was born as a child actor and had heard many rumors in the industry. He was not surprised when he heard the rumors, but asked Ronald calmly.

"I don't know. There are a few suspects who should be targeting me." Ronald continued to explain the situation. The line tapped was Ronald's long-term rented hotel suite, and there was nothing wrong with Diane's apartment.

"Who could it be? I heard from my father that in Hollywood in the past, some producers who had ties to gangsters would do this. I didn't expect that someone would want to deal with you like this..." Diane gently stroked Rona De visibly tense neck.

Ronald smelled the perfume on Diane's body, and felt inexplicably relaxed, "I should know who wants to know my business secret tomorrow morning."

……

Ronald got up early in the morning, and he was waiting for the news.He ate breakfast absent-mindedly when Diane called him, and poured the coffee cube into the orange juice without knowing it.

Finally, at ten o'clock in the morning, the bodyguard Daniel called.

"We've got someone..."

"Great, who is it?"

"Somewhat unexpectedly, this person is from the Beverly Hills Police Department."

"what?"

As expected, the Daniel team set up an ambush in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in the warehouse where the tape recorders used for wiretapping were captured, and the person who came to change the tapes was actually a plainclothes man from the Beverly Hills Police Department. agent.

This person showed his police badge to the staff as soon as he entered the hotel, and went to the warehouse behind the telephone exchange room without much hindrance.

His name was Craig Stevens, and when he was caught, he ruthlessly told Daniel's team not to meddle in their own business.After seeing them calling the police, they didn't show any nervousness. When the uniformed patrol officers (lower level than the plain-clothes detectives) arrived after hearing the news, they proudly showed their police badges and said that they were performing police duties. service.

Only when Daniel said that according to LAPD's law enforcement rules, if the victim reports a felony to the police, regardless of whether the person captured is a member of the law enforcement department, he needs to report to the police station, this Craig Stevens revealed With a surprised look, he didn't expect that the person who came was an expert.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I have to remind you that although you have this power, if you do this, your boss will encounter many inconveniences in the future." Craig Stevens is a very bluffing An old policeman, he just wanted to scare Daniel.

"You can keep talking to your lawyer about this." Daniel pushed him, indicating that his side would follow and supervise the law enforcement process of the Beverly Police Department.

A group of people have taken the evidence obtained at the scene, went to the Beverly Police Station with Craig Stevens, and the uniformed patrol police who dispatched the police, and reported to the Department of Internal Affairs (specialized in investigating police misconduct or criminal behavior) department) complaints.

Ronald made a decisive decision, and he couldn't let the suspect get away easily. He immediately called the barrister he knew in Los Angeles, gray-eyed Mitch Kent, and asked him to go to the police station to put pressure on him immediately, and immediately call his personal Attorney Lindsay Dole, let her come along, and keep an eye on this trouble.

As the victim, Ronald also came to the Beverly Hills Police Department. Accompanied by Mitch Kent, he filed an investigation request with the Sheriff of the Beverly Hills Police Department, and he has notified his superior police officer. Bureau.

The Beverly Hills Police Department, just like the one described in the famous blockbuster movie "Beverly Hills Detective", has an overstaffed manpower, but it handles trivial cases, often helping ladies find pet.

Craig Stevens can be regarded as a relatively senior police detective. He started as a street patrolman and has been in his current position. He can be regarded as an experienced old man.His partner is still a newcomer, and he will listen to everything, otherwise he would not let him act alone without his partner.

Therefore, the entire police department knew that a Hollywood director had come to complain about Craig Stevens for wiretapping. Their first reaction was that it was impossible. In the zip code area of ​​[-], normal police detectives can do well without doing this kind of black work.

Mitch Kent's gray eyes stared at the sheriff who came to explain to Ronald.The sheriff's lips babbled to explain that it was probably a misunderstanding.He was the last person who didn't want this matter to become a big deal. People from the Beverly Hills Police Department eavesdropped on Hollywood stars?

Celebrities are the bread and butter of their police stations. If they arouse the disgust of this group, his position will not last long.

"You know, my client's bodyguard took action after discovering that the leak was tapped. That Craig came here in the morning and went straight to the place where the tape recorder was placed. He obviously knew where it was." Kent was impatient. He interrupted the sheriff's speech and directly stated Ronald's request.

