That is a good question to 'Brett Halsey'.If "Brett Halsey" is not a user mane we might have someone who has first hand knowledge of Columbo. Could be another Brett Halsey of course. Hopefully BH will respond.
About usernames - there are some good ones on this site.
In the Ellery Queen television series of the mid 70´s there are some common actors. Even that series was written by Levinson- Link so maybe that´s why.
Ida Lupino, Don Ameche, Mel Ferrer, Sal Mineo, Roddy McDowall and Ray Milland.
The most pesistent one was journalist Frank Flanagan ( Ken Swofford).
There was a "Frank Flanagan" even in one Columbo episode but Swofford didn´t
play that role.