Spector Attorney Juggles Court, TV Show
The Phil Spector trial is back on track after more than a week of vacation. But one key player is missing. Only in Hollywood would a defense attorney take a break from a murder trial for his own celebrity court show.
With his dramatic style, defense attorney Bruce Cutler stole the show at Spector's murder trial. But now Cutler, who defended mob boss John Gotti, is off taping a reality TV show called "Jury Duty" where he plays the judge and celebrities play jurors in real cases.
"If it's unanimous they rule," he told The Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman. "If they can't agree then I decide."
But critics say that it's highly unusually for a defense attorney to leave a trial for so long and for this reason.
"This is absolutely unbelievable. It's unprecedented for a lead attorney to walk out of a court room and walk on to a television set to tape a legal television show in the middle of a murder trial," CBS News consultant Trent Copeland said. "It just doesn't happen."Photos: The Spector Trial
But the trial has been straight out of Hollywood from the beginning. Spector, a former star producer, has sported an array of odd hairdos to his trial in the murder case of would-be star Lana Clarkson. Jurors are still waiting to hear from another celebrity of sorts: famed criminologist Henry Lee who should take the stand next week.
But at the same time, the trial could be launching a new star in Cutler. Among the celebrity jurors on Cutler's show will be Phyllis Diller and Dick van Patten.
"It's a chance of a lifetime and I have a real nice time, and I find it challenging inspirational motivational and educational and I just hope I'm equal to the task really," Cutler said.
Cutler says he's still involved in every aspect of Spector's defense.
"Everybody understands that the real trial that I'm enmeshed in, that I'm involved in, that I'm embroiled in, comes first but this comes as a good time to everybody," he said. "I'm able to do this and still able to come back to court and fight the fight."
Cutler says the other lawyers on the defense team are very competent and the team is "multi-layered." But the Spector team suffered a set back recently. The judge ruled that a security guard can testify about damaging remarks he heard Spector make at a party a decade ago. But the defense has only just begun and, Cutler says, he will return.
"The jurors will know from me that I was on a mission and I didn't miss a second of testimony, not a scintilla of evidence did I miss," he said. "And they'll know that when I sum up so that's how I'll handle that — tell them the truth."