Unable to find a trace of any intruder, Hillsborough sheriff's detectives became suspicious of her parents and obtained court orders to install listening devices in the couple's bedroom and kitchen. Taped conversations of the Aisenbergs purportedly talking about Sabrina's disappearance were later used to get extensions of the court-ordered surveillance. Sabrina is still missing and presumed by investigators to be dead. Comments on the surveillance tapes formed the basis for a grand jury indictment of the Aisenbergs on federal charges of conspiracy and making false statements. The couple have maintained their innocence and were back in court Monday, listening without a hint of emotion to tapes that prosecutors want to use to send them to federal prison.
Defense attorneys claim investigators misrepresented what the couple actually said on tape.
Monday, defense attorneys spent much of the morning trying to pick apart the credentials of Pellicano, the government expert who says the tapes are intelligible. Regarded as the celebrity's private eye, the Los Angeles-based Pellicano has testified as an audio expert in state and federal courts more than a hundred times. He analyzed the tape of the Kennedy assassination and the 18-minute gap in the Nixon tapes. But under persistent questioning, Pellicano acknowledged that he was a high school dropout who earned a GED while in the U.S. Army, and who has no college degree or formal training in engineering or mathematics. Defense attorney Todd Foster scoffed at Pellicano's assertion in ads and resumes that he is an expert in disciplines ranging from handwriting analysis to the art of finding missing persons.