WWW – MOVIE producer Jules Nasso wants his jail sentence reduced because, he claims, he helped the FBI probe the frightening threats made toward reporters covering his feud with Steven Seagal.
Nasso – who was sentenced to 366 days in jail earlier this year after pleading guilty to the charge that he tried to extort money from Seagal on every movie they made together – has filed a motion in federal court asking to get out early because he provided information about a suspect in an assault on Vanity Fair scribe Ned Zeman.
Both Zeman and Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch were threatened while covering the extortion case.
In 2002, Busch, who was working on an unflattering story about Seagal, found her windshield broken and a package containing a dead fish with a rose in it’s mouth.
A cardboard sign with the word “stop” was put on the car.
Two months later, Zeman told police, a driver pulled up alongside him, pointed a gun at him, pulled the trigger and said, “Stop.”
Included in Nasso’s motion was a sworn statement submitted by private investigator Andrew D. Catalan that described his meeting with FBI special agent Stan Ornellas, who was probing the Zeman assault.
Catalan told the FBI agent that he had received “strong information” from an informant who claimed that one of the men in the car that menaced Zeman was John Christian Rottger, a burly former Navy SEAL who has played bit parts in some of Seagal’s movies.
“Mr. Rottger was known to be into guns, and always willing to do anything for Seagal,” Catalan stated.
Rottger’s name was mentioned in a search warrant executed on the home of private eye Anthony Pellicano, who is alleged to have hired an ex-convict, Alexander Proctor, to threaten Busch. Pellicano ended up being arrested for having explosives and unregistered firearms in his office.
Proctor was later busted by the FBI, but the Zeman case remains unsolved. Seagal’s lawyers vehemently deny that the former action hero was behind the threats.
While Nasso lawyer Robert Hantman declined comment on the court filings – which have not swayed the government to cut the jailed producer’s sentence – he did tell PAGE SIX that the battle isn’t over yet.
Hantman recently deposed Seagal’s money manager Robert Harabedian and former entertainment lawyer Craig Emanuel for a civil suit against Seagal.