Phil Spector Arrested in Homicide

[Claudia]

Rock music impresario Phil Spector in custody in L.A. homicide
Monday, February 3, 2003 Posted: 2:37 PM EST (1937 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Music industry mogul Phil Spector was arrested Monday for investigation of homicide after the body of a woman was found at a home in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Alhambra, California, police received a 911 call at 5 a.m. (8 a.m. EST). Officers responded to the house near the intersection of Grandview and Valley. At the scene police found one woman dead and took Spector into custody.

The sheriff's department said it considers Spector a suspect in the case.

Spector worked with such artists as the Beatles, The Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner. His work produced some of rock's best loved music.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, Spector created the "Wall of Sound" effect that involved overdubbing scores of musicians to create a massive roar, which changed the way pop records were produced.

Among his session players known as the "Wrecking Crew" were guitarist Glen Campbell, pianist Leon Russell, drummer Hal Blaine and the late Sonny Bono, who learned the producer's trade under Spector.

Spector produced a string of '60s hits, including the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and "Walking in the Rain," and Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and "(Today I Met) the Boy I'm Gonna Marry."

Spector married Ronnie Bennett, a member of the Ronettes. They divorced in 1974. He has five children.

Spector's father, Benjamin, committed suicide in 1949. Spector later visited the grave and used the inscription "To Know Him Was to Love Him" as the basis for a hit song.

Spector's last major album was "End of the Century," a 1980 collaboration with the Ramones. During the session, the late bassist Dee Dee Ramone said Spector pulled a gun on the band.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/03/spector.arrest/index.html

[La Diablesa]

:shocked:


:devil:

[SHANIANUTS!]

In October, New York's state Supreme Court threw out a $3 million award against Spector in a lawsuit filed by his ex-wife and the other two members of the Ronettes, seeking royalties for the sale of their recordings for use in movies and commercials.

-- CNN Producer Michelle Harrosh contributed to this report.




In reviewing link I noted last paragraph of the article was cut off in post # 1 and I included it herein. (This was the last time I heard any news of Spector - he is like Mutt Lange in that he abhors publicity and is a legendary producer.)

This is very interesting - I wonder who the dead woman is.

Spector is a mega legend in rock. What a remarkable piece of news.

[Claudia]

Billboard is reporting he's being held on $1 million dollars bail on first degree murder charges. Woman hasn't yet been identified.

[SHANIANUTS!]

How ironic it is for this to happen on this date! (See The Day The Music Died thread here).

[Marine]

ALHAMBRA, CA-February 3, 2003 — Authorities say record producer Phil Spector has been arrested for allegedly killing a woman.
The Los Angeles County sheriff's department says the Hall of Fame music producer was arrested at a house early today in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra. The woman's body was found at the scene.

In his legendary career, Spector produced such music greats as Tina Turner and the Ramones.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, Spector produced records for the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and the Crystals. He created the "Wall of Sound" effect that involved overdubbing scores of musicians to create a massive roar, which changed the way pop records were produced.

Among his session players, known as the "Wrecking Crew," were guitarist Glen Campbell, pianist Leon Russell, drummer Hal Blaine and the late Sonny Bono, who learned the producer's trade under Spector.

Spector produced a string of '60s hits, including the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and "Walking in the Rain," and Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and "(Today I Met) the Boy I'm Gonna Marry."


Spector married Ronnie Bennett, a member of the Ronettes. They divorced in 1974. He has five children.

Spector's father, Benjamin, committed suicide in 1949. Spector later visited the grave and used the inscription "To Know Him Was to Love Him" as the basis for a hit song.

Spector's last major album was "End of the Century," a 1980 collaboration with the Ramones. During the session, the late bassist Dee Dee Ramone said Spector pulled a gun on the band.



http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/02032003_ent_spector.html

[WHEN]

Wow....

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/kr/20030204/lo_krnewyork/nab_spector_in_murder_of_b_movie_star
Local - New York Daily News

Nab Spector in murder of B-movie star
2 hours, 3 minutes ago Add Local - New York Daily News to My Yahoo!

By BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Fabled rock 'n' roll music impresario Phil Spector was busted on first-degree murder charges yesterday after police found a dead woman in his Southern California mansion.

Police identified the victim last night as Lana Clarkson, 40, of Los Angeles, who sources said worked as an actress.

They said Clarkson had small roles in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" with Sean Penn and "Scarface" with Al Pacino, but more recently made a living playing Xena-like warrior women in such B-flicks as "Barbarian Queen" and "Amazon Woman on the Moon."

Although Spector was accused of shooting Clarkson, no motive was given.

"She was pronounced dead at the scene, and suspect Phillip Spector ... was taken into custody," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Faye Bugarin.

The 62-year-old eccentric and often reclusive hit maker had a volatile temper and a history of pulling pistols on the likes of John Lennon and the Ramones.

Bugarin said cops received a 911 call at 5 a.m. local time from Spector's 10-bedroom Pyrenees Castle in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra.

Officers entered the sprawling hilltop home and found the woman lying in the foyer in a pool of blood. A gun believed used in the slaying was found nearby. By nightfall, Spector posted $1 million bail and was released.

The 5-foot-7 rock 'n' roll Hall of Famer hired celebrity defense lawyer Robert Shapiro, whose clients have included O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson, to represent him. Shapiro declined to comment last night.

Lawyer Marvin Mitchelson told the Daily News: "I just heard, and I'm in shock. He's my best friend, and I'm shattered."

Mitchelson said he last communicated with Spector by E-mail on Friday. "His mental state has been great ? very rational, very together," he said.

He said Spector, who has been married twice, lives alone and does not have a girlfriend.

Pioneer sound


The Bronx-born Spector co-wrote such standards as The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron," The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."

Spector created the revolutionary "wall of sound" effect that involved overdubbing scores of musicians to create a full, dramatic sound. He used the technique while producing such mega-selling albums as John Lennon's "Imagine" and the last Beatles album, "Let it Be."

Neighbors reported hearing dogs barking about the time of the 911 call, but no one reported hearing gunshots. Police said they were quizzing witnesses in the mansion at the time of the shooting.

Dee Dee Ramone, the late bass player for the Ramones, once said Spector pulled a gun on the band during a recording session. But yesterday, the band's drummer, Marky Ramone, said Spector "wouldn't hurt a fly."

"I don't think Phil had it in him to murder anybody," Ramone told Fox News Channel.

Although he was known as a genius in the studio, Spector also was accused of being an out-of-control party boy and a cheat.

The Ronettes, which included his ex-wife Ronnie Greenfield, sued Spector for allegedly cheating them out of royalties.

Hit songs co-written by Phil Spector include: "To Know Him Is to Love Him," performed by Phil Spector and the Teddy Bears "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," performed by The Crystals "Spanish Harlem," performed by Ben E. King "Be My Baby," performed by The Ronettes "You?ve Lost That Lovin? Feelin?," performed by The Righteous Brothers "River Deep - Mountain High," performed by Ike and Tina Turner. Hit songs and albums produced by Spector include: "I Love How You Love Me" by the Paris Sisters "Instant Karma" by John Lennon "Let It Be" by The Beatles "Imagine" by John Lennon "End of the Century" by the Ramones Originally published on February 4, 2003

[SHANIANUTS!]

Claudia posted this as a Music Forum thread yesterday at 2:44 PM.

http://www.shaniaforums.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=279665#post279665

[Marine]

Oops.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/fashion/09SPEC.html?tntemail1

This Is Your Life, Phil Spector. Phil?
By RICK LYMAN

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7 — Endings are always tough.

Tom Cruise spent hours with the legendary rock 'n' roll producer Phil Spector a few years ago, listening to stories about the old days and soaking up the Spector accent and body language. But when he and the writer and director Cameron Crowe got down to work on a movie about Mr. Spector's life, they couldn't quite figure out how to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

"There never really was a finished script," said Pat Kingsley, Mr. Cruise's longtime publicist. "They did some work on the story, but could never decide where it should end."

Marvin Mitchelson, a powerful Los Angeles lawyer who is a longtime friend of Mr. Spector, picked up the movie project after Mr. Cruise had shifted his attention to more promising projects like "Minority Report," which came out last year, and "The Last Samurai," a historical drama set in 19th-century Japan that he is filming in New Zealand.

"Phil wasn't all that pleased with what Tom and Cameron had done," Mr. Mitchelson said. "So he and I started talking about ways to revive the movie idea, and we really thought we'd come up with a terrific way to end it — until what happened this week."

What happened, of course, was a kind of movie in itself, but not the rousing story that Mr. Cruise and Mr. Spector envisioned when the notion was first floated back in 1997.

Last Monday, the police arrived at Mr. Spector's hilltop castle in the suburb of Alhambra to find Mr. Spector, a handgun and — sprawled face-down in the foyer — the dead body of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actress with a string of television guest spots and B-movie credits. Mr. Spector, 62, was charged with first-degree murder and released on $1 million bail. At week's end, the police remained at a loss for a motive in the killing.

Oh, the trials of a biopic. In 1997, Mr. Cruise was fresh from what was perhaps his greatest critical triumph, "Jerry Maguire," written and directed by Mr. Crowe. He was apparently in the mood to make a biographical film; trade press articles that year linked him with plans for a movie about Houdini. It was then that he began to circle around the idea of doing a movie about Mr. Spector, one of his pop music idols.

Mr. Crowe, who had been a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine before becoming a screenwriter and a director, was a natural choice as a collaborator. The Hollywood trade papers said in 1998 that the two were working on the project and that it had found a home at Universal Pictures, although both Ms. Kingsley and studio representatives said that no final deal was ever reached. Mr. Crowe, said to be hard at work on his next script, declined last week to talk about the project.

But the appeal of the Spector story to Mr. Cruise and Mr. Crowe was obvious.

A multimillionaire music producer by the time he was in his early 20's, Mr. Spector was considered old hat in his approach to music by 1966, leaving him a has-been at 26. He made an unexpected return by producing, of all things, major portions of the Beatles album "Let It Be," but by the early 1970's, his life in many ways seemed to have gone off the rails. His eccentric mix of high-living flamboyance and reclusiveness led to several confrontations with fans and fellow artists. (He reportedly pulled guns on Leonard Cohen and members of the Ramones in the recording studio on separate occasions.) After 1980, he essentially dropped from sight, not emerging until 1989, when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and gave a rambling speech that led many to think he was intoxicated.

So where do you end the story? If after his triumph with "Let It Be," you open yourself up to charges of trying to sweep his later, darker period under the rug. But if you include some of those later incidents, what is the outcome of the tale?

The biopic, a sturdy and venerable Hollywood genre, has become increasingly problematic in recent years. Once upon a time, audiences seemed not to care that key details of a person's life were smoothed over or concocted in search of an uplifting dramatic arc. But now, such films are being scrutinized for their fidelity to the truth.



