Did Lawyer in Wiretap Case Hear Opposing Counsel's Talks With Client?
Ever wanted to listen in as a divorce lawyer talks with a high-profile client?
A trial memo filed yesterday by federal prosecutors in the wiretapping case against attorney Terry Christensen suggests that his trial may offer the next-best opportunity. It says former private investigator to the stars Anthony Pellicano allegedly accessed, by wiretapping at Christensen’s behest, conversations of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian with her counsel about a hotly contested child support case, reports the National Law Journal.
The memo says Christensen, through Pellicano, “obtained conversations between his opponent and her lawyers, including her lawyer’s legal strategy in her upcoming deposition and her settlement proposals,” as the legal publication puts it.
However, Mike Sitrick, a spokesman for Christensen, says the memo makes clear that the prosecution doesn’t have any actual tape of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian being wiretapped. And, he predicts, neither Pellicano nor the alleged wiretap victim, who is the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, will make a persuasive witness in the trial in which jury selection was scheduled to start today.
What Pellicano, who is a co-defendant in the trial with Christensen, did tape, acccording to prosecutors, however, was 34 of his conversations with Christensen, the former managing partner of Los Angeles-based Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro, the NLJ reports.
In these taped conversations, Christensen and Pellicano allegedly talk about details of their wiretapping plan, and what Lisa Kerkorian was being told by her counsel. At one point, the memo says, Christensen referred to opposing counsel as “the greediest piece of garbage that ever lived.”
Additional coverage:
Rush & Molloy (N.Y. Daily News): “Anthony Pellicano’s trying times”
Los Angeles Business Journal: “Christensen Still Brokering Power”
ABAJournal.com: “As Lawyer Faces Trial in Wiretap Case, Others Advised to Watch PIs”
ABAJournal.com: “PI-to-Stars Anthony Pellicano Guilty in Dirty-Tricks Litigation Case”
