The former nanny of Canada's richest and most reclusive heiress has been named as a possible vic... The Pelican briefs...

The former nanny of Canada's richest and most reclusive heiress has been named as a possible victim in a major criminal case against a well-connected private investigator accused of illegally spying on Hollywood celebrities.

According to a 60-page indictment unsealed in California last month, the FBI alleges that Anthony Pellicano obtained confidential information about Pamela Miller, a former nanny employed by Taylor Thomson, the 44-year-old daughter of Canadian billionaire businessman Ken Thomson, and Michael Kolesa, the father of Ms. Thomson's young daughter Madeleine.

U.S. federal prosecutors accused Mr. Pellicano of illegally spying and accessing confidential information about Ms. Miller and Mr. Kolesa in April, 2002, from an FBI database with the help of a Los Angeles police officer, who has also been charged by U.S. authorities.

Ms. Miller, a U.S. citizen, and Mr. Kolesa, who lives in Toronto, are among a long list of alleged victims, which includes celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Keith Carradine and comedian Garry Shandling. Reports in the U.S. say the FBI also recently interviewed Nicole Kidman because a recording of a conversation she had with Tom Cruise was found in items seized from Mr. Pellicano's office in 2002.

His work premises were raided after the FBI traced an attempt to intimidate a reporter back to Mr. Pellicano. The FBI agents who searched his Sunset Boulevard office found fresh plastic explosives, two grenades and US$200,000 in cash. When investigators returned a week later, they discovered a cache of transcripts, tapes and computer files containing telephone conversations among Hollywood's elite.

Mr. Pellicano, who has served a 30-month prison sentence for the federal weapons violations, has pleaded not guilty to the FBI's charges of conspiracy and wiretapping.

The FBI indictment does not explain why the 61-year-old private investigator -- also known as The Pelican -- would have been interested in Ms. Thomson's nanny or in the father of her child, and nor does her name appear in the documents. In fact, the FBI has not identified who allegedly hired Mr. Pellicano to "subvert and corrupt the judicial process."

A complex web of court documents obtained by the National Post links Mr. Pellicano to the Canadian publishing heiress in February, 2002, two months before the FBI allege he spied on Ms. Thomson's nanny and the father of her daughter.

Lawyers representing Ms. Thomson were not available for comment yesterday. But a series of lawsuits between Ms. Miller and Ms. Thomson provide details of the relationship between the nanny, the father, the sleuth and the heiress.

Mr. Pellicano's name first surfaced in relation to Ms. Thomson in Toronto in February, 2002, at a time when Ms. Thomson was in a custody and access battle with Mr. Kolesa. The intensely private heiress had asked an Ontario Superior Court judge for an order sealing court documents in the case from public access.

On her behalf, Ms. Thomson's Canadian lawyers filed an affidavit by Mr. Pellicano, who was put forward as an expert with extensive experience in "high-profile cases that involve families, separating couples and children." It was also noted that the private investigator "did not know members of the Thomson family personally."

According to court filings, Mr. Pellicano warned that because Ms. Thomson is "tremendously wealthy," any information contained in the family court file could identify her daughter's location and potentially increase the risk of abduction.

The judge disagreed and ruled that only portions of the child custody case would be sealed. However, that decision was overturned in January, 2003, after Ms. Thomson appealed the ruling.

But four days before the file was sealed, Ms. Miller filed a copy of the lower court ruling, which identified Mr. Pellicano, as an exhibit in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit she launched in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Ms. Thomson in January, 2003. Ms. Miller was seeking $62,000 in lost wages plus damages from her former employer.

Ms. Miller claimed she was wrongfully fired by Ms. Thomson on April 4, 2002, the day after she flew to Toronto to swear an affidavit in support of Mr. Kolesa in the custody dispute. In her sworn testimony in Toronto, Ms. Miller had provided details about Madeleine's living conditions, health and safety.

Ms. Miller claimed that her employment was wrongfully terminated because she had acted in the best interests of the child and therefore had not violated the employment contract she signed in September, 2001.

Ms. Thomson argued that Ms. Miller violated a four-page confidentiality agreement that, among other things, prohibited Ms. Miller from revealing any information about the personal and private lives of Ms. Thomson and her daughter, even after leaving the family's employment.

A California judge dismissed the former nanny's wrongful termination lawsuit in October, 2004, and six months later, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in favour of Ms. Thomson in her lawsuit against the nanny, and ordered Ms. Miller to pay US$113,946. Ms. Miller is appealing the decision.

According to the FBI's indictment against Mr. Pellicano, the private investigator allegedly paid a police officer to search an FBI database for confidential information about Ms. Miller on the same day she flew to Toronto to file her affidavit. The FBI alleges that around the same time, Mr. Pellicano bribed a police officer to conduct similar illegal searches into Mr. Kolesa, as well as Ms. Miller's elderly parents and brother, who is a church minister.

For more than a decade, Mr. Fields employed Mr. Pellicano as a private investigator, and his partners at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella frequently relied on his services.

In January, 2003, Mr. Fields and his colleagues represented Ms. Thomson in the wrongful termination suit filed by Ms. Miller -- and helped the Canadian heiress in the countersuit for breach of contract and malicious prosecution.

Like Ms. Thomson, Mr. Fields' name does not appear in the FBI's indictment against Mr. Pellicano. However, the 76-year-old entertainment lawyer had been questioned in 2003 and is now listed as a "subject" in the wiretapping investigation by federal prosecutors.

"I suppose I'm a subject in the sense that I certainly did use Anthony Pellicano's services as an investigator in a number of cases over a number of years," Mr. Fields told a U.S. newspaper. "But I have never in any case had anything to do with illegal wiretapping. I don't do that."

Mr. Fields' law firm has attempted to distance its high-profile roster of clients from the allegations against Mr. Pellicano, and stressed it was unaware of the private investigator's methods.

"Some members of our firm used Anthony Pellicano as an investigator," Norman Levine, a managing partner with the firm, said recently. "However, if Mr. Pellicano engaged in any illegal activity, he did so without their or the firm's knowledge."

This is cache, read story here