It’s already rocked the East Coast ballet world and topped the tabloids. Now the sexual assault lawsuit filed by aspiring ballet dancers against the Henderson couple once responsible for training them has taken a tougher turn.

Enter Anthony Pellicano.

Since his 2019 release from federal prison after serving 16 years for a long list of felonies, you might imagine the one-time private sleuth for Hollywood celebrities would be just a tad too radioactive to be hired for his crisis management skills. But you’d be wrong.

Pellicano is working for Canadian billionaire and Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz in a salacious offshoot of a litigation filed in 2021 in Las Vegas by a group of ballet dancers who claim they were sexually exploited by their former dance instructors, Taylor and Dusty Button.

The Buttons have denied the allegations, and in July through their attorney Marc Randazza filed a countersuit, which in part claimed that one of the dancers accusing them of wrongdoing was a consensual participant in what they called a “throuple.” The Buttons also named Katz in their countersuit, claiming he had engaged in paying the dancer, Sage Humphries, $75,000 for sex at a time she was 17 and under the age of consent.

Katz’s reaction was swift. He denied the allegations, but admitted he paid Humphries $50,000 as part of a movie project proposal. Attorneys for Katz also provided proof that Humphries was 18 at the time of her association with the billionaire.

When Humphries’ age was affirmed, Randazza immediately moved to have Katz dropped from the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning that the element of the litigation could be reinstated at a later time. That wasn’t good enough for Katz, who hired – of all people – the tough guy former private eye Pellicano to soften up Randazza.

In a story first broken by Variety, Pellicano said his employment by Katz as a “negotiator” was strictly legal, which is refreshing coming from a guy with his felony record. He said he contacted Randazza and attempted to persuade him to dismiss the Katz allegation with prejudice, meaning it could never be refiled. Randazza refused and said Pellicano then alluded to the potential damaging exposure his clients might face, according to Variety.

Not only did Pellicano’s effort fail, it appears to have had the opposite effect on Randazza.

In a statement, Randazza said he had already withdrawn the claims and struck his pleadings, preserving the option to refile only as a hypothetical issue. He said he then issued a statement “to the effect that nobody should repeat the allegations we made, because we had withdrawn and repudiated them.

“It was over as far as my clients and Mr. Katz were concerned. Then we get a call from this petty criminal? From this guy who saw too many movies and wants to play the part of the tough guy, trying to influence how I defend my clients?

“That was the first thing that Katz did that I can say hurt my impression of him. If you hire a guy like that, what are you hiding? What are you afraid of? What are you thinking?

“So, I went from being conciliatory and apologetic to very curious. Very, very curious.”

Following a two-month trial, Pellicano was convicted in May 2008 of 76 counts of racketeering, wire fraud, identity theft, and wiretapping. Entertainment lawyer Terry Christiansen was also convicted of conspiring to wiretap the conversations of Las Vegas casino king Kirk Kerkorian’s former wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian as part of a child-support dispute.

Although the billionaire Kerkorian consistently denied that he knew his attorney Christensen had paid Pellicano to conduct the illegal wiretap, the judge in the criminal trial acknowledged that there was “reasonable cause to believe” that the casino man was complicit in their illegal conduct.

Back in 2008, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer filed an opinion that read in part, “Because the conversations are not privileged, the Court need not decide whether Kerkorian was complicit in the alleged illegal conduct. However, the communications themselves provide a reasonable cause to believe that he was.”

None of the Pellicano notoriety dissuaded Katz, who presumably has access to many attorneys, from hiring Pellicano to calling Randazza.

In the wake of the Variety article, I began hearing that Pellicano’s services were no longer desired by Katz. It seemed logical, all things considered. So, I called the former private investigator to the stars and asked him.

“I didn’t get bumped from any case,” Pellicano replied. “I’m still involved in the case. I never got bumped from any case, period.”

With Pellicano around the case, expect it to get curiouser and curiouser.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.