The makers of "A Beautiful Mind," which won the Oscar for best picture last year, were criticized for easing some of the rougher edges in the life of their real-life protagonist, the Nobel-winning mathematician John Nash. And some producers of "The Hurricane," the 1999 film about the boxer Hurricane Carter, said they felt the movie suffered with audiences and Oscar voters because some critics charged that they had gone too easy on Mr. Carter. More recently, it was no coincidence that Steven Spielberg made sure to note that "Catch Me If You Can" was not based on the life of the infamous con man Frank W. Abagnale, but rather "inspired" by it.

Normally, though, problems occur after the film has been made and skeptical audiences measure it against the historical record. In the case of the Phil Spector story, the problem has come with a movie still in development.

In pure storytelling and business terms, how does a murder accusation help or hurt the prospects of a movie about Mr. Spector's life?

"I think it's probably premature, because we don't know what really happened or how this will play out," said Michael Shamberg, a co-chairman of Jersey Films, which has ventured frequently and relatively successfully into the biopic swamps with films like "Man on the Moon" (1999), about the comedian Andy Kaufman, and "Erin Brockovich" (2000), about an antipollution crusader.

If anything, Mr. Shamberg said, the shooting makes the story more interesting as a potential movie.

"At the moment, you don't know which way the finale will go, but you know there will be some sort of finale," he said. "My feeling is it could turn out to be something really interesting. I mean, when real life is more compelling than what you can make up, that's when you should make the film."

In 2001, Mr. Cruise and Mr. Crowe were focused on "Vanilla Sky," a remake of a highly regarded Spanish film, "Open Your Eyes" (1997), but even then, it was clear that Mr. Cruise had not given up hopes of making the Phil Spector story. "Problem is, he hasn't yet found a satisfactory way to end the story," Michael Fleming wrote in a column in Variety that year. "That was particularly frustrating while he and Cruise were between takes of `Vanilla Sky.' At one point Cruise had his head down, looking exactly like the famed music man, and Crowe called him `Spector.' The actor broke into a full impression that left Crowe hoping that the proper ending presents itself soon."

But it didn't. Gradually the project moved further back, and Mr. Cruise went off with Mr. Spielberg on "Minority Report." Then, about two years ago, Mr. Mitchelson, who said he has been a close friend of Mr. Spector for 13 years, began working on reviving the film project, without Mr. Cruise and Mr. Crowe.

"Phil was in such a good place in recent years," Mr. Mitchelson said. "He was happy. He was sober. All of that bad behavior in the past was behind him. I never saw any of it. So we started working on a treatment, and we thought this was it, this was the ending. We'd found it. After all those years and all those troubles, he was happy."

But nothing ruins a good movie faster than real life.

Mr. Spector talked several weeks ago with The Daily Telegraph, his first major interview in more than a decade, and sounded like a very troubled man indeed. "I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent," he was quoted as saying. "I take medication for schizophrenia, but I wouldn't say I'm schizophrenic. But I have a bipolar personality, which is strange. I'm my own worst enemy. I have devils inside that fight me."

Mr. Mitchelson said he knew that Mr. Spector had been taking medication, but saw that as a hopeful sign, something that a person on the mend would do. And there was nothing in his behavior, Mr. Mitchelson said, to indicate that he harbored violent impulses.

"Honestly, I don't know what happened in that house on Monday morning," Mr. Mitchelson said. "I just can't believe he would kill someone. I can't believe it. We thought we had a happy ending to the story. After all these years, a happy ending. Now I don't know what's going to happen, but it doesn't look like it's going to be a happy ending."

[SHANIANUTS!]

NATIONAL | March 12, 2003
Phil Spector Says in E-Mail He Is Cleared in a Killing
By NICK MADIGAN (NYT) News

Phil Spector Says in E-Mail He Is Cleared in a Killing
By NICK MADIGAN


LOS ANGELES, March 11 — The record producer Phil Spector, who has maintained a public silence since his arrest last month in the shooting death of a woman in his house, said this week in an e-mail message to friends that he had been exonerated.

Mr. Spector, 62, best known for creating the "wall of sound" studio technique and for being the power behind acts like the Crystals, the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers, cited a report on Monday on a Los Angeles radio station, KFI, that said investigators believed that the woman, Lana Clarkson, "probably shot herself accidentally."

But Capt. Frank Merriman, who heads the homicide unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, said today that Mr. Spector had not been cleared in the Feb. 3 death of Ms. Clarkson, 40, an actress.

"We're investigating this thing as a criminal act," said Captain Merriman, who estimated that it could take until midsummer for the case to be ready for presentation to the district attorney's office, which could then elect to file formal charges. In the meantime, Mr. Spector is free on $1 million bail.

The only possibility he had ruled out, Captain Merriman said, was suicide. "I'm not going to talk about accidental death because I'd have to be specific about things I don't want to be specific about," he said.

Captain Merriman said he did not believe that anyone in his office had told the radio station that Mr. Spector had been cleared. "It would be inaccurate to say we were focusing on anything," he said.

Mr. Spector, however, seized on the radio report, which cited sources close to the case to conclude that Ms. Clarkson shot herself at the producer's home in Alhambra.

"After seven weeks of silence, we can say with certainty, this will speak for itself, and boy does it speak volumes!" said the e-mail, which was signed by Mr. Spector and his assistant, Michelle Blaine.

The e-mail message, which was obtained from a friend of Mr. Spector, said he had been cleared of "any and all involvement in this horrible tragedy."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/12/national/12SPEC.html

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/national/21SPEC.html

Record Producer Phil Spector Is Charged in Death of Actress
By ANDREW POLLACK

Published: November 21, 2003

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 — Phil Spector, the record producer whose lush orchestration helped create some of the biggest pop music hits of the 1960's, was charged on Thursday with murder in the shooting death of an actress at his hilltop home last February.

He was arraigned in Alhambra, the suburb of Los Angeles where he lives. He pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Spector, 63, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Feb. 3 after the body of the actress, Lana Clarkson, was found in the foyer of his home. He has been free since then on $1 million bail.

If convicted, Mr. Spector would face up to life in prison, with the possibility of parole, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney. The complaint filed by the prosecutors said he killed Ms. Clarkson with a handgun "with malice aforethought."

Mr. Spector's lawyer, Robert Shapiro, said a vigorous defense would be mounted.

"We have assembled a team of scientific experts which is among the most respected and prestigious in the world," Mr. Shapiro, who helped defend O. J. Simpson from murder charges, said in a statement. "Based on their findings of this horrible human event, any jury will conclude that Phil Spector is not guilty."

The charge comes the same day that another music legend, Michael Jackson, surrendered to the authorities on charges of child molesting.

Mr. Spector was known for his "wall of sound," a studio technique in which many instruments gave a full-bodied sound to rock. Songs with that effect included "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers, "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals and "Walking in the Rain" by the Ronettes.

But Mr. Spector's hits largely ended by 1970 and he has been pretty much a recluse since then. Alhambra, where he lives in a house resembling a castle, is a middle-class suburb miles from the stars' homes in Beverly Hills and Malibu.

Mr. Spector had a reputation for high living, drunkenness and a fascination with guns. He reportedly pulled guns on musicians in his studio more than once. But friends had said that before his arrest, he was trying to get his life in order, going back to work in the studio.

In a rare interview with a reporter for the Telegraph newspaper in Britain given just a few weeks before his February arrest, Mr. Spector said he had a "bipolar personality" and was taking drugs for schizophrenia, though he said he did not believe himself to be schizophrenic. "I have devils inside that fight me," he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Ms. Clarkson, 40, had starred in B movies such as "Amazon Women on the Moon" and "Barbarian Queen" and had had some guest roles on television. At the time of her death she was working as a hostess in the V.I.P. room of the House of Blues, a Sunset Strip club, where she apparently met Mr. Spector.

She apparently left the club with him early in the morning of Feb. 3, and the two were taken in Mr. Spector's chauffeur-driven car to his home. At around 5 a.m., the chauffeur called the police after hearing gunfire from inside the house.

Mr. Spector has not said much publicly since his arrest. But Esquire magazine in June quoted Mr. Spector as saying that Ms. Clarkson had shot herself and that he barely knew her. "She kissed the gun," he was quoted as saying. "I have no idea why."

But the Los Angeles County coroner's office concluded that she had been shot by someone else. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reached the same conclusion and in September handed the case over to the district attorney's office, which has been doing its own inquiry.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://oldies.about.com/b/a/206006.htm

Phil Spector trial to begin in January
Oldies Music Blog

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http://z.about.com/d/gp/oldies.gif (http://oldies.about.com/mbiopage.htm)From Robert Fontenot (http://oldies.about.com/mbiopage.htm),
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FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now! (http://oldies.about.com/gi/pages/mmail.htm) September 27, 2005

Phil Spector trial to begin in January
http://z.about.com/d/oldies/1/0/m/4/spectorcourt.jpg Legendary music producer Phil Spector -- the architect of the Sixties' "Wall Of Sound" on such classic singles as the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" -- will stand trial at long last in January 2006 for the alleged murder of actress Lana Clarkson in Spector's already-notorious Los Angeles mansion on Feb. 3, 2003.

L.A. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler set pretrial motion dates for October 27th and 28th and set a tentative date sometime in January for the trial itself. Spector, who was present at the hearing on September 26th, did not speak, except to waive his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. The producer, who has maintained that Clarkson committed suicide in his home, remains free on $1 million bail.

Spector is currently embroiled in two other lawsuits, one accusing "financial associate" Michelle Blaine of embezzlement and fraud, claiming she took out a $425,000 loan using his pension plan, among other allegations. The other litigation: a wrongful death civil suit filed by Clarkson's mother, Donna.

Email to a Friend (http://oldies.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=oldies.about.com/b/a/206006.htm)

[SHANIANUTS!]

...looks like the trial will be postponed yet again...money is buying him time to have a life although I do not know how he can be enjoying himself much unless he is still under the influence....

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/spector%20trial%20date%20set

http://images.contactmusic.com/images/artist/philspectorap.jpg



SPECTOR TRIAL DATE SET

The start date for legendary music producer PHIL SPECTOR's murder trial has finally been set for 24 April (06).

The WALL OF SOUND producer, who has been on $1 million (GBP555,500) bail, will be tried at Los Angeles Superior court.

Spector faces life in prison if he is found guilty of the fatal shooting of actress LANA CLARKSON in his Alhambra, California, mansion in February 2003.

04/12/2005 21:28

[SHANIANUTS!]

...R. Kelly will be going on trial about the same time for his underage sex case...

[captainCorr]

Hmm....interesting.. :uhh:
(really glad Celine eventually stopped her collaboration with him for her 'Falling Into You' album :smirk:..)

I smell something bad here..

[Troll]

Thanks for the info Bob.

[SHANIANUTS!]

..for the latest on this extraordinary case go to:

http://www.courttv.com/trials/spector/013006_ctv.html

http://www.courttv.com/trials/spector/

[SHANIANUTS!]

