The last few days of this case were almost like an episode of Benny Hill, and I cannot be the only who feels this way…this would have been at least a “hung jury.” I have received dozens of phone calls as to what I feel now as to my being wrong as to the guilty verdict. Sorry I am not going to apologize to anyone in what I feel was the tone and look of the jury. Is it my fault that the one person who would not be swayed was kicked off the jury? How about jury misconduct? Juror #7 was young, perhaps a little off on his comments, but he was not going to find Christensen guilty! And Team “Get me out of here in time for the weekend” was not going to be coming back to discuss this case any further after today, hell half of them had reservations at Subway.
First day of “In theJury Room,” maybe 1.50 hours and it is “send help,” we have a juror who won/t conform! Day 2,Team “get me out of here” gets #7 booted at about 10 AM and the alternate is brought in, done at 2PM. NOTE: DID ANYONE ELSE SEE HIM PAT THE SHOULDER OF JUROR #9 AS HE WALKED PAST HER? (#9 being a member of Team “get me out of here”). Ok, Day 3, it is not even 10ish and we have a verdict! What kind of review of the evidence did this group of Mr. Christensen’s “peers” do? By my estimate this jury spent less than 7 hours coming to their verdict…and don’t anyone tell me that the activity of Day 1 and Day 2 did not have an impact on all of them, I say it had a great deal, and what about the “alliance?”
My position on this case is very clear, if they convicted Terry Christensen, why not all of the others? However the comments from the legal community are just full of bad words and dagger throwing towards this man and the firm he founded.
I spoke to a number of lawyers and most had very similar responses and one who shared his thoughts with me as follows, “a more miserable bunch could not be found who work for the Terry Christensen firm, they are mean-spirited and ruthless, justice was served” — but then he said, “there is a part of me that feels terrible for Terry and his family.”
Beverly Hills lawyer Cary W. Goldstein had this to say “Hmmm, maybe Christensen wasn’t the lawyer his clients thought he was. He cheated, he had a criminal working for him as a part of his crew. Unfortunately, this was only a warning to the rich, famous and powerful, as well as to their lawyers, that this will no longer be tolerated. Let’s see how successful these egomaniacal dirt bags are at beating up the underdog now. Patty Glaser could not save Terry’s ass because she didn’t have Pellicano’s help. It’s unfortunate that his clients and other lawyers didn’t go down with him!” Note: Pellicano was not convicted of anything when he was working for Mr. Christensen…though he certainly has a very long list of convictions now.
Stephen Kolodny, esquire did not return my phone call for a comment…and on second thought who cares what he thinks?! He was probably busy looking for a snack…I am sure all that jumping up and down after hearing the verdict made him hungry!
Jeff Sklan, a criminal defense attorney in Beverly Hills and I were discussing the jailhouse couture that the Pelican insisted on wearing during his first trial and at this trial — Jeff thought “this is not New Jersey, where that outfit would be a badge of honor.”
Again as brilliant as Anthony Pellicano was at recording devices and their design, he was just as ignorant on how to present himself in good light when it was important. The final blow to Terry Christensen was having this arrogant fool sit only a few feet from him. Every time the jury looked at the well-dressed Terry Christensen they saw the Pelican first, like an albatross around his neck, all dressed in his nice neat prison inmate uniform and his nice little white shoes…oh, and the two U.S. Marshals assigned to “bird watch.”