Bruce Cutler, whose medical appointment suspended the Phil Spector trial for today, said he didn't want to talk about the details of his medical condition now. But he said he has another doctor's exam in the afternoon.
"Superman has to get some kryptonite taken out of his system. I want to get through this, so I can keep lifting the world the way I want to," Cutler said.
In a surprise development, Judge Larry Fidler announced this morning that defense attorney Bruce Cutler needed to "see a doctor" and the trial would be delayed until Wednesday.
If you’re thoroughly hooked on the Spector trial, you might have to find the courtroom equivalent of methaone Tuesday.
With massive May Day demonstrations expected at Los Angeles City Hall, directly across from the courthouse, officials are expected to give jurors a break and cancel court.
The live broadcast coverage of the Phillip Spector murder trial is unusual event in California. Just as unusual was prosecutor Alan Jackson’s interview aired over the weekend.
Jackson was interviewed by CBS' 48 Hours on his last case: the successful prosecution of Michael Goodwin for the 1988 murders of famed race car driver and promoter Mickey Thompson and his wife.
Goodwin was sentenced to life in prison, although he was not at the scene and always denied any role in the killings, which he reportedly hired two assassins on bicycle to carry out. By contrast, actress Lana Clarkson died at Spector's house.
Jackson has suggested both killings sprang from the same thing: pride and ego.
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Testimony from the first witness, Dorothy Melvin, settled into a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" description of Spector, with the defendant described as a compelling and romantic suitor and a genius, who changed into something else. Prosecutors said the other side was "a raging maniac."
"Phil is a really brilliant and charming man, and you really enjoy him when he’s in his charming mode. Then when he’s drinking," Melvin testified today. "He snaps. He turns on a dime and becomes a lunatic."
The first witness, Dorothy Melvin, is one of four women expected to testify that Spector abused them and threatened them with guns. She said the two had been dating when she met Spector at his home in Pasadena in 1993. She watched him drink much of a bottle of vodka. Melvin told prosecutor Patrick Dixon she fell asleep, and then found Spector pointing a handgun at her. He ordered her upstairs and told her to disrobe, then accused her of stealing. He struck her twice in the head, cursed at her, and ordered her to leave, Melvin testified, and then pointed a shotgun at her.
As Melvin talked, Spector sat motionless at the counsel table, hands clasped and resting against his mouth. Baden, one of his lawyers, placed her arm around the back of his chair.
Cutler had belittled Melvin and other Spector accusers as "women with tears and tall tales and stories."
Lunch, delivered by a caterer near the Rose Bowl, was lasagna, asparagus, garlic cheese bread, Italian and antipasto salads, and a dessert of strawberry-covered cheesecake.
Shortly before court resumed at 1:35 p.m., the judge, Larry Fidler, came into court waving an envelope.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "one of the things you’re told when you reported is that no one is exempt" from jury duty. He opened the envelope, his own jury summons, and announced that he doesn't have to respond until August. "So we’re safe." Spector's trial is expected to last two or three months.
The other humorous interlude came when Fidler told Cutler he had some good news and some bad news for him. Cutler, a fierce New Yorker, had made a passing gripe the day before about the lack of drinking water in California courtrooms.
"The good news is, I did supply some plastic cups," Fidler said. "The bad news is that you will be billed at the end of the trial. "
The London press, which has gone wild over the Spector case, may be able to tell us whether defense lawyer Baden correctly quoted a national hero, Sherlock Holmes. She brought up the quote to try to demonstrate how evidence which prosecutors cited for Spector’s guilt could just as easily prove his innocence.
"Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point to one thing, but if you shift your view a little bit, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something different."
Phil Spector appeared much more at ease this morning, moving around the counsel table and speaking to his lawyers and entourage. Yesterday, listening to the prosecutor's summary of the case against him, Spector sat slumped in his seat, hands shaking slightly, extremely pale.
Today he smiled and seemed animated as his own lawyers laid out their argument for his innocence.
Embracing science was the theme of Spector’s lawyers.
Defense Linda Kenney Baden, whose husband, Michael Baden, is one of the expert witnesses for Spector, told jurors: “The government is not giving you all of the scientific facts, or the correct scientific facts, or even most of the scientific facts.” She said experts would contradict prosecution witnesses who said the blood spatter patterns on the white coat he was wearing prove he was holding the gun.
