Legal News

Christensen, Pellicano convicted on two counts of wiretapping charges

By Jason Siegel

Terry Christensen, the lawyer who was accused of paying private investigator Anthony Pellicano to wiretap the phones of an opponent in a high-stakes divorce trial, was convicted on two counts of wiretapping charges.

A federal jury on Friday convicted Christensen, managing partner of Los Angeles-based Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro, of conspiracy to commit wiretapping and aiding and abetting a wiretap. The jury also convicted Pellicano on two counts of conspiracy to commit wiretapping and wiretapping.

The verdict comes about two days after jurors originally began deliberating and one day after U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer of the Central District of California removed one of those jurors, reportedly because he had questioned the law on which the charges were based.

"We think the jury got it wrong, we're disappointed," said Patricia Glaser, a partner at Christensen's firm who is representing him in the case. "We will, of course, be appealing, and we're going to fight this all the way." She said the removal of one of the jurors is among the "slew of appellate issues" in the case.

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 17.

"Terry Christensen is now a convicted felon," said Assistant U.S. Dan Saunders, lead prosecutor in the case. "Mr. Christensen's use of Anthony Pellicano to illegally wiretap his adversary in order to gain a strategic advantage in litigation was a stain on the entire legal community. We are grateful to the jury for helping eradicate that stain today."

Federal prosecutors had alleged that Christensen paid Pellicano more than $100,000 to wiretap the phones of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, the ex-wife of his client, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, during a child custody dispute in 2002.

Bonder Kerkorian had been seeking up to $320,000 per month in child support for her four-year-old daughter, Kira, who was born while the two were dating. They were married in 1999 for 28 days.

Pellicano was convicted earlier this year, in a separate trial, on 76 counts, including wiretapping and racketeering.

-- Amanda Bronstad

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 29, 2008 (boomark / email).