All Spector All The Time

As expected, the murder trial of producer Phil Spector has been nothing short of high theatre and a Los Angeles pastime.

There have been accusations of evidence tampering, a parade of women who claim they were threatened by Spector, testimony from his chauffeur and Spector himself pleading his case in the court of public opinion – all captured in daily blogs and reports by the Los Angeles Times.

Things got off to a bumpy start when the jury portion of the trial was placed on hold for a week after lead defense attorney Bruce Cutler called in sick April 30th. Judge Larry Paul Fidler ruled that the trial could continue on May 7th because Spector’s legal team was large enough that Cutler’s absence wouldn’t harm his defense.

While the jury trial was on hold, a separate hearing was conducted to address the prosecution’s allegations that the defense violated rules for sharing evidence when they didn’t disclose a key opinion from forensic expert Henry Lee. The prosecution sought to either block Lee’s testimony or advise the jury of the defense’s failure to disclose evidence in a timely manner.

During the hearing, accusations of evidence tampering that first arose three years ago resurfaced when several witnesses, including employees of Spector’s ex-lawyer Robert Shapiro, testified they saw Lee remove a mysterious "small piece of white material" from the crime scene, according to the Times. Judge Fidler declined to issue sanctions against the defense pending further hearings on the matter.

When the jury portion of the trial resumed the prosecution called four women – Dianne Ogden, Melissa Grosvenor, Dorothy Melvin and Stephanie Jennings – who all testified that Spector became abusive and threatened them with guns when his advances were spurned.

On cross examination, the defense tried to undermine the credibility of their accusations by pointing out that several of them continued relationships with Spector after the alleged incidents.

Defense attorneys also tried to call into question Grosvenor’s credibility by presenting her criminal history. Grosvenor told the court that she believes her sister Angela, whom defense attorneys may call to impeach her testimony, is a drug addict who is receiving money from Spector.

Kathy Sullivan, Spector’s companion on the night of actress Lana Clarkson’s death, testified he once brought out a gun to escort her and a female friend to her car after the pair spent the night at Spector’s home, but never threatened them.

The most substantial testimony so far has come from Adriano DeSouza, who was Spector’s chauffeur at the time of the murder. DeSouza told the jury that on the night of the murder Spector emerged from his house holding a gun and said, "I think I killed somebody."

The Brazilian chauffeur, whom the defense alleges has poor command of English, testified that he went to the door of the house and saw Clarkson lying on the floor. He said he was so frightened he got into Spector’s car and drove to the bottom of the driveway where he then called the producer’s assistant and 911. The jury had already heard DeSouza’s call to 911 operators.

Perhaps the strangest development so far may be a 2005 home video provided to "Inside Edition" by Spector’s former assistant in which he professes his innocence, offers $100,000 each to unnamed women to take lie detector tests to prove their claims he threatened them with a gun, and asserts he’s too short to have shot Clarkson in the mouth because he’s 5’5" and she was 6’2".

The trial is being broadcast live on television and over the Internet. It is expected to last three months.