Money talks louder than fame in U.S. celeb trials

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It seems prosecutors can't catch a break in convicting Hollywood stars who are tried for serious crimes, but legal experts said on Wednesday that money plays a bigger role than fame in securing their freedom.

The latest example came on Wednesday when a Los Angeles judge declared a mistrial in the murder case of famous music producer Phil Spector after a jury deadlocked 10-2 on whether he gunned down little-known actress Lana Clarkson.

Spector, 67, may have won the day in court, but prosecutors are vowing to retry the case, and legal experts said they have a good chance of winning a conviction in a second trial given that 10 jurors leaned toward guilt and only two for innocence.

"Of course you are going to retry, and they should under those circumstances," said Robert Philibosian, an attorney at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, a big law firm in Los Angeles.

Regardless of the eventual outcome, Spector's victory follows those of actor Robert Blake, pop singer Michael Jackson and football star O.J. Simpson as celebrities who, in a little over a decade, have escaped convictions in notorious criminal trials.

Like others, Philibosian said the money Spector made as a record producer for star clients like The Beatles and Cher was a key factor because he could hire top expert witnesses to challenge the prosecutors' claims.

"If this had been the owner of a very large development firm, he could do the same thing and nobody could know who he was," Philibosian said. "The defense, in this case, bought a lot of experts."

The winning defense argument seemed to hinge on whether Spector ever held the gun that shot Clarkson outside his home in February 2003, the experts said.