Google Alert for: phil spector trial

Former Crystal is a golden original (http://www.thevillager.com/villager_149/formercrystalisa.html)
The Villager - New York,NY,USA
... Put down for history if Phil Spector gets off on the murder charge [he is out on bail awaiting trial], this is the first black woman that freed a white man ...


Volume 75, Number 42 | March 8 -14 2006
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_149/lala.gif


LaLa Brooks of the Crystals, the 1960s girl group famous for hits like “Da Doo Ron Ron,” will perform March 11 at The Cutting Room—her first show in five years.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.nme.com/news/phil-spector/22582
24.MAR.06


Phil Spector trial postponed

It is expected to take place in September

Phil Spector (http://www.nme.com/artists/phil-spector)'s murder trial has been postponed until September 11 because of scheduling conflicts between prosecutors and a defence lawyer.

A judge has agreed to put the date of the trial back due to one of the music producer's lawyers being involved in a trial in New York.

According to BBC News, Spector's case had been due to go to court on April 24, but his lawyer's other commitments are expected to overrun that date.

The producer - credited with inventing the 'Wall Of Sound' technique - denies shooting actress Lana Clarkson in February of 2003. He claims that she committed suicide.

Currently free on $1 million (£573,461) bail, Spector attended the court hearing yesterday (March 22) in Los Angeles under the escort of two body guards but declined to comment.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1739547,00.html

Interview
Ronnie's spectre

As leader of the Ronettes she was the sassiest Sixties singer around ... until she married record producer Phil Spector and spent five years as his prisoner in Hollywood. They divorced 30 years ago but, as Sean O'Hagan discovers, the shadow of her ex-husband - soon to stand trial for murder - still looms large

Sunday March 26, 2006
The Observer (http://www.observer.co.uk/)

Ronnie Spector Greenfield strolls into the nondescript foyer of the Sheraton hotel in Danbury, Connecticut, a few paces behind her husband, Jonathan. Her face is hidden behind large shades, and an extravagantly floppy hat sits atop her mane of dark hair. She looks like an ageing baby doll, diminutive and fragile under her shapeless winter coat. The shades and the hat remain in place for the whole of the interview and so does Jonathan, who is also her manager, minder and constant chaperone. 'I'm here regardless,' he says, when I ask him to leave. 'We've been doing this for 25 years, and I have to stick around in order to facilitate the process.'


I would have thought that, at 62, Ronnie was perfectly capable of speaking for herself but it seems this is not the case. She remains silent as Jonathan drawls on, playing nervously with an unlit cigarette, while he tells me what's good for her and what isn't. 'She's already had a higher council to avoid getting subpoenaed,' he sighs, managing somehow to sound both exhausted and exasperated, 'and because of that we cannot get anywhere involved in having anything printed that opens up a whole other can of worms with the guy she has already spent a quarter of a century dealing with in court.'The completion of this strung-out sentence seems to exhaust Jonathan, who seems slightly disconnected, and he slides further down in his chair, his eyes falling shut beneath his woolly hat. He remains like that for the rest of the interview, which is one way of 'facilitating the process', I guess.

The 'guy' in question, of whom Ronnie is forbidden to speak, is her ex-husband, Phil Spector, whom she left in 1973 and divorced in 1974, after five dreadful years as a virtual prisoner in her own Hollywood home, but who continues to cast a long, dark shadow over her life. His psychological hold on her is such that she never once refers to him by his actual name in the course of our conversation.

The 'can of worms' to which Jonathan refers is Phil Spector's impending trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old B-movie actress who died from gunshot wounds in his Californian mansion in February 2003. It was scheduled to start next month, when, coincidentally, Ronnie releases her latest album, the optimistically titled The Last of the Rock Stars, but has just been postponed until September.

'I just want to get on stage and sing and be happy,' she says, plaintively, in a voice that is a dead ringer for that of Janice, the loud and trashy Noo Yoiker who sometimes appeared on early episodes of Friends as Chandler's on-off squeeze. 'That's all I've ever wanted, and, this time, I feel I'm really getting there, so I can't let someone else take it from me again. They're trying to get me to go out there and testify, but I cannot go through that again in my whole life. No way, I'd be a basket case. Believe me, I'm not a happy camper about this. It upsets me. It's not really a good subject for me right now.'

As Jonathan's ears ***** up beneath his woolly hat, she pointedly steers the conversation towards her new album, which is surprisingly good. The voice that soundtracked a thousand wet dreams in the Sixties is still a thing of ragged but powerful beauty, though, inevitably, the best songs recall the Ronettes in all their innocent and suggestive glory. While there is nothing here as groundbreaking as the epochal 'Be My Baby', as windswept as 'Walking in the Rain', or as heart-stirring as 'Baby, I Love You', there is enough to suggest that Ronnie Spector could yet pull off a late comeback of sorts at her third attempt.

She has cajoled the likes of Keith Richards and Patti Smith to lend a hand, as well as young contenders such as the Rave-onettes and the Greenhornes. She covers songs by the Ramones and Johnny Thunders. The Last of the Rock Stars might have been more aptly titled after the Thunders song 'You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory' as its underlying theme seems to be the shedding of one life and the tentative late embrace of another. For all her tribulations, which read like a veritable gothic rock'n'roll soap opera, she is certainly not lacking in confidence when it comes to talking up her talents.

'I look around me and I don't see any rock'n'roll at the moment,' she says. 'Instead it's all choreography and stylists and wigs and stuff. It's like they're afraid to let the music breathe. No one has their own identity like the Ronettes did back in the day. We had the skirts with the slits up the side, sort of tough, sort of Spanish Harlem cool, but sweet too. We didn't have no dancers, we didn't have no ******* wigs.'

Her laugh is oddly infectious, but at times she seems oddly overexcited, and talks 19-to-the-dozen, one topic flowing without pause into another only tangentially connected. When I ask, for instance, about her collaboration with Keith Richards on a song called 'All I Want', she says, 'We only live 10 minutes away from each other but we were writing this song for years. Things kept holding us up, Bin Laden and stuff like that. But, you know, the Stones were my opening act in the Sixties. I loved those British guys, the way they just stood there and shook their hair. There was no alcohol back then, and no drugs. I remember people bringing cakes back to us after a show, but I never even smelled marijuana back then.'

Phew, I say, but she just giggles and keeps right on going, recounting a surreal anecdote from the pre-swinging Sixties in which she and the young Richards left their shared tour bus in search of food when it was stuck in fog 'near Manchester or Lincolnshire or somewhere like that where they have all those little English cottages and sheep and stuff'. The mind boggles at the notion of her in her beehive and mascara, and Keith in his drainpipes and cockatoo barnet, appearing out of the mist in someone's front garden, but the story ends happily with the Stones and the Ronettes and their respective road crews tucking into tea and scones in some mystified farmer's front room.

'There were riots at some of the shows, too,' she says, lest I think touring with the Stones was all bucolic bliss. 'The English audiences had never seen anything like the Ronettes. We looked innocent and wild, that was our thing. We played a show for the American troops in Germany and the guys were having orgasms on the floor. I was like, "What are they doin'? Ain't no dance I recognise." Then it was, "Oh my God! Get me out of here!" These guys came on stage with machine guns and escorted us out of there in a bullet-proof truck. It was a scene.'

Before she caused mayhem with her suggestive stage persona, Ronnie was just plain Veronica Bennett, born in 1943 in New York's Spanish Harlem. As a child, she was an outsider due to her exotic looks - her mother was black and Cherokee, her father white - but her voice, she says, made her popular. She paid her dues the hard way at the weekly amateur nights at Harlem's Apollo Theater, famously grabbing the microphone when her younger cousin froze before the most intimidating audience in New York. Her teenage hero was the doomed Frankie Lymon, who sang 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' at the tender age of 13, and was dead of a drug overdose at 25. It was Frankie, she says, that made her want to sing and be a pop star. It was Phil, though, that made those pubescent dreams come true.

Ronnie met Phil when she was 20. His fame was such that Tom Wolfe famously christened him 'the First tycoon of teen', describing him as 'the first millionaire businessman to rise up out of the teenage netherworld, king of rock'n'roll producers'. Phil Spector had written and produced his first Number One hit song, 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' by the Teddy Bears, at 17, and quickly moulded the Ronettes - Ronnie, her sister, Estelle, and cousin, Nedra - into the foxiest purveyors of a certain kind of overblown teen angst, one part innocent, one part profane, that perfectly caught the changing tenor of the time. Her soulful, street-corner voice, reflected through Phil Spector's famed Wall of Sound production technique, was the sound of mid-Sixties American girl power in all its over-heated, pubescent drama. 'Be My Baby', in particular, remains one of those rare records that articulates a pivotal moment in pop culture when the notion of the bad girl as role model was formed. Not by accident did Madonna later say, 'I want to look like Ronnie Spector sounds.'

Ronnie's marriage to Phil coincided with the sudden waning of his spectacular but short-lived success, and, as he struggled with his creative demons, his moods turned blacker. 'My honeymoon night was spent on the floor in the bathroom with my mother,' she later recounted in her racy memoir, Be My Baby, How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness, published in 1989. 'The next morning when I got up, two men were putting barbed wire and gates around the mansion.' From that moment on, Ronnie's friends and family were barred from visiting his sprawling Beverly Hills home, and during one spell she was granted permission to leave but once a year on their wedding anniversary. In some ways, you suspect, she is still trying to escape his clutches.

'I never tried to kill myself or anything,' she says, when I ask how bad it became back then. 'I just knew I had to leave but I didn't know how. There was barbed wire. Dogs.' She picks up another cigarette. 'I knew I was going to die there, though,' she says, quietly. 'I don't know much else, but I can tell you that. I knew in my heart.'

Alongside the equally abusive Ike Turner and the demonic Jerry Lee Lewis, Phil Spector has achieved a kind of gilded notoriety among connoisseurs of Pop Babylon. His paranoia is now the stuff of legend: he once insisted that Ronnie always place an inflatable life-sized model of himself in the back seat of her car while she drove around Los Angeles. Likewise his incandescent rages, which erupted at the slightest perceived provocation. He famously discharged a gun into the studio ceiling while working with John Lennon, and later held a loaded gun to Leonard Cohen's head. In an interview conducted months before the Clarkson shooting, Spector admitted that he suffered from bipolar disorder and described himself as 'relatively insane'.

In August 1998, when Ronnie went to court to begin her protracted but ultimately successful suit for the retrieval of unpaid royalties amounting to $2 million, she claimed he had frequently pulled a gun on her during their marriage and even once threatened to kill her unless she surrendered custody of the couple's children. Last year, though, when she was door-stepped by the New York Daily News after his arrest, she seemed to have revised her opinion somewhat. 'I'm, like, devastated, really,' she said. 'He was my husband, you know. I had never seen him violent like that, with a gun or anything. I feel awful. I don't think he would do anything like this.' When reminded by the reporter of her previous court testimony that her ex-husband had once tried to kill her, she added. 'Not personally, though, that was with a hit man.' The absence of irony in that last statement speaks volumes about Ronnie Spector's singular worldview.

