L.A. lawyer Terry Christensen to be tried separately from Pellicano

The decision by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer removes the only marquee name from the list of defendants in the long-awaited trial, which is set to start Feb. 27.

"We are very pleased with the decision," attorney Terree Bowers said outside the courtroom, standing next to a beaming Christensen. "We have said for a while that he should not be [prosecuted] with the other people and we are grateful that the court has agreed."

Prosecutors had no comment on the judge's ruling, one of just a few to go against the government in the case.

The Pellicano investigation, with its hints of celebrity secrets and skullduggery in executive suites, has long riveted Los Angeles' legal and entertainment circles. Christensen, 67, was one of more than a dozen people charged in an FBI probe -- into the alleged bribery of law enforcement officers, high-tech eavesdropping, blackmail, witness intimidation and other bids to corrupt the judicial system -- that has centered on investigator-to-the-stars Pellicano.

Christensen is accused of paying Pellicano $100,000 to wiretap the former wife of Christensen's longtime client, Kirk Kerkorian, to gain a tactical edge in a bitter child-support case between the billionaire investor and his wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian.

Christensen had long helped Kerkorian, one of the nation's richest people and a Hollywood fixture for more than 30 years, oversee a vast empire that includes the MGM Grand and Bellagio hotels and, until last year, the MGM studio.

According to the indictment, the wiretapping of Lisa Kerkorian began March 15, 2002, when an attorney called Pellicano and told him to contact Christensen about "going after" the wife's attorney in the child-custody dispute. During snippets of alleged conversations included in the indictment, Pellicano alluded to eavesdropping on conversations between Lisa Kerkorian and her attorneys that could help Christensen with a court hearing. Pellicano also told Christensen to "be careful" about the information he was receiving from the private eye because "there is only one way for me to know this," the indictment said.