Prosecutor gives closing arguments in wiretap case

LOS ANGELES

Tuesday, 26 August 2008 19:21:20

By LINDA DEUTSCH - AP Special Correspondent

A federal prosecutor claimed Tuesday that taped phone calls between Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano and a high-powered lawyer showed they were conducting illegal wiretaps, even though the alleged wiretapped recordings have never been found.

In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Saunders played a phone conversation for jurors in which Pellicano told attorney Terry Christensen that all the information he will be gathering will be kept between them. Christensen agreed.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Saunders said, "what you just heard was the birth of a conspiracy between two different men with a single desire _ to win."

He also called their actions a "shocking display of unmitigated greed and corruption."

The defendants are accused of recording phone conversations of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, former wife of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, in an effort to disprove her claims that the MGM mogul was the father of her young daughter.

Saunders claimed oblique references by Pellicano to Christensen mentioning statements Lisa Bonder Kerkorian made only in private to friends and associates showed that she was being wiretapped.

While old-fashioned private eyes pounded the pavement for information, Pellicano "sat in his office and listened to wiretaps," Saunders said.

Prosecutors allege Christensen paid Pellicano $25,000 up front and promised $100,000 more if he could identify the true father of the girl. DNA tests later showed movie producer Steve Bing was the biological father.

In a separate case earlier this year, Pellicano, 64, was convicted of illegal wiretapping and racketeering.

Closing arguments by the defense were expected later in the day.