I ask her, in conclusion, if she has any regrets. She pauses for perhaps the first time in the interview. 'Put it this way, I used to cry myself to sleep every night. I missed singing so much. And performing. Man, I missed it so much. I'd go to the studio but the records never came out and I never knew why. I cried too when I lost my apartment on Riverside Drive, that was my dream home. I used to walk by there every day as a kid and say, "One day ... one day ... " I made it there, then I lost it. In fact, by being with this so-called millionaire, I lost everything I owned.'

For an instant, the bubbly persona disappears and you catch a glimpse of the continuing cost of her one monumental wrong move all those years ago. Then she shakes her head furiously as if to rid it of all the bad memories. 'I don't do regrets,' she says firmly, 'and I ain't bitter. As I get older, I think maybe everything in life was meant to be. The way I look at it, I'm still here. I'm still singing. People still love my voice. And I made some great pop records, songs that people hold in their hearts through their whole lives. Ain't nobody can take that away from me.'

Ron facts

Born Veronica Bennett on 10 August 1943 in New York.

Early career Made her first record, aged 13. A meeting with Phil Spector in 1963 triggered worldwide success for the Ronettes.

She says 'We used to have a ball, partying with Dylan and the Stones. Hendrix would lead the house band and I'd sing along.'

They say 'Everyone loves Ronnie' - Steven Van Zandt of the E-Street Band. '"Be My Baby" was the most perfect pop record of all time' - Brian Wilson

· The Last of the Rock Stars is out on 10 April

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/i-will-do-this-until-i-drop/2006/03/30/1143441266891.htm (http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/i-will-do-this-until-i-drop/2006/03/30/1143441266891.html)

lhttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/03/31/spector_narrowweb__300x403,0.jpg (http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/i-will-do-this-until-i-drop/2006/03/30/1143441266891.html)
PHOTO: Back from the brink ... Ronnie Spector.

'I will do this until I drop'

By Bernard Zuel
April 1, 2006P

Who needs a plot synopsis when a book is called Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness? That's what Ronnie Spector called her 1990 autobiography, a frank tale of a New York girl who went from imitating Frankie Lymon to leading the definitive "girl group", the Ronettes, through a slew of hit singles in the early '60s such as Baby I Love You, Be My Baby and Walking in the Rain.

Along the way she was propositioned by each of the Beatles, lusted after by all of the Rolling Stones and then married the brilliant but dangerous Ronettes producer, Phil Spector. The same man who locked her away in gilded mansions filled with guns, alcohol and drugs, demanding she be a wife not a singer and whose shadow lay over her for nearly two decades after their 1973 divorce. Indeed, the same Phil Spector who goes to trial later this year on a charge of murder.

Not that you will see even his name mentioned on Ronnie Spector's website. There a lengthy biography from birth in 1943 as Veronica Bennett to a new album, her first full-length recording since 1987 - but it avoids any mention of Phil Spector. A legal or personal choice?

"It's both personal and legal," says Ronnie Spector down the phone, the New York honk in her voice as prominent as her throaty tone. "I just don't feel right about that guy and I know what he did. I don't like talking about it but people will know soon enough about it. But to tell you the truth, I don't like to kick a dog while it's down ... I want to get on with my future and rock'n'roll and be happy. That's how I was before [him] and I am still the same way."

She has earned the right to get through a day or another interview without having to explain her former husband. Remarried for 20 years, to her manager, with two children, Spector comes brandishing an album of new material that finds her joined by faces past (Keith Richards, Patti Smith and the late Joey Ramone) and present (young bands such as Danish '60s-inspired duo the Raveonettes, New Yorkers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and R&B revivalists from Ohio, The Greenhornes).

In keeping with its anything-but-shy title, The Last of the Rock Stars, the album is a rugged pop-rock record. Spector once said: "Most of the groups I worked with 30 years ago are either dead or dead broke. And it's a shame." How did she escape that fate?

"I love singing on stage so much," she says. "A lot of people that do it don't necessarily love it; a lot of them do it for the money or the girls. I truly love what I do ... All these dancers and choreography and smoke, it's really covering up the people who aren't really good performers or a singer. I'm fun, happy, sweaty, sexy and enjoying every minute of it."

Was there ever a time when it was too painful to be fun?

"No. Never." She is adamant. "I will do this until I drop. If I'm on stage singing and drop dead, I'll die very happy. I love it. It was nearly taken away from me but I leave that behind. I need to talk about my future because most people talk about my past.

"The main thing is I am here today and I love rock'n'roll more than ever. I was interrupted for a while, but every day in the studio I'd put my headphones on and it was like making love to that microphone, eyes closed and feeling every word because every song on my new CD is about a part of my life."

Ronnie Spector's The Last of the Rock Stars is out now on Laughing Outlaw.

[Troll]

Phil Spector murder trial to begin in January
B-movie actress shot to death nearly 4 years ago in producer's home

LOS ANGELES - Rock producer Phil Spector will go on trial in January on charges of killing a B-movie actress to death at his home, nearly four years after the fatal shooting took place, a judge said Friday.

Spector, who has pleaded not guilty and is free on $1 million bail, was not present at the hearing before Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler.

Best known for his work with the Beatles and his signature “Wall of Sound” recording technique, the 66-year-old music impresario is accused of shooting to death Lana Clarkson, 40, in the foyer of his Los Angeles-area mock castle in February 2003.

An autopsy report concluded that Clarkson, the star of such movies as “Barbarian Queen” and “Amazon Women on the Moon,” died after a revolver was placed into her mouth and fired.

Spector’s lawyers are expected to argue that Clarkson committed suicide, echoing claims the producer made to police shortly after they arrived on the scene.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13507643/

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1631137120070216
L.A. judge allows TV cameras at Phil Spector trial | Entertainment | Reuters

[Troll]

I am not going to watch.

[SHANIANUTS!]

This will be front-page media stuff...if he does not disappear...

[singingstarz]

what has the world been coming to.. the money u make is not enough that you're unhappy and killing people?

[SHANIANUTS!]

..this guy has been a fruitcake most of his life .. it finally caught up with him..

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-friedman4mar04,0,4169447.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary

What they'll hear about Phil Spector

The murder trial will demonstrate what a jury can hear and see to determine the truth.
By Richard D. Friedman, RICHARD D. FRIEDMAN is a professor of law at the University of Michigan.
March 4, 2007

ACTRESS Lana Clarkson died of a gunshot wound in a lonely hilltop chateau in Alhambra. Was it an accident, as Phil Spector — the owner of the mansion and the only other person present when Clarkson died — contended shortly after the event? Was it suicide, as Spector apparently contends now? Or was it, in fact, murder by the celebrated rock producer, as the People of California charge, in a case scheduled to go to trial March 19?

The beauty of the victim, the fame of the accused, the Gothic setting of the violent death and the suggestion that her rejection of his sexual advances sparked a homicidal rage are sure to make the Spector trial a theatrical event. At bottom, though, it will be like any other criminal trial: a search for truth in the face of almost inevitable uncertainty.

The stakes of a murder trial are enormous. To acquit a guilty defendant is highly unfortunate; to convict an innocent one is an abomination. The only way to maximize the chance that the jury will make an accurate decision is to present to it all the evidence that could significantly affect a rational assessment of the probability of guilt.

And yet that rarely happens. In actuality, there are crucial considerations that often require shutting the eyes and ears of the jury, even to very relevant evidence.

For example, if the state procures evidence by improper means — by coercing a confession, say, or by violating the 4th Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches or seizures — the evidence ordinarily may not be admitted against the accused, no matter how germane it may be. The consequences of this "exclusionary rule" are sometimes unappealing; Benjamin Cardozo, then a member of New York's highest court, summarized the rule succinctly in 1926 (while rejecting it) with the memorable line, "The criminal is to go free because the constable has blundered." Cardozo notwithstanding, the U.S. Supreme Court made the rule applicable against all states in 1961.

The justification is simple enough. Police are "repeat players" in our criminal justice system — they are involved in one case after another, and are therefore particularly likely to respond to long-term incentives. If the rules allowed evidence procured in violation of the Constitution to be used as proof of guilt, then the police would have little incentive to behave constitutionally. Given the exclusionary rule, however, police officers are highly motivated to operate within constitutional limits.

In Spector's case, the rules about what evidence should be allowed or excluded have already come into play several times in pretrial proceedings.

First, there was a question of whether his own statement made to his driver in the immediate aftermath of the killing — that he had shot someone by accident — should be allowed. This was an easy one for the judge. There were none of the issues that often lead to exclusion; the statement was neither coerced nor made to a police officer before the suspect had been given his Miranda warnings. So the judge properly agreed to admit it.

Second, there was a slightly more complicated issue involving some earlier firearms convictions. Sometimes (in cases in which the defendant testifies in his or her own defense) a judge allows a prosecutor to tell the jury that the defendant has been convicted of a prior crime. This, theoretically, allows the prosecution a legitimate opportunity to undercut the defendant's credibility by showing that he or she is willing to disregard important social norms.

But in this case, the judge excluded the prior convictions on the grounds that they were too old. (Besides, the whole theory makes no sense. A juror will not plausibly think, "At first, I thought it was unlikely that if Spector killed her, he would lie about it. But now that I know he has an old firearms conviction, I believe it's much more probable that he would indeed tell such a lie." (The prosecution was really hoping that the prior convictions would convince jurors that Spector is a bad guy.)

Most complicated was the last issue. Four other women are willing to testify about incidents in which Spector, who had been drinking, threatened them after they rejected his advances; the women claim that he pointed a gun at each of them, court records show.

That's obviously critical information. Jurors will quite rationally believe that Spector is more likely to have pointed a gun at Clarkson if they hear about repeated similar behavior in Spector's past.

Generally, however, we do not allow such testimony into evidence. If it is admitted, it "multiplies" the trial; in other words, instead of contesting one incident, the parties are now contesting several. More important, such evidence may persuade the jurors to convict a defendant, even if they are not confident beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the crime he is charged with — simply because they believe he or she is a bad person, and perhaps one who has not been punished sufficiently for earlier misbehavior.

And yet such "propensity evidence" — evidence that is designed to show the defendant's propensity to commit similar crimes — can be so powerful that courts often are receptive to prosecutors' resourceful efforts to find a way to justify its admission. Sometimes they characterize the evidence as being proof of a habit — a label that does not fit well in the Spector case, which involved just a few incidents over a 20-year period.

Sometimes they come up with reasons other than a propensity theory for why admission of the evidence is justified. California courts have been generous, for example, in allowing prosecutors to prove that a defendant had a "common plan or scheme" to commit a certain type of act. Theoretically, this should require prosecutors to show that the prior acts and the crime charged are both parts of the same overarching scheme — and that they're not being introduced merely to show the defendant's character or propensity to commit a similar crime.