Baden said her experts - several who testified for O.J. Simpson when he was aquitted of double murder -- will testify that when a gun is fired in a person’s mouth, blood can travel as far six feet away. If jurors believe the scientific evidence shows Spector was that far away from Lana Clarkson, it could be powerful support for the defense claim that she killed herself. She described the facts in diametric opposition to the account of the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty Alan Jackson: “Blood spatter shows that phil spector did not shoot that gun,” Baden insisted.
Defense lawyer Bruce Cutler picked up his opening statements this morning without missing a beat, focusing on the key prosecution evidence by insisting that "there was no confession made."
The prosecutor Alan Jackson, had repeatedly referred to a statement Spector made to a driver saying he had "shot someone" as a confession. Barrel-chested Cutler in a gray suit and striped tie spoke softly most of the time, but demonstratively, at times pacing, at times so intense he appeared to be stalking the courtroom, shaking his hand, extending a slightly open palm toward jurors to make a point, like Mr. Spock about to do a Vulcan mind meld.
His tenor, in both visible emotion and the level of his voice, comes in waves of high and low, loud and soft. He spoke so loudly that the judge, on opening day, thought that jurors in the jury room might be able to hear him through several doors, speaking in open court. (Photo: Carlos Chavez/LAT)
Scientific evidence will show that Phil Spector did not kill Lana Clarkson on the fateful February morning in 2003, defense lawyer Bruce Cutler said this morning as he completed his opening in the music legend’s murder trial.
Cutler started his opening late Wednesday and took almost 30 more minutes this morning before turning the opening to colleague Linda Kenney Baden. She gave more detail on the scientific arguments to be presented in the coming weeks.
Press interest dropped this morning, when Bruce Cutler is set to conclude his opening statements. Some 34 credentialed members of the press were seated Wednesday, but just 24 showed up this morning. "Interest is definitely tapering off," said Meredith Pierce, deputy public information officer for the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Spector wore a jet black, pin-striped three piece suit, with a black dress shirt open at the neck.
Two women are expected to testify today that Phil Spector held them at gunpoint in separate incidents during the 1990s. The testimony is a key plank in the prosecution's theory that actress Lana Clarkson's 2003 shooting fit the music producer's pattern of threatening women who rejected his advances. The testimony will follow the conclusion of opening statements by Spector attorneys Bruce Cutler and Linda Kenney Baden. Cutler previewed the defense's position on the women's testimony Wednesday, saying they were girlfriends who sought Spector's company and are now turning on him. (LAT photo)
The world is watching the Spector trial. Or at least the world's media. Here are some samples from articles about the opening statements:
"Looking for all the world like a small boy who has set off a firework that has burned down a house, Phil Spector sat in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday listening to a prosecutor outline the bare bones of a case that could consign him to life - and friends say almost certain death - in prison." --Mick Brown and Catherine Elsworth in the Telegraph
"In spite of the graphic subject matter, there were a few moments of levity in Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler's courtroom Wednesday morning. Recalling the initial meeting between Clarkson and Spector, Jackson said the tall actress mistook the petite producer, who was wearing a shoulder-length wig, for a woman, referring to him as "Mrs. Spector." --Harriett Ryan on Court TV.
Spector, 67, wearing a blond page boy wig, beige suit and purple open-necked shirt, stared straight ahead as the Los Angeles deputy district attorney addressed the jury. -David Gardner in Daily Mail.
Phil Spector is parading down the hall on the way to his murder trial with not one, not two, but three extra-large bodyguards. It looks like a wedge of beefy NFL linemen is blocking for the strangest looking quarterback in history. When Spector gets closer, in a knee-length suit and a shirt the color of dried blood, I can’t quite figure out who he looks like, but then it comes to me: He is the character on the Buster Brown shoes my mother used to get me, with hair no one but Jean Stapleton would have left the house with. At the very least, I’d dump the makeup artist. Spector looks like he’s just had a wreck with a Pillsbury flour truck.
Defense attorney Bruce Cutler ran into a buzzsaw of objections to his opening statement, with Judge Fidler upholding 10 of them.
Cutler said the police "have murder on their mind," but insisted Clarkson died accidentally by her own hand. He waved his hands, lowered his voice, and alternately thundered at jurors and belittled the women prosecutors plan to call to testify that Spector was violent and abusive of women.
He attacked the prosecution for painting the defendant "as a stark raving maniac." He said Spector’s notable eccentricities were at least partly due to his dedication to his art.
