Seagal allegedly linked to threats against reporter

Steven Seagal is vehemently denying allegations that he paid a private detective to threaten an L.A. Times reporter who was investigating the actor’s purported relationship with Mafia figures. According to an FBI informant cited in court papers, ex-con Alexander Proctor told him that Seagal hired him to intimidate Times reporter Anita Busch via high-profile private detective Anthony Pellicano. Proctor is being held without bail on charges that he threatened Busch in June by putting a bullet hole in her car, along with a rose and a note that said ”stop.”

Pellicano and Seagal both sharply denied the charges. ”This uncorroborated allegation by someone arrested is pure fiction and is nothing more than a transparent attempt to divert attention from himself and the real perpetrators,” Seagal’s attorney, Martin R. Pollner, told the Associated Press. ”This is part of an unrelenting campaign to disparage Mr. Seagal and reads like a bad screenplay.” A lawyer for Pellicano, who was jailed Thursday on unrelated weapons charges after police searched his office, told the L.A. Times that Pellicano was not involved with threats against Busch, and was innocent of the weapons charges.

The Times’ Busch went into hiding after the threat. She had been investigating an alleged Mafia scheme to blackmail Seagal. According to the court papers, the threat was designed to look like it came from the Mafia.