Employee convicted of lying to FBI

LOS ANGELES — A federal jury this week convicted a former telephone company employee and Burbank resident on three counts of lying to the FBI and perjuring herself twice in connection with the wiretapping investigation of former private investigator Anthony Pellicano, prosecutors said.

Joann Wiggan, 56, of Burbank, was found guilty Monday of committing perjury before a federal grand jury, lying to FBI special agents and committing perjury in a previous criminal trial, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

It took the jury less than an hour to reach a guilty verdict.

During the weeklong trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Wiggan repeatedly denied having any contact with, or retrieving any messages from, former SBC employee Ray Turner, a Pellicano associate.

Evidence in the form of telephone records showed more than 125 calls from Turner to Wiggan’s workplace voicemail, 18 calls from Pellicano’s office to that voicemail account, and more than 1,000 calls from Wiggan to that account during the time of the wiretapping conspiracy, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Wiggan was tried in 2006 on five counts of committing perjury before the grand jury. The jury in that case acquitted her of four counts, and a mistrial was declared on the fifth count.

The jury Monday convicted Wiggan of the unresolved count from the first trial and charges of lying to the FBI in 2004 and committing perjury in 2006.

She is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 22 by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer and faces a maximum 15 years in federal prison.

Pellicano and Turner are serving prison terms of 15 and 10 years, respectively, after being convicted last year of conspiracy, wiretapping and other charges, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.