LOS ANGELES  —  A private investigator has dropped a lawsuit claiming Joe Pesci owed him $103,000 for services performed after the "Goodfellas" star's ex-wife was accused of hiring a hit man, Pesci's lawyer said Tuesday.

John Perry dropped the fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuit on Monday, a day before a scheduled court hearing on defense motions to dismiss the case, Pesci attorney Caryn Brottman Sanders said.

"He's happy he doesn't have to deal with it anymore," Sanders said of Pesci. "The legal arguments didn't make any sense, and the factual arguments maybe even less so."

A call by The Associated Press seeking comment from Perry's lawyer, Paul N. Taylor, was not returned.

Pesci won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role as a psychotic gangster in 1991's "Goodfellas."

Perry sued Pesci on Sept. 25 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming that Pesci hired him after Pesci's former wife, Claudia Haro, was accused of hiring someone to shoot her then-husband, Garrett Warren.

Warren was shot four times outside his California home in 2000 but survived. Haro was arrested two years ago and is awaiting trial in Los Angeles County on charges of conspiracy and attempted murder.