Pop music's Pearlman informant in cop slay

ORLANDO, Fla., July 30 (UPI) -- Pop music impresario Lou Pearlman was a jailhouse informant against an alleged Florida cop killer, newly released police records indicate.

Pearlman reportedly told prosecutors about statements made in the Orange County Jail by inmate Davin Smith, who is awaiting trial for the shooting death of an off-duty Orlando police officer last fall.

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel said Wednesday that Pearlman, who founded the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, told Orange County sheriff's deputies that he heard Smith boast that he and accomplice Hugo Terry shot Officer Alfred Gordon during an attempted robbery at a bank ATM machine in Pine Hills.

The newspaper said Pearlman provided investigators with handwritten notes of the reputed conversations and a diagram of the jail unit where they took place.

Pearlman has been moved to a federal prison in Atlanta to serve his 25-year sentence for a $300 million fraud case in which he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements charges.