Reaching for the first time into the upper ranks of Hollywood's legal establishment, the federal grand jury investigating private eye Anthony Pellicano indicted prominent Los Angeles entertainment attorney Terry N. Christensen on Wednesday for allegedly having the ex-wife of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian wiretapped.
Christensen paid Pellicano $100,000 to listen in on Lisa Bonder Kerkorian's phone calls to her attorneys and to share the information with Christensen, Kerkorian's longtime lawyer and business partner, to give him a tactical edge in a bitter child support case in 2002, the grand jury alleged.
The indictment, which also charges Pellicano with two new counts of conspiracy and wiretapping, quotes liberally from extended taped conversations prosecutors have seized from the private detective's files. "There is no way, except with my unique techniques, that you would know this," Pellicano told Christensen as they discussed a wiretap April 27, 2002, the indictment alleges.
Christensen, 65, is one of a dozen people who have been charged so far in an ever-broadening FBI probe into the alleged bribery of law enforcement officers, high-tech eavesdropping, blackmail, witness intimidation and other bids to corrupt the judicial system. The inquiry began more than three years ago, but sources said Christensen was only notified in the last month that he was a target.
In an indictment last week, Pellicano was accused of wiretapping or conducting illegal background checks on dozens of celebrities and business executives, including actor Sylvester Stallone, comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, and real estate developer Robert Maguire. Pellicano has pleaded not guilty and is being held in federal custody without bond.
Christensen, best known as lawyer for Kerkorian, one of the nation's richest people and a Hollywood fixture for more than 30 years, has helped the enigmatic billionaire oversee a vast empire that includes the MGM Grand and Bellagio hotels and, until last year, the MGM studio.
The attorney has been at the center of other nasty Hollywood fights, including producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters' dispute with Warner Bros. that led to their hiring by Columbia Pictures.
The Pellicano investigation, with its hints of celebrity secrets and skulduggery in executive suites, has long concerned Los Angeles' legal and entertainment circles. But the Christensen indictment brings the Hollywood angle into sharper focus.
