LOS ANGELES — An angry judge castigated Phil Spector's defense team Tuesday for what he said was "tactical, knowing" misconduct involving a new theory of an actress's death developed by a key defense expert witness, the renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler said the music legend's defense had purposefully concealed the theory, which offers an innocuous explanation for blood on Spector's clothing, until Baden revealed it to jurors on the witness stand, taking the prosecution by surprise. The law requires both sides to notify each other of evidence in advance.

"I want to make it very clear there is a deliberate and knowing violation of discovery," Fidler told the lawyers.

Fidler interrupted Baden's much-anticipated testimony soon after he laid out the new theory and held a special hearing outside the presence of jurors. The judge precluded the defense from questioning the expert further about the theory, which holds that Lana Clarkson survived a gunshot wound for several minutes.

His condemnation of Spector's legal team was heightened by the fact that Baden's wife, Linda Kenney-Baden, is one of the defense attorneys. Kenney-Baden has been ill for two weeks and was not in court Tuesday.

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Fidler indicated he may sanction the defense by giving a special jury instruction detailing their violation. He said he will reserve the decision until the completion of the pathologist's testimony. (VIDEO)

"Right now, you are not going to discuss this with Dr. Baden while I decide what to do," the judge said.

Spector, 67, who had dozed off and on through the first part of Baden's testimony, sat attentively as the frustrated judge interrogated his lawyers about the new theory.

"When there are allegations of misconduct, I will get to the bottom of it and no one will stop me," Fidler thundered.

Spector's defense has presented several different explanations of the tiny spots of blood on an evening jacket the producer wore the night Clarkson was shot to death in his foyer. Previously, they have posited the blood traveled 6 or 7 feet from the wound and struck Spector across the room, or that it splashed onto his jacket after the shooting as blood dripped from Clarkson's head.

Prosecutors insist it is evidence that he was standing close to Clarkson holding the gun in her mouth when it went off.

Baden testified Tuesday that the bullet may have only partially cut Clarkson's spinal cord, not completely severed it, as other pathologists have testified. He said such an injury would allow her to live for several minutes, during which time she could cough up blood.

After jurors were sent out of the courtroom, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson accused the defense of sandbagging the prosecution in the final week of testimony in the four-month trial with a previously undisclosed theory to explain the blood.

"It's very clear why they wanted Dr. Baden to testify," said Jackson, adding, "Now they have brought Lana Clarkson back to life through his testimony. ... They were getting nowhere closer to Lana Clarkson coughing on Phil Spector ... lo and behold, [Baden] blurts it out."