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Spector's lawyer a specter Cutler away from trial taping a TV show

ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 5, 2007

Associated Press Lead defense attorney Bruce Cutler was at the opening of the murder trial of his client, record producer Phil Spector, but has been away for much of the time taping a courtroom TV show.

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LOS ANGELES

Just when we thought we had seen it all in celebrity trials, Phil Spector's bombastic lead attorney has decided the record producer's murder case can continue just fine without jurors seeing one key element — himself.

Bruce Cutler, the New York lawyer who opened the proceedings in April as the star performer, has taken time out from the 10-week-old trial to film a new courtroom TV show, "Jury Duty."

Promotional clips from the show's Web site depict people pleading their small-claims cases to "Judge Cutler" and a jury of three celebrities. If the celebrities — producers promise appearances by Phyllis Diller, Dick Van Patten and assorted lesser lights — can't decide the case, "Judge Cutler will render the verdict."

On Monday, Mr. Cutler vowed to deliver the closing argument in the Spector trial even though he will not have been in court for much of the defense case. He said he has been watching the trial on TV and reading transcripts of testimony.

"I'm not doing it to deprecate the significance of the case," Mr. Cutler said. "I don't need to be there every day."

He might not be breaking any ethical rules by taping the show during the trial, but "it's certainly unorthodox," Loyola University Law School professor Laurie Levenson said.

"The ethical question is, 'Can he still reach the level of competence needed to represent a client on a murder charge?' " Miss Levenson said. "If he's superlawyer and he can do it, he won't be violating ethics, but he certainly will raise some eyebrows."

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