Bruce Cutler Legs It From Phil Spector Murder Trial

When his murder case finally went to court, Phil Spector always had an ace up his billowy, slightly effeminate sleeve - Bruce Cutler, his theatrical foghorn of a lead defence attorney; except that's what Bruce Cutler isn't any more.

With testimony in the Phil Spector murder trial in its dying gasps, Bruce Cutler has suddenly decided to quit Phil Spector's defence team. Although the official reasons that have been given include Bruce Cutler disagreeing about Phil Spector's closing argument and Cutler wanting to dedicate more of his time to his new TV show, it's equally likely that Bruce Cutler left Phil Spector's side because he was either burnt up with jealousy over Phil Spector's gloriously Sapphic haircut or because he wanted to get as far away from Phil Spector as humanly possible when Phil invariably gets found guilty of murdering Lana Clarkson so people will still want him to be their lawyer.  One or the other. Possibly.

There were a couple of reasons why the Phil Spector murder trial was so highly anticipated before it started - 1) hey, who doesn't like murder? and 2) Bruce Cutler. Phil Spector hired Bruce Cutler because of his reputation as the earthquake-loud lawyer whose pain-inducingly aggressive cross-examining tendencies had previously got mobster John Gotti acquitted. And if he could do that for a notorious organised crime boss, imagine what he could do for a little old man in a lesbian wig who might have shot a woman who was depressed enough to shoot herself anyway.

But although they worked together for four years before the Phil Spector murder trial went to court, cracks immediately appeared between Bruce and Spector. Following Bruce Cutler's opening statement, Cutler was only allowed to cross examine one witness, and that ended with the judge constantly nagging him about his absurdly overwrought manner. Following that Bruce Cutler got ill, had the Phil Spector murder trial delayed while get got better and then didn't do anything anyway, except sneak off a few weeks in to make his own TV show. And now the inevitable has happened - Bruce Cutler has left Phil Spector's defence, as E! Online reports:

Bruce Cutler, the so-billed lead attorney on Spector's defense team who was frequently MIA from the criminal proceedings, has resigned his post, citing a difference of opinion on the team's closing-argument strategy in the legendary producer's murder trial. In Los Angeles Superior Court Monday, the final day of testimony in the long-gestating trial, Cutler told Judge Larry Paul Fidler: "There's nothing I can do for Mr. Spector. I can no longer effectively represent him." When Fidler asked Spector whether he concurred with Cutler's last-minute stepping down, Spector replied, "That is correct."

However, Bruce Cutler did hint that he might possibly be back in court to give the closing statement for the defence next week, and that might not be such a bad idea. Since the Phil Spector murder trial has become so hopelessly one-sided that the defence has now been forced to discuss the intricacies of the French revolution in court, maybe only Bruce Cutler can step in and save things for Phil Spector. After all, if a giant bald man bellowing about what a tiny wussbag Phil Spector is can't make people think Phil Spector is innocent, then what can?

Read more:

Spector Attorney's Reality Checkmate - E! Online