The judge in Spector's case, while not allowing the prosecution to prove some other incidents, ruled that the testimony of the four women could be admitted in order to show "lack of accident or mistake." I'm dubious about that decision. Spector is not contending that he pointed a gun at Clarkson accidentally, and jurors are unlikely to give much weight to that possibility on their own. If the jurors do think that Spector might have pulled the trigger accidentally, prior incidents in which he pointed a gun without further mishap will not dispel that possibility.

The rules I have discussed are controversial among laypeople and lawyers alike. Their bounds are continually being defined, in mundane cases as well as spectacular ones. As you follow the spectacle of the Spector trial, bear in mind that these rules are not mere technicalities. Rather, they reflect the constant interplay in our attempt to determine the truth while preserving the essential protections built into our criminal justice system.

[ELEANOR MAW]

I think he has snorted to much of the white stuff since the 60s, he looks totally bonkers.

[SHANIANUTS!]

It is a shame - I grew up with his music and loved it - but you always heard stories about what a whack job he was in his private life.

[Troll]

Phil Spector murder trial set to begin in L.A.
Legendary music producer accused of shooting B-movie actress in 2003

LOS ANGELES - The murder trial of pioneering rock producer Phil Spector finally begins Monday, more than four years after a B-movie actress was found shot to death at his castle-like mansion outside Los Angeles.

The trial, delayed repeatedly since Spector was indicted in 2003, will be shown on live TV amid fascination with the 1960s musical genius turned recluse who once described himself as having “devils that fight inside me.”

Fifty news organizations applied for a seat in the Los Angeles courtroom for the biggest celebrity trial since pop star Michael Jackson’s 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.

Proceedings start Monday with jury selection involving 300 potential jurors and questionnaires to assess how much media coverage of the case they have absorbed.

Spector, 67, is best known for his groundbreaking “Wall of Sound” recording technique and work with The Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, the Beatles, Tina Turner and Cher.

Spector, who is free on $1 million bail, denies charges that he killed actress Lana Clarkson in February 2003.

He told Esquire magazine in an interview shortly after his arrest that Clarkson “kissed the gun” in a bizarre suicide for reasons he did not understand.

Los Angeles judges have been reluctant to allow cameras in court since the 1995 acquittal of actor and former football star O.J. Simpson on murder charges. Live trial coverage brought sharp criticism of the city’s justice system.

Opening statements in the Spector case are likely to begin in late April or early May, with the trial lasting up to three months.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers both say Clarkson, star of such films as “Amazon Women on the Moon” and “Barbarian Queen,” met Spector the night before her death while working as a waitress at a Sunset Strip rock club.

There is no dispute that the actress was killed early the next morning by a single shot from a .38-caliber revolver in the foyer of Spector’s mansion, which was designed to resemble a castle.

But the two sides disagree on the fundamental question of who pulled the trigger.

Prosecutors say it was Spector, who according to pretrial hearings owned a dozen guns and had pulled them on women in the past.

A police officer dispatched to the crime scene is expected to testify that when she arrived, Spector blurted out: “I didn’t mean to shoot her, it was an accident.”

Spector’s chauffeur, Adriano De Souza, is also likely to take the witness stand. He has told authorities the producer emerged from his home holding a gun and saying: “I think I killed somebody.”

Defense lawyers say Clarkson put the gun in her mouth and shot herself. They have attacked the credibility of Spector’s driver and the police officer, and say evidence found at the scene points to suicide.

It was not clear whether Spector, who has said he hates being in the public eye, would take the stand.

The producer described himself in a 2003 interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper as having a bipolar personality.

“I’m my own worst enemy,” Spector said. “I have devils that fight inside me.”

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17648468/

[SHANIANUTS!]

This will be a zoo.

[Troll]

This will be a zoo.

Yes it will be.

[SHANIANUTS!]

So it is appropriate to inject a little humour and an animal into the picture before it commences:

Happy Easter - click and enjoy:


http://egg.d21c.com/egg.swf


Please be sure your sound is on!;)

[SHANIANUTS!]

...feel free to repost this little gem anywhere and everywhere...;)

and mail it to all your friends





































and even your enemies;)

[Troll]

Thanks Bob.

[SHANIANUTS!]

....even though this is going to be a three ring circus and Spector may wind up in the loonybin for the rest of his life this should be a fascinating trial..

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070318/ap_en_mu/phil_spector
Phil Spector murder trial set to start - Yahoo! News

Phil Spector murder trial set to start

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/ap/d083398f-fb8e-4af8-aa87-d891cc42d609.widec.jpg


By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special CorrespondentSun Mar 18, 1:48 PM ET

For decades, famed music producer Phil Spector was a recluse, hiding in his hilltop suburban castle. It took the gunshot death there of a glamorous actress who starred in a cult movie to force him out into the Hollywood spotlight.

"'I think I killed somebody,'" Spector was quoted as saying by his chauffeur, Adriano De Souza. The chauffeur also told a grand jury that Spector had emerged from his mansion holding a gun, with blood on his hands.

De Souza said he asked what happened and Spector responded: "'I don't know.'"

On Monday, the search begins for jurors to decide if the 66-year-old Spector is guilty of murdering Lana Clarkson on Feb. 3, 2003, after taking her home with him from the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.

Clarkson was found slumped dead in a chair in the foyer, her teeth blown out by a gunshot to her mouth.

The coroner's office called it a homicide — "death by the hand of another" — but also noted that Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands and may have pulled the trigger.

In an e-mail to friends, Spector called the death "an accidental suicide." He pleaded not guilty and has remained free on $1 million bail since being arrested after the shooting. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Attorney Bruce Cutler said his defense will be simple: "He didn't shoot this woman."

"Everything in this case is consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Cutler said. "The cause of death is not at issue. The manner of death is the question."

Cutler has been careful not to call the death a suicide.

"There was no malice, no motive, no intent, no homicide, no crime," he said. "If it had happened in any other home, there would have been no charges."

The prosecution theory of the case, outlined during grand jury proceedings, is that Spector placed a gun in Clarkson's mouth and pulled the trigger. Prosecutors claimed he had threatened women with guns in the past but had never been charged.

Spector revolutionized rock music in the 1960s with his "wall of sound" recording technique. He produced the Beatles' "Let It Be" album and George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh," and has been cited as an influence by Bruce Springsteen and countless other artists.

Spector also wrote such rock classics as "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Be My Baby," "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling" and "River Deep-Mountain High," although his name is rarely mentioned along with the artists who recorded the songs.

Clarkson was 40, best known as the star of Roger Corman's cult film "Barbarian Queen." She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues when she went home with Spector.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler, rejecting protests from Spector's lawyers, decided to let the trial be televised when testimony begins.

The judge doesn't expect the same media hysteria that surrounded the O.J. Simpson trial 12 years ago. And he believes the time has come for the public to see trials on TV rather than rely only on reports from commentators.

"If it had not been for Simpson, we'd be there now," the judge said.

TV audiences may be riveted by Spector's appearance, since his theatrical attire usually includes three-inch-high boots, frock coats and outlandish wigs.

Fidler summoned 300 prospective jurors to his courtroom for the start of jury selection. Time will be an issue for the panel members, since the proceedings could last three months.

A jury is expected to be seated by April 30.

Unlike the Simpson trial, where jurors' familiarity with the celebrity defendant was a huge issue, Spector's musical legacy may be dusty enough to escape notice by most younger prospective jurors.

Defense attorneys might prefer a sympathetic, star-struck jury, if not for the fact that older jurors are usually more conservative and prosecution-oriented, said Loyola Law School Professor Laurie Levenson.

"The defense may want music fans who have an appreciation for Phil Spector's mark on music history," she said. "But there won't be many of those in the jury pool, not even in Tinseltown."

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://music.guardian.co.uk/slideshow/0,,2035778,00.html

Audio slideshow: Phil Spector March 19 2007: From infamous recording sessions to profanity-strewn, gun-toting outbursts, the life of Phil Spector has never been less than eventful. Now, as the producer who changed the sound of pop music in the early 1960s stands trial for the February 2003 killing of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actor and waitress found dead inside the hall of his LA home, Guardian columnist and Spector biographer Richard Williams looks at the man behind the 'wall of sound'.
Spector prepares to face the music (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2035959,00.html)
Full coverage of the Phil Spector trial (http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/philspector)

[SHANIANUTS!]

And yes it is very sad what he made of his later life - it kind of ruins for me all the great music I grew up listening to that he had a hand in. But not quite.

[ELEANOR MAW]

What ever he has done lately, There was some great music that he produced, just enjoy the music as much as you can, just listen to all those great singers. Wow they were good back then. Even if he may be potty these days he could be innocent of murder. Lana Clackson might of actually committed suicide.

[SHANIANUTS!]

One chance in a million of that...

[ELEANOR MAW]

I have read alot about this case, although there are a lot of people pointing the blame on Phil Spector, there is a bit on the forensic that dose not tie up. Do I think he is guilty, yes, but I haven't heard the end of the court case yet.

[SHANIANUTS!]

I like that you are getting as much news there about this as we here in the States are - sometimes I think England is doing a better job on the coverage than here. That link I gave above was very well put together.

[SHANIANUTS!]

Will the trial be televised live there?

[Troll]

Spector threatened ex-girlfriend twice, DA says
Producer pointed gun at woman on 2 occasions, she tells investigators

LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors in the Phil Spector murder case have asked a judge to allow testimony from a one-time girlfriend who said the record producer pointed a gun at her head in two separate incidents decades ago.

In court documents filed Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson said the testimony demonstrates a “long history of gun-related violence directed at women” and should be admitted as evidence during Spector’s upcoming trial on charges he killed actress Lana Clarkson in February 2003.

An after-hours phone call to Spector’s attorney was not immediately returned Tuesday. Spector has pleaded not guilty to the slaying.

Devra Robitaille, who worked at Warner Spector Records from 1974 to 1977, told investigators that one night Spector placed a shotgun or rifle against her forehead when she tried to leave the producer’s home after a party.

“Spector, who was drunk, made some sort of joke and then said, ‘Just so you know, I’ll blow your (expletive) head off’ or ‘If you try to leave, I’ll blow your (expletive) brains out,’ ” according to the court documents.

Robitaille told Spector to “knock that off and put that away,” and he eventually let her leave.

She claims a similar incident occurred a decade later when Spector again put a gun to her head in the foyer of his home after a night of drinking. At the time, Robitaille had taken a job as Spector’s part-time assistant.

An April 10 hearing was scheduled to consider the prosecution’s request. Prosecutors already plan to present testimony from four other women who claim Spector threatened them with a gun.

In a separate motion, prosecutors also asked the court to admit into evidence a conversation Spector reportedly had with a retired New York City police officer at a holiday party at the home of Joan Rivers in 1995 or 1996.