"This is not something a citizen should do. If you find out that someone has been bugged, you should call the police as soon as possible..."

"And then? Is it easy for your internal staff to call the police?" Ronald stabbed angrily.

"Mr. Li, I have to say, this is a very baseless accusation..."

"What my client said is that your police station's handling of the police is not efficient..." Mitch must have stopped Ronald a little bit, signaling him to handle it.

"In any case, this matter should be handled by the police." The sheriff still wanted to quibble.Then the phone rang.

"I think that's for you." Attorney Mitch Kent said to the sheriff, narrowing his eyes.

"Ah?" Sure enough, the subordinate turned the phone over, "Hello, I'm John."

"John, I'm Ira Lehner, the prosecutor of Los Angeles County. I have received complaints from citizens. Your police officers are conducting wiretapping activities on a famous Hollywood director?"

In Los Angeles, unlike New York, the county district attorney's office has a broad jurisdiction that includes the jurisdiction of Beverly Hills.

The public prosecutor (DA) is an elected position, and this opportunity to establish an image of integrity will not be missed.

Early in the morning, Ella Reiner received a call from Mitch Kent, a lawyer who had dealt with him many times. This time, instead of standing in front of him looking for trouble, he gave him a favor.

"Yes, sir, we will follow standard procedure and initiate an internal investigation, and yes, I will send periodic progress reports to my superiors and the D.A.'s office..."

The sheriff put down the phone, patted his chubby face, changed his face, and smiled at Ronald, "Don't worry, whether it's done by our insiders or outsiders, we don't care about this kind of violation of celebrity privacy." The practice will be investigated to the end according to the standard process, and the truth will be given to you."

Ronald got a satisfactory result, got up and shook hands with the sheriff, said a few words of courtesy, and then walked out with the lawyer and bodyguards.

"Hey, these big Hollywood celebrities always feel that someone is interested in their private life. You know, I'm just going there to investigate another case."

Craig Stevens is an old fritter. This time, a policewoman was in charge of guarding him, and he was not handcuffed.He was still posing as a veteran, drinking coffee and chatting with the policewoman.

"Really? Have you seen many celebrities, Craig?" The policewoman didn't know the severity, thinking it was another case of Hollywood stars bullying others.Many residents of Beverly Hills are movie stars, and it can be said that they don't have much respect for these little policemen.

Just as Ronald and his group came out, passing the detention room, Ronald saw Craig who was still sitting with his legs crossed drinking coffee, stopped and looked at the sheriff.As if to ask, "Is this your standard procedure?"

The sheriff had no expression on his face, and just waved to the police officers from the Internal Investigation Department who came together. Two police officers with different signs stepped forward, one handcuffed Craig, and the other read out his powers. and internal investigation processes.

"John, is this necessary?" Craig Stevens motioned to the sheriff.

"The police union will arrange a lawyer for you, if you can't hire a lawyer yourself..." the sheriff replied blankly.

"I have a lawyer, I want to call him." Craig Stevens, the old bastard, finally realized that something was wrong, and immediately asked to call the lawyer, and then kept silent.

Ronald smiled slightly, didn't say much, and rushed to CAA with everyone.There was another ambush.

"Nothing was discovered, no wires were tapped, no tape recorders, no bugs in the office."

The team that came to CAA thoroughly checked the offices of multiple brokers and their phone lines.Nothing was found.

"Is it really not there, or is our movement too big and people have discovered it?" There is a fountain outside the CAA building designed by I.M. Pei, where Ronald talks to Nisita and others.

"The two situations you mentioned are possible. In addition, it is also possible that two groups of people did it." Daniel communicated with the team here for a long time, and came to report the technical findings to Ronald.

"It seems that there are no traces of Mr. Nisita and Richard's office or wiring. This shows that they may not be using the same method of wiretapping the hotel. There is no doubt about the leak. We will continue to find Where is the problem?"

"Where do you think the problem will be?" Nisita was very annoyed that the office was bugged. He didn't find out the reason, and he didn't want to appear in the new office until he dealt with it.

"The switchboards of the new office building are all in one place, and the line arrangement has been done before the renovation. If you want to know the reason, you have to go there to investigate. Another possibility is your telephone recording system. I noticed that You’re still using simple six-digit codes, which can be easily cracked or manipulated on the switch side.”

"You mean, our phone message was overheard?" Paula Wagner's expression changed.

