LOS ANGELES — The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial said Wednesday that he had concluded Dr. Henry Lee, a defense expert and one of the country's most famous forensic scientists, hid or destroyed a piece of evidence from the scene of an actress's shooting.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler said Spector's defense can still call Lee as a witness, but prosecutors will be permitted to present evidence to the jury that Lee found potentially important evidence and failed to turn it over to the prosecution as the law requires. (VIDEO)

Prosecutors claim the small white object is a piece of a fake fingernail belonging to the alleged victim, Lana Clarkson, and that if it is found, it could firmly establish that she did not commit suicide, as the defense alleged.

In his ruling, the judge said he could not say it was a fingernail, but "it was the size of a fingernail."

Fidler's decision was the culmination of six days of hearings in which a half-dozen former and current members of Spector's defense team, including Lee, testified about a search of Spector's mansion conducted after a sheriff's department crime scene unit had collected evidence from the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting.

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In his ruling, Fidler indicated that he believed Lee had lied under oath. He specifically cited the conflict between Lee's testimony that he had never collected the item in question and the account of a former defense attorney, Sara Caplan, who said she saw him place such an object in a clear vial.

The judge acknowledged that Lee was a "world-renowned expert," but said he found Caplan "very credible."

"If I have to choose between the two, I am going to choose Ms. Caplan, is more credible than Dr. Lee," he said, adding, "Dr. Lee has a lot to lose if this turns out to be true."

Outside the courtroom, a lawyer for Spector, Christopher Plourd, said the defense plans to put Lee on the stand.

"The jury can hear about that," he said, referring to the piece of evidence.

Lee, the chief emeritus of the Connecticut State Police, is a critically important witness for Spector. He was hired by Spector's defense the day of the shooting as a private expert and is to testify that blood spatter on Spector's jacket indicate he was across the room from Clarkson when the gun went off.

Spector, 67, is charged with murdering the 40-year-old Clarkson and faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

During the hearing, the judge heard three different accounts of the recovery of a small piece of white evidence during the defense search Feb. 4, 2003.

A former law clerk for the defense said he saw Dr. Michael Baden, the pathologist, find what was identified as a tooth fragment. A private investigator said he saw Lee recover what seemed to be a fingernail fragment that was stained with blood and lead from a bullet. Caplan testified that she pointed out to Lee a flat, white object the size of her fingernail, but did not see what became of it after he put it in a vial.

"Basically what you have is the judicial version of the famed Japanese movie 'Rashomon,'" Fidler said, referring to the film that shows a murder as seen through the eyes of different characters. "Every perspective is different."

The judge said he did not find the clerk, Gregory Diamond, credible because of his hesitant manner on the stand and because he was the only one who connected Baden to the evidence.

Looking directly at Baden's wife, defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden, the judge said he found no evidence the pathologist had done anything improper.