Vince Tannazzo, who was working security at the party, said he was asked to escort Spector out after a commotion. While they were leaving, Tannazzo said Spector made numerous profane, disparaging and threatening remarks about women, according to the court filing.

“They all deserve to die. They all deserve a bullet in their (expletive) head,” Tannazzo quoted Spector as saying. “That’s why I got permits for all over. Wherever I go, I always keep a gun, because these (expletive), they’re all no (expletive) good.”

Tannazzo told authorities a similar episode occurred at Rivers’ party the following year.

Prosecutors allege Spector — creator of the Wall of Sound, which revolutionized the recording of rock music — shot Clarkson to death Feb. 3, 2003, in the foyer of his home. She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues when she went home with Spector that night, authorities said.

The coroner’s office called it a homicide, but also noted Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands and may have pulled the trigger.

In an e-mail to friends, Spector, whose age has been reported variously as 66 and 67, called the death “an accidental suicide.” He has been free on $1 million bail since his arrest. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Jury selection was scheduled to resume April 16.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17953544/from/RS.3

[ELEANOR MAW]

Thanks for the update.

[Troll]

Jury selection resumes in Phil Spector case
Attorneys to question potential jurors on feelings about celeb defendants

LOS ANGELES - Lawyers in Phil Spector’s murder trial are seeking to uncover hidden biases about celebrity defendants as they question prospective jurors individually.

Jury selection was set to resume Monday, a month after potential jurors filled out questionnaires that included a section on their attitudes toward celebrities. Lawyers are to question them in person about whether they believe stars get a fair shake from the justice system, get away with crimes because of their status or are treated preferentially by police.

The jury will be asked to decide if Spector was responsible for the death of Lana Clarkson. The 40-year-old cult movie actress was found in the foyer of Spector’s home on Feb. 3, 2003, slumped dead in a chair, her teeth blown out by a gunshot to her mouth.

Spector has pleaded not guilty and is free on $1 million bail. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler has set aside two weeks for jury selection; he has said the trial could last four months.

Spector, whose age has been reported variously as 66 and 67, gained fame in the 1960s for his “Wall of Sound” recording technique. He changed the way rock music was recorded and influenced top recording artists including The Beatles.

But jurors, who may have limited knowledge of Spector’s reputation, could hear allegations he has a dark side. The judge has agreed to admit testimony from five women who claim that Spector threatened them with guns at varying times, one as long as 30 years ago.

The jurors will also hear about Clarkson, best known as the star of Roger Corman’s cult film “Barbarian Queen.” She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues when she went home with Spector the night she died.

The defense will offer a profile of Clarkson as a down-on-her-luck actress so despondent about her finances and faded career that she contemplated suicide, according to motions filed last week.

The coroner’s office called her death a homicide, but also noted Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands and may have pulled the trigger.

In an e-mail to friends, Spector called the death “an accidental suicide.”

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18133688/

[Troll]

Spector defense: Police ‘had murder on mind’
‘Fame and success come back to haunt you,’ jurors told in producer’s trial

LOS ANGELES - Police who found actress Lana Clarkson dead in Phil Spector’s mansion “had murder on their mind” and disregarded anything that was inconsistent with that conclusion, a defense lawyer told jurors at the legendary music producer’s trial Thursday.

Bruce Cutler, a New York attorney best known for his defense of mob boss John Gotti, resumed his opening statement Thursday morning, a day after the prosecution portrayed Spector as a longtime victimizer of women.

Cutler said police “interviewed and acted in such a way that anything that was consistent, the evidence will show, with their preconceived notions and theories they embraced. And anything that was not consistent or inconsistent with that ’murder on their mind’ they ignored.”

On Wednesday, Cutler told jurors that authorities were intoxicated by the prospect of arresting a celebrity and said Spector may be the victim of his own success.

“The evidence will show that back on Feb. 3 of ’03, before they even had a cause of death, let alone a manner of death, they had murder on their mind,” Cutler said. “Fame and success come back to haunt you.”

Spector, 67, lives in a castle-like mansion in suburban Alhambra. It was there that he took Clarkson, who wound up dead in the foyer with a gunshot through her mouth.

On Wednesday, Jurors were shown graphic photographs of Clarkson sprawled on a chair, her hand on her shoulder and blood smeared on her face.

Cutler said Clarkson killed herself: “A self-inflicted gunshot wound can be accidental suicide, and that’s what it was.”

Prosecutor Alan Jackson told jurors earlier Wednesday that they will hear from four women he said were victimized by Spector, who he alleged has a pattern of drunken confrontations in which threatened women he had taken home with guns when they tried to leave.

Cutler said those witnesses, expected to take the stand after opening statements, would be tellers of “tall tales.”

“These were women who were drawn to him and came back to him after the incidents,” he said. “The evidence will show they kept taking his money and spending his money.”

Cutler attempted to tell jurors about Spector’s music career but was told by the judge to stick to the facts. He mentioned Spector’s association with John Lennon and George Harrison and said, “This is a man whose music changed the world.”

Prosecutors are proceeding on a theory of “implied malice,” alleging Spector did not intend to kill Clarkson but caused her death by reckless behavior and taking an extreme risk.

If convicted of second-degree murder, he could face 15 years to life in prison.

Before Cutler resumed his opening statement Thursday, Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler questioned a juror about a member of the defense team who had not been present previously and belatedly recognized the panelist as an employee of an office services company.

The panelist indicated the relationship was not substantial and that he could be fair to both sides in the trial.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18333540/

[Troll]

Spector trial interrupted as lawyer sees doctor
Tuesday's session also canceled, due to immigration-reform rallies in L.A.

LOS ANGELES - Testimony in Phil Spector’s murder trial was canceled Monday because one of his attorneys had to see a doctor, the judge said.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler did not say why defense attorney Bruce Cutler had to see a physician, but he told jurors court would reconvene Wednesday.

“These things will happen, and we hope to have a better understanding,” Fidler said.

Outside court, Cutler co-counsel Roger Rosen said only that Cutler was not hospitalized.

Spector, 67, whose “Wall of Sound” transformed rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s, is accused of murder in the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting of actress Lana Clarkson at his castlelike mansion in suburban Alhambra. Clarkson and Spector met at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip, where she was a hostess.
allege Spector did not intend to kill Clarkson but caused her death by reckless behavior and taking an extreme risk.

Tuesday’s session of the trial also was canceled, because of immigration-reform rallies planned in the downtown area. Last year’s rally drew hundreds of thousands of people. Although the turnout this year is uncertain, the judge said courts were asked to cancel nonessential matters.

Before dismissing the jury, the judge also asked whether any jurors had seen CBS’ “48 Hours” last week. The show was not about the Spector case but included one of the prosecutors, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson.

None of the jurors indicated they had seen the program.

“Well, so much for their ratings,” Fidler said.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18401022/from/RS.4/

[Troll]

Lawyer: Spector’s defense concealed evidence
Acrylic fingernail could show whether Clarkson struggled when she died

LOS ANGELES - Prosecution claims that Phil Spector’s defense concealed key evidence in an actress’ shooting death were given surprise support Thursday when a lawyer who once worked for the record producer said she saw famed criminalist Henry Lee pick up a fingernail-sized object at the scene.

The testimony, at a hearing outside the jury’s presence, contradicts Lee’s official report. Prosecutors say part of an acrylic fingernail missing from Lana Clarkson’s right hand could show whether she was in a struggle when she died, but defense lawyers have claimed for more than three years that the nail does not exist.

The prosecution is expected to ask for severe sanctions against the defense if it is shown that lawyers purposely withheld evidence in the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting at Spector’s home. Spector’s murder trial is under way but jurors have been off this week because lead defense attorney Bruce Cutler called in sick.

The lawyer being questioned was Sara Caplan, an associate of Robert Shapiro, the first lawyer to represent Spector. They also worked together on the O.J. Simpson trial.

Caplan said under questioning by defense lawyer Roger Rosen that she was part of the defense delegation that went to Spector’s home a day after the shooting, after authorities completed their evidence gathering at the scene. Lee was part of the team and all were scrutinizing the foyer area where Clarkson was shot, looking for anything that might have been overlooked by law enforcement.

“I pointed out a few things to Henry,” said Caplan, recalling one white object. “He had on rubber gloves and had a tweezer. He said, ‘Might be interesting.”’

Lee picked it up and put it in a vial, Caplan said.

Asked to describe the object, she held up the thumb of her right hand and said, “About the size of my fingernail.” She added, “It was flat with uneven edges, a solid object.”

She said she had no idea what became of the item.

Lee has said in his official report that the only things he recovered were two white threads and some carpet fiber taken for samples.

Another witness, Stanley White, a retired sheriff’s detective who worked for Shapiro as an investigator, said he was at the scene and also saw Lee pick up a small white object and hold it in a piece of tissue or a handkerchief.

“I shone my flashlight on it and said, ’A piece of fingernail,”’ White recalled. “Dr. Lee said, ’You’re crazy.’ I said, ’You need glasses.”’

The judge said Lee, who is in China, would be summoned as soon as he returns to the United States. Lee has been barred from commenting on the case. Meanwhile, the judge scheduled further hearings Friday with a return appearance by law clerk Greg Diamond.

Diamond, who first testified Wednesday, set off a court fight after he came forward to say that a small white piece of evidence was collected at the scene by Caplan and shown to the entire defense team.

Diamond, who once worked for Shapiro, said forensic pathologist Michael Baden handled the object and said he thought it was a tooth fragment.

“I would never touch an object at an alleged crime scene, ever,” Caplan said. “I have been a criminal defense lawyer over 20 years. I know not to contaminate evidence. ... I value my ethical responsibilities.”

Baden, who flew in from New York for the hearing Wednesday, said he didn’t see any such object at the scene and didn’t see Caplan pick up anything.

Diamond said that before he went to prosecutors with his information he called a number of news organizations including the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Web-based The Smoking Gun and Court TV, but that none of the media organizations published his material.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18478062/

[Troll]

Woman says ‘demonic’ Spector threatened her
Prosecutors aim to show pattern of producer using guns with women

LOS ANGELES - A woman close to Phil Spector in the 1980s testified at his murder trial Monday that once he suddenly turned “demonic,” forced her at gunpoint into his bedroom and tried to have sex with her.

Veteran music talent coordinator Dianne Ogden told of the 1989 incident in which the famed record producer seemed to undergo a personality change as she tried to leave his mansion in Pasadena after a party.

“He was screaming at me, the F-word,” she said. “He wasn’t my Phil, not the man I loved. It wasn’t him. He was demonic. It scared the hell out of me.”

Ogden was the second woman called by prosecutors trying to prove that Spector’s pattern of threatening women with guns led to the killing of actress Lana Clarkson, who was shot through the mouth at his Alhambra mansion in 2003.

Spector, 67, has pleaded not guilty in the shooting. Defense attorneys have argued she shot herself.

