A former Hollywood private investigator and an entertainment lawyer were
convicted Friday of wiretapping and conspiracy charges for bugging the phones of
a Los Angeles billionaire's ex-wife during a child support dispute.
Anthony Pellicano and Terry Christensen, both 64, face up to 10 years in
federal prison and 500,000 dollars in fines each when they are sentenced in
November by a judge.
Neither defendant showed any reaction to the jury's decision on the
high-profile case when the verdicts were announced.
Pellicano and Christensen were each convicted of conspiracy to commit
wiretapping. Pellicano was also convicted of wiretapping and Christensen was
convicted of aiding and abetting a wiretap.
An attorney for the defendants' side said they are going to appealing the
verdict and fight the case all the way.
During 20 days of trial testimony, persecutors argued that Pellicano and
Christensen conspired to illegally bug the telephones of billionaire Kirk
Kerkorian's ex-wife, Lisa Bonder, who was entangled in a bitter child support
dispute in 2002 with Kerkorian.