"It's not ruled out, in fact, we think it's the most likely, your answering machines are very busy, . . . "

"Shxt!", even Richard's expression changed.Brokers are usually very busy at work, and they are not like Ovitz. They have several secretaries to serve them. Many times they cannot answer the phone, so they rely on the answering machine to record the customer's message.

Every day, no matter where they are, they have to call the office regularly, and listen to which customer has left a message during this time by entering the password.If their password is cracked, it will be seamless to listen to all customers' messages.

Moreover, the six-digit password is not too complicated. For example, Nisita and Paula Wagner used their son's birthday as the password.

"Actually, the telephone answering system of this brand can retrieve your telephone interview records from the background. As long as you get all the calls made in the past three days, especially those telephone numbers that listen to messages, you can roughly guess Find out who did it." Daniel suggested from a technical point of view.

"I will ask for the log of the answering machine, and you all cooperate with me." Nisita understood that this was the moment of truth, and he said to his wife and Richard.

"Of course", Richard and the others said, if this kind of thing is true, then there is a big problem, no matter who it is, with their recordings, it is easy to pry away their customers.

That night, Nisita and the others jointly proposed a request, which was approved by Ovitz at a meeting of directors and partners.All the agents were shocked when they heard the news, and they agreed to conduct a thorough investigation without any objection.

By the next morning, each partner's phone log was sent to their respective offices.The technical experts from Daniel's team helped Nisita and the others analyze the logs, and the conclusion is that...no suspicious calls came in.

"However, there is a problem with the call record here. You see, this is a call record that was repeatedly dialed in in just 1 minute. Under normal circumstances, this is the busy signal when the first call is made, and then it is called back. After your first call is finished, it will be redialed automatically.

But on the log of the first phone call, there is no call record of the other phone.Do you remember, did you press the phone because you were busy? "

Daniel let Nisita recall that this log is very similar to the call record of the first call that came in and was busy, and was deleted, so it contradicts the subsequent call redial behavior.

"I remember, it was a call from one of my clients, and I just returned to the office to answer it." Nisita pointed to the redialed number and said that there was no one in the office before I came back. "

It was confirmed that someone deliberately concealed it, and Nisita and the others had nothing to say. They filed an application to separate their telephone answering system from the company's system, and then bought an independent answering machine for use.

Daniel helped them do the safety review and will re-review every month.This kind of behavior was quickly seen by interested people, including another founder, Ron Meyer, who also began to handle the phone system by himself.

"The suspect has been caught. He is a bad cop. I have asked Attorney Kanter to stare at him. Your task is to help me track him and put my interests first. The same is true for the DA office in Los Angeles County. I I don't want them to make some kind of private exchange around my interests. I'm going to find out who's behind Craig Stevens."

The next day, lawyer Lindsay Dole had arrived, and Ronald gave him a brief account of the case immediately.

"Do you want to consider getting the FBI involved?" Lindsay looked at the file quickly, and then asked.

"Is it possible?" Ronald didn't expect to ask such a question, because generally the FBI can only deal with cross-state crimes.

"Okay, you said here that the wiretapping equipment is an old model retired by the CIA. This sensitive equipment must be involved in cross-state illegal sales. I just happened to help you apply for filming at the FBI Headquarters with Director Claire of the FBI New York Office. , she will help."

"Okay, you can help me with this matter." When Ronald heard that he could do both, he didn't care about any complaints from LAPD. Anyway, it would be better to find more departments that are eager to make contributions to keep an eye on you.

"Michael, how about the newspaper exposure plan you prepared for me?" Ronald asked Michael Gray, a public relations expert who left all business and rushed over to the newspaper public relations that Ronald wanted to cooperate with.

"I suggest not to expose your name. This kind of thing is not a good thing for you. It is easy for some people to get involved in whether there is any pornographic news in the recording, especially the exposure of Rob Lowe's video. If your privacy is exposed, the first reaction is scandal."

"Well, yes."

"Then we have an anonymous Hollywood celebrity being bugged, trying to pry away his role and project perspective, do some publicity, Hollywood Reporter here in Hollywood, and variety show coverage, as long as it can arouse the disgust of the stars, you stand Most people side." Michael Gray believes that in this kind of thing, it is most important to maintain Ronald's victim image.

(End of this chapter)