Ogden testified that Spector tried to have sex with her, but did not. At some point, she said, he told her over and over that he was going to blow her brains out.

The next morning she awoke to Spector singing in the shower “like nothing had happened,” she said. Ogden forgave him because she thought he had a drinking problem, she said.

“I really did care about him and if we were going to make love I didn’t want it to be like that,” she said.

Another time, she said, she went to his house for a gathering with two friends and when she got up to leave, Spector again tried to keep her from going. “He said, ’I have an Uzi with me and I’m going to kill you,”’ she said.

Ogden said he ran after her with the Uzi in his hand but she jumped into her car and gunned the engine. She never saw him again after that, she testified.

She said she never told her story to law enforcement and was only speaking Monday because she was under subpoena.

Defense attorney Bruce Cutler suggested Ogden added things to her testimony that she had not told investigators.

Earlier in the trial, former Spector girlfriend Dorothy Melvin testified that he threatened her with a gun and hit her on the head when she tried to leave his Pasadena home. She said she called police after fleeing but didn’t press charges.

On Monday, jurors heard expletive-laced phone messages from Spector to Melvin, telling her “be careful what you say to me because nothing you say is worth your life.”

There were also several messages in which Spector apologized for his behavior.

Spector rose to fame in the 1960s and ’70s, changing rock music with what became known as the “Wall of Sound” recording technique. Clarkson, who was a hostess at the House of Blues when she met Spector, was best known for a 1980s role in Roger Corman’s “Barbarian Queen.”

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18542351/

[ELEANOR MAW]

Thanks for the update, Spector one crazy guy. :mad:

[Troll]

Judge: Dr. Lee hid Spector evidence

LOS ANGELES - The judge in Phil Spector's murder trial ruled Wednesday that renowned forensic expert Dr. Henry Lee removed something from the scene where actress Lana Clarkson was shot and hid it from the prosecution.

The judge said, however, that he would not hold Lee in contempt because of conflicting accounts of what happened.

"If Dr. Lee has this object, he's to produce it forthwith," the judge said.

He said that of all the witnesses who had testified on the issue, the only one he found completely credible was attorney Sara Caplan, who said she saw Lee pick up a white object with a rough edge and place it in a vial during the defense search of the foyer of Spector's mansion.

The prosecution contends the item was a piece of a fingernail with the trace of a passing bullet that would show Clarkson was resisting having a gun placed in her mouth. Lee has denied taking any such thing from the crime scene.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler rejected a prosecution bid to instruct jurors that Lee is not a credible witness, saying he would allow the jurors to make that decision themselves.

"Dr. Lee has a lot to lose here," the judge said in a hearing without the jury present.

Lee has been a major witness in such trials as those of O.J. Simpson and William Kennedy Smith. He also had his own show on Court TV.

Clarkson, a hostess at the House of Blues, had accompanied Spector to his suburban Alhambra mansion after getting off work early on the morning of Feb. 3, 2003. She died there of a gunshot fired through her mouth.

A key witnesses in the trial, Spector's chauffeur Adriano De Souza, has testified that the music producer emerged from the house that morning and said: "I think I killed somebody." The defense has sought to show that De Souza, whose native language is Portuguese, could not understand English well enough to testify accurately.

Spector rose to fame in the 1960s and 70s, transforming rock music with what became known as the "Wall of Sound" recording technique.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070523/ap_en_mu/phil_spector;_ylt=Ap13PWTuplizqMybFvHePYDMWM0F

[ELEANOR MAW]

Thanks for the update, there seems no end to Spector's drama's

[Troll]

Coroner says it was homicide in Spector trial
‘Bruise is very unique and is consistent with blunt-force trauma,’ he said

LOS ANGELES - The barrel of a gun may have been forced into actress Lana Clarkson’s mouth, bruising her tongue before she was fatally shot, a coroner testified Tuesday in music producer Phil Spector’s murder trial.

“The bruise is very unique and is consistent with blunt-force trauma. Something struck the tongue,” said Dr. Louis Pena.

Pena also testified that there were bruises on Clarkson’s right arm and wrist.

Pena called Clarkson’s death a homicide, and he described the actress as a hopeful person with no history of depression or suicide attempts.

Spector, 67, is accused of shooting Clarkson, 40, in February 2003 after she agreed to accompany him to his mansion from her job as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.

The defense claims that Clarkson committed suicide by placing the gun in her own mouth and pulling the trigger.

‘A hopeful person’
Pena said there was no evidence that Clarkson had been putting her affairs in order in advance of a suicide. The coroner said Clarkson had been taking two drugs generally given for depression, but her neurologist had prescribed them for her chronic headaches.

“I found her to be a hopeful person from the notes I read,” Pena said.

He said she died with a purse on one shoulder in a stranger’s home, which is not typical of someone taking her own life.

Jurors were shown graphic photos of the damage done to Clarkson’s face and the inside of her mouth.

At least one juror looked away from the large display on a movie screen, and for the first time, Clarkson’s mother and sister were not present in the courtroom.

Pena said the recoil from the shot shattered Clarkson’s top front teeth, blowing them out of her mouth. He said that the shot went through her head, severed her spine and death would have been almost instantaneous.

In cross-examination, attorney Christopher Plourd sought to show that Pena relied heavily on the work of others in analyzing the forensic evidence. Pena conceded he is not an expert in gunshot residue or blood spatter and acknowledged he consulted textbooks including one written by a defense expert, Dr. Werner Spitz, who sat in court.

Several women have testified about their relationships with Spector and violent encounters with him that involved threats with a gun.

Spector rose to fame in the 1960s with what became known as the “Wall of Sound” recording technique that changed pop music. Clarkson was best known for her role in Roger Corman’s 1985 cult film “Barbarian Queen.”

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18928574/

[Troll]

Spector jury hears Clarkson letters, e-mails
Producer's lawyers trying to prove actress was suicidal

LOS ANGELES - Letters and e-mails written by the woman whom music producer Phil Spector is accused of killing say she was “at the end of my rope” and expressed despondency about her acting career.

But the judge in Spector’s murder trial rejected an attempt by the music producer’s lawyers to introduce Lana Clarkson’s writings about living in a home where an actress committed suicide in the 1930s.

Spector’s defense team used the e-mails and letters in cross-examining a deputy medical examiner, Dr. Louis Pena, about his finding that Clarkson’s death from a gunshot fired in her mouth was a homicide, not a suicide.

Pena said he did not see most of the material, and when questioned about most of it, he said it would not have changed his opinion.

Clarkson, an actress best known for her role in Roger Corman’s 1985 cult classic “Barbarian Queen,” was 40 when she died in Spector’s foyer after going home with him on Feb. 3, 2003.

Clarkson’s letters to friends and a doctor in preceding months were read aloud by a defense attorney. They included the phrases “I’m at the end of my rope here” and “I was at the end of my tether.”

To one friend she wrote, “You know me, Polly Positive. But (expletive) this year has been the worst. I began to question my talent.”

Letters and medical records indicated she was plagued by constant headaches and for a time could not function because of them. She had also been on strong prescription narcotic medications but in her later communications said she had discontinued them and had stopped drinking.

She also wrote at one point, “This has been definitely the most difficult year of my life. My finances are a shambles and I am on the verge of losing everything.”

Clarkson also wrote about how in late 2001 she broke both wrists, getting 22 fractures, was hospitalized and was on disability for an extended period.

Prosecutor Alan Jackson read the entirety of the letters and e-mails, saying they needed to be placed in context.

“I really feel like I’m losing it. I’m kind of feeling like giving up the dream and therefore the struggle,” said one letter.

Jackson asked Pena whether that sounded like an actress contemplating giving up career goals rather than suicide.

Pena said yes.

Questioning Pena, the prosecutor sought to show jurors that Clarkson had a positive outlook before her death. In January 2003, Clarkson had been hired for an infomercial, she provided her agent with new information about herself to submit for TV pilots and she was supposed to be the master of ceremonies for a House of Blues employee party on Feb. 4, 2003.

Jackson also noted that four days before her death she wrote to a friend about her nightclub job, saying, “I’m enjoying it. I’m also dealing with a bunch of drunk idiots but that comes with the territory.”

‘Suicidal vision’ rejected
Earlier, Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler, clearly peeved, rejected the defense team’s attempt to use what they claim are diary-like writings of a suicidal vision taken from Clarkson’s computer.

Spector’s lawyers described the manuscript as including accounts of her having visions of a dead actress who killed herself with a gun. Fidler had indicated Friday that he likely would allow the material.

After reading the document during the weekend, he returned to court with a stern expression and said that what he found in the manuscript was so different from the defense characterizations that he checked to see if he had the right document.

He read aloud the passage about the dead actress, which showed Clarkson had found the account in a book about the history of Hollywood. And rather than visions, there was a description of seeing shadows pass a window.

“I don’t consider anything in this particular document to be significant,” Fidler concluded after allowing the defense to try to substantiate its claims.

Fidler said he would consider allowing the defense to introduce the material when it calls its own experts, but not to cross-examine the coroner.

Spector, 67, the producer who rose to fame with the hit-making “Wall of Sound” recording technique in the 1960s, is accused of murdering Clarkson, whose body was found slumped in a chair in the foyer of his mansion.

Clarkson had met him for the first time at her job as a hostess in a VIP room at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19036016/

[Troll]

Criminalist: No Spector DNA on gun
But witness suggests actress' blood could have hidden it

LOS ANGELES - Phil Spector’s DNA was not found on the gun that killed Lana Clarkson, a criminalist testified Monday, but he suggested it might have been hidden under the large amount of the actress’ blood on the weapon.

Sheriff’s criminalist Steve Renteria, called by the prosecution in Spector’s murder trial, acknowledged that numerous items analyzed by the crime lab showed the DNA only of the dead woman.

“Just because Lana Clarkson was the sole donor (of DNA) that doesn’t mean that nobody else on Earth came in contact with those things?” prosecutor Alan Jackson asked the witness

“Correct,” replied Renteria. “It all has to do with the amount of cells present.”

He noted that a large smear of blood on the banister of a staircase next to her body showed only her DNA.

“There could have been trace cells from another donor,” he said, but they would have been overwhelmed by the large smear.

Defense attorney Christopher Plourd, cross-examining the witness, elicited testimony that Spector’s DNA was also not detected on the bullets found in the gun.

The defense is expected to argue that the absence of Spector’s DNA on the gun means he did not pull the trigger and that Clarkson killed herself. The prosecution may argue that Spector wiped off the gun at some point.

Clarkson, 40, died on Feb. 3, 2003, from a single shot fired from a revolver in her mouth. Her body was found slumped in a chair in the foyer of Spector’s mansion. The gun was found by police on the floor by one of her feet.

