Legal News

Reintroducing? L?Affaire Pellicano!

By Dan Slater

Remember 2006? The Republicans controlled Congress, the Red Sox weren’t yet a dynasty, and the Law Blog wrote quite a bit about a wiretapping case involving an L.A.-based celebrity sleuth named Anthony Pellicano. Well, it’s been a while, but the case is heating up, with a criminal trial against Pellicano and five co-defendants slated to start on February 27.

The quick and dirty: Anthony Pellicano was indicted for allegedly illegally wiretapping the phones of several folks connected to the Hollywood celebrity world, including Sylvester Stallone. High-profile lawyer Bert Fields has been linked to Pellicano, but in the world of prominent Hollywood lawyers, only Terry Christensen has been indicted. Christensen, a partner at Los Angeles-based Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro, was accused of paying at least $100,000 to Pellicano to wiretap the phones of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, in a high-profile child custody dispute in 2002. Click here for our previous posts on the matter.

Now, there are two new developments in the case. Yesterday, Christensen tried to replace his lawyer, Winston & Strawn’s super-litigator Dan Webb, with Patricia Glaser, one of Christensen’s own law firm partners at Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro. In reponse, prosecutors filed a motion to disqualify Glaser, calling Christensen’s move a ploy to prevent Glaser, who last month received a government subpoena, from testifying in the case.

Also U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer rejected a motion yesterday to dismiss the charges against Christensen based on a claim that audio recordings found in Christensen’s office, which contained a conversation between Christensen and Pellicano, were seized illegally. In addition, Judge Fischer rejected a request by Christensen and Pellicano to conduct a Franks hearing in relation to a search warrant.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 08, 2008 (boomark / email).