Best known for her role in the movie “Barbarian Queen,” she was working at the House of Blues when she met Spector and agreed to go home with him for a drink after closing time. Spector’s chauffeur said that at 5 a.m. he heard a loud noise and saw Spector emerge from his home holding a gun and saying, “I think I killed somebody.”

No blood on wall
With the emphasis on forensic evidence as the trial entered its seventh week, Renteria also testified about the unexpected absence of blood spray from Clarkson on a wall near her body or on the carpet in front of it, suggesting something or someone in front of her could have blocked it.

Renteria, who set up the Sheriff’s Department’s DNA program in 1994, said he sprayed the area around Clarkson’s body with Luminol, a chemical designed to detect blood unseen by the naked eye.

Oddly, he said, there was no blood on the wall next to her body or on the carpet.

“Had there been blood spray, would Luminol have detected it?” asked Jackson.

“Yes, definitely,” Renteria said.

Spector’s and Clarkson’s DNA were both found on a pair of brandy snifters in the house, and tests of Clarkson’s wrists yielded DNA primarily from her but included a “minor donor” who was Spector, Renteria said.

Renteria testified that an old-fashioned cloth diaper found in a downstairs bathroom contained three bloodstains matching Clarkson’s DNA and that a fourth stain with Clarkson’s DNA and a little bit of DNA that could be identified only as from a male.

In a hearing with jurors absent, Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler rejected a defense request for a mistrial. The motion contended that prosecutors kept them in the dark about a man who came forward to accuse defense experts of hiding evidence.

“I don’t see anything here that rises to the level of stopping this trial and starting again,” Fidler said.

Spector, 67, rose to fame in the 1960s with his revolutionary “Wall of Sound” recording technique.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19179641/from/RS.2

[Troll]

Former Spector attorney held in contempt
Ex-defense attorney Sara Caplan tearfully refused to answer questions

LOS ANGELES - An ex-defense attorney for Phil Spector was declared in contempt of court Monday after she tearfully refused to testify that she saw a defense expert in the murder case pick up possible evidence.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler ordered the attorney, Sara Caplan, to be jailed until she testifies. But he stayed the order to allow for an immediate appeal before she was put behind bars.

Without the jury present, prosecutor Alan Jackson asked her a series of questions based on her earlier testimony that defense forensic expert Henry Lee picked up a small white object with tweezers at the scene where actress Lana Clarkson died and put it in a vial.

Such an item has never been turned over to the prosecution.

An emotional Caplan repeatedly refused to answer the prosecutor, citing attorney-client privilege and constitutional reasons, and repeated her refusal each time Fidler directed her to answer.

“I can admire what she’s doing and what she’s going through,” Fidler said. “I cannot allow it and I cannot find it to be an adequate explanation or a basis for a refusal to testify.”

The judge had already found that attorney-client privilege did not apply to issues of evidence destruction and that in any event her testimony on the issue at two previous hearings was a total waiver of the privilege.

Caplan, a highly respected criminal defense attorney with 25 years of experience, told the court last week she would refuse to testify to the jury about what she saw. The judge had laid out the consequences and gave all sides time to find a way to avoid the contempt proceeding.

Fidler, however, announced at the start of Monday’s court session that negotiations had failed and he had to formally hear her refusal in a detailed contempt proceeding. He noted that the contempt proceedings must be held without the jury present.

Clarkson was shot through the mouth in the foyer of Spector’s home on Feb. 3, 2003. Spector’s defense contends she shot herself.

Caplan was among members of Spector’s original defense team who examined the scene the next day.

In a special hearing on May 3 without the jury present, Caplan took the stand to deny a claim by a law clerk that she picked up an object at the scene.

However, in a surprise, Caplan said she pointed out a white object about the size of a fingernail to criminalist Henry Lee and that he picked it up and put it in a vial. She said she did not know what the object was or what happened to it after Lee put it in the vial.

Lee later testified that he did not pick up such an item, but on May 23 the judge made a formal finding that he did.

Clarkson, 40, was best known for her role in the 1985 film “Barbarian Queen.” Spector, 67, was a leading music producer in the 1960s and ’70s, rising to fame with a revolutionary recording technique known as the “Wall of Sound.”

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19297810/

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Forensic expert: Spector a few feet from victim
Lynne Herold showed jurors the record-producer’s blood-stained jacket

LOS ANGELES - Spattered blood on Phil Spector’s white jacket shows he was standing a few feet from actress Lana Clarkson with his arms raised when she was shot to death in his mansion, a forensic expert testified Thursday.

That opinion, offered by Sheriff’s Department criminalist Lynne Herold in Spector’s murder trial, is expected to come under attack by the defense, which maintains that the evidence points to Spector being six feet away from Clarkson — too far away to have shot her. The defense claims Clarkson, found slumped in a chair, fired the gun into her own mouth.

Herold, who said she is an expert in blood spatter and fiber analysis, showed jurors hugely magnified bits of blood so tiny they would not be visible without a high-powered microscope.

Most of the bloodstains on the jacket are mistlike,” she said. “You can barely see them.”

But magnified 60 times, she said they showed that, “That piece of fabric was within two to three feet of the bloodletting event.” She spoke of “high-velocity backspatter” and showed jurors where spots were left on the front, back and left sleeve cuff of Spector’s woolen jacket.

She also said the jacket was on Clarkson’s right side and was “forward-facing and the arms had to be raised so the spatter could get on the back.”

During cross-examination by defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden, Herold acknowledged that last year she took an advanced course in bloodstain pattern analysis taught by two experts who will be testifying for the defense. Herold said she never consulted with them on the evidence.

Clarkson, 40, a struggling actress best known for her starring role in “Barbarian Queen,” was shot through the mouth on Feb. 3, 2003, after going home with Spector from her job as a hostess at the House of Blues nightclub. Spector, 67, a legendary music producer who gained fame in the 1960s with his “Wall of Sound” recording technique, had been out on the town that night and met Clarkson for the first time. He invited her to his mansion after closing time for a drink.

Expert recreates the scene
Seeking to recreate the scene, Herold also offered analysis of bloodstains on Spector’s pants and a piece of bloody cloth found in a nearby bathroom as well as blood smearing on the death gun.

“Something bloody came in contact with the inside of the left pants pocket,” she said and suggested it could have come from placing the gun in the pants pocket and taking it out.

“There is smeared blood,” she said as she viewed photos of the snub-nose .38-caliber revolver that killed Clarkson. “It indicates to me there was some movement. There are places on the gun that would show some of the blood was moved or removed.”

Could that be a product of someone wiping the gun off?” asked Jackson.

“That is one possible mechanism,” she said. She also said that a bloody cloth found in the bathroom had been saturated with water.

Herold is considered the prosecution’s most important witness on forensic evidence and she gave jurors an extensive rundown on her professional associations, experience and awards.

Late Thursday, prosecutors filed a motion saying the defense may call as a witness convicted madam Jody “Babydol” Gibson, who has made public statements that Clarkson worked for her as a prostitute.

The motion said a “trick book” turned over by Gibson to the defense includes the name “Lana Cl.”

But prosecutors say the handwritten notation appears to be a forged alteration of the name “Ana,” and they want it turned over to the sheriff’s crime lab for handwriting analysis. They also sought to unseal all records from Gibson’s 2000 trial in which she was convicted of three counts of pimping.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19362215/

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Spector witness: Clarkson was aging, depressed
Defense expert says he concluded actress' death was a suicide

LOS ANGELES - Lana Clarkson was an aging, out-of-work actress fighting depression and health problems when she died in Phil Spector’s mansion, a forensic expert testified Wednesday in the music producer’s murder trial.

Dr. Vincent DiMaio, testifying for Spector’s defense, said he concluded that Clarkson pulled the trigger on the gun that killed her in 2003. He said he studied Clarkson’s e-mail correspondence, date book, medical records and scientific evidence.

“She had financial problems. She was afraid of being evicted. In one of the e-mails she said she had no job skills,” said DiMaio. “She was an actress, was 40 years of age. I’m sorry, that’s sex discrimination, but that’s the way it is.”

Clarkson was shot to death on Feb. 3, 2003, at Spector’s hilltop Alhambra mansion. Prosecutors claim Spector shot her; the defense says she committed suicide.

DiMaio, a noted forensic pathologist, said the tall, blonde cult movie star from 1985’s “Barbarian Queen” had fallen on hard times. She had broken both wrists in an accident the year before she died. She had been plagued with headaches and was so depressed that she spoke of having trashed her house, he said.

DiMaio said Clarkson had been taking the painkiller Vicodin, which was in her system when she died. She had addiction problems that led her to consult a Screen Actors Guild Web site for counseling on drug and alcohol problems, he said.

In a note to one of her doctors, DiMaio said, she declared that “she was at the end of her rope and could not function.”

DiMaio noted that in her day planner for Aug. 21, 2002, Clarkson wrote: “First sober day.”

She had taken a hostess job at the House of Blues when Spector, now 67, met her and invited her to come home with him for a drink after the club closed. A few hours later, she was dead from a single bullet fired into her mouth. Her body was found in a chair in a foyer, one hand resting on her purse and a bloody revolver at her feet.

Earlier witness called Clarkson ‘hopeful’
Prosecutors spent eight weeks in the trial focusing on Spector, a legendary record producer who witnesses have alleged repeatedly threatened women with guns. The defense changed the focus to Clarkson.

A deputy medical examiner who previously testified concluded that Clarkson’s killing was a homicide and interpreted her writings to show that she was “a hopeful person” and with plans for the future.

DiMaio disagreed. He said many people live with or conquer depression but, “Most people who commit suicide are depressed.”

Numerous law enforcement officers and forensic scientists called by prosecutors were unable to say conclusively that Spector fired the gun.

DiMaio said he was sure Spector did not fire it and that Clarkson did. He held his hands in front of his mouth and showed how she would have balanced the gun. He cited reports that she was familiar with guns and had been to a gun club.

He also offered a sometimes stomach-turning display of how Clarkson died, with a three-dimensional model of her tongue, a photograph of the tongue after it was removed from her body and a Plexiglas model of her head.

Clarkson’s mother and sister have sat through most of the trial testimony, averting their eyes from bloody photographs shown by the prosecution. But they left during DiMaio’s display.

Defense attorney Christopher Plourd also showed jurors a computer model of the gunshot with a mist of blood and gunshot residue flying into the air.

Prosecutor Alan Jackson objected to the display, calling it “a cartoon.” But Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler permitted it, saying it was a video aid for jurors.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19467273/

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Expert, prosecutor spar in Spector murder trial
Lawyer accuses defense witness of ‘manipulating facts’

LOS ANGELES - As Phil Spector sat in the courtroom, his hands trembling, a forensic expert for the defense told the jury Thursday that actress Lana Clarkson was stronger than the record producer and could have shot him more easily than he could have shot her.

Dr. Vincent DiMaio, who has testified in Spector’s murder trial that Clarkson committed suicide, also said she probably fired the gun in “a spontaneous reaction of some sort. Stupid. Based on alcohol.”