"Being successful, accomplishing so much, achieving so much in life, doing so much for others, when you achieve so much, can come back to hurt you," Cutler said. "Fame and success comes back to haunt you."
Cutler insisted "the evidence will show this is a tragic accident."
At 1:45 p.m., prosecutors showed the first picture of the corpse of Lana Carkson in Spector’s house four years ago, slumped in a chair. Jackson said she "was immediately incapacitated, she was dead. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t blink, she couldn’t move a muscle."
Spector slumped at the defense table, motionless.
Jackson pointed to crime seen photos showing that Clarkson died with her purse on her shoulder, suggesting, he said, that she was trying to leave. He said Spector's coat, splattered with Clarkson's blood, was found in an upstairs bedroom. Police also found a bloody rag in an upstairs bathroom -- a "pathetic" attempt to clean her face. -- John Spano
Alan Jackson's opening statement had been due to resume at 1:30 p.m., but the proceedings were delayed slightly.
Bailiffs brought boxes of leftover food, apparently catered, from the courtroom as the lunch break ended. Visible were brown rice, something a deputy described as chicken kebobs, the chickpea dip called hummus, and pita bread. Another reporter said he saw what looked like fresh sliced pineapple from the meal. -- John Spano
The only laugh in the courtroom came when Jackson, the prosecutor, played a recording of Spector's driver's 911 call, in which a dispatcher could not understand the name of the man Adriano De Souza said had shot someone.
"Spector" De Souza said.
"Seal inspector?" the operator asked, straining to hear. -- John Spano
One of the journalists forced to wait in the hall of the court house was Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez. But he won a ticket in a lottery that gave him the right of admission.
Throughout the morning, Alan Jackson set out the prosecution's case, including what he said was a pattern of violence toward women. "It’s the same pattern: Spector had been drinking. Spector had a romantic interest in the women, and they were in a room alone. When she tried to leave, Spector flew into a rage. He held her at gunpont. The same pattern begins to emerge with Lana Clarkson."
At their table, Spector occasionally turned to his lawyer, Bruce Cutler, speaking behind a cupped hand.
Jackson told the jury of nine men and three women they would hear from the limousine driver who waited at Spector's home, heard gunshots from inside, then saw Spector come out the door.
Spector carried a gun, his hand dripped with blood and he confessed to shooting someone, Jackson said the driver would testify. Spector "put a loaded pistol inside Lana Clarkson's mouth -- inside her mouth -- and shot her to death," Jackson said. The defense gives its opening statement this afternoon. Spector has called Clarkson's death a suicide.
The prosecutor opened at 10:32 a.m., saying he would show "the real Phil Spector," a man with "a history of violence against women."
After the prosecutor previewed the testimony of one of the producer’s assistants, Diane Ogden-Halder, Spector moved his head right to left. At one point he pinched his nose with his left hand, and gazed downward.
Halder is to testify that Spector once flew into a drunken rage when she moved to leave his home in Pasadena, and he forced her at gunpoint to lay down in his bed. She said the next day, Spector acted as if nothing had happened.
Spector at one point slumped back in his chair. When Jackson described a threat he said Spector made to another woman, Spector opened and closed his mouth and shook his head back and forth, as if in disgust. -- John Spano
The trial of Phil Spector on a charge of murder opened this morning at 10:12, after jurors marched past the defendant. He wore a violet shirt open at the neck, a light-colored three piece suit with a knee-length coat. The courtroom of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler was packed with an overflow line of spectators, mostly journalists, waiting to be permitted inside. Jurors made a point of not looking at Spector, the fabled music producer from the 1960s and 1970s. The family of Lana Clarkson, the actress Spector is accused of shooting to death, also were present.
Judge Fidler rejected a motion by a lawyer for four women who may testify against Spector, asking that he order the media to refer to them only by their first names and the initials of their surnames. Fidler said he had already considered the privacy concerns of the women when he ruled they may testify. -- Peter Y. Hong
The start of the Spector trial was the fourth most important event today in the world of celebrities, according to the news service Reuters. No. 1 was Heather Mills' ouster from the television show "Dancing with the Stars." Spector also lost out to court action by Angelina Jolie about her newly adopted son Pax. Even the brouhaha over Alec Baldwin's ranting voice mail message to his daughter, well into its second week of public consumption, beat out Spector. -- John Spano
After months of trial preparations, opening statements are set for today. And the trickle of media interest has become a flood. Thirty reporters will be allowed in the ninth-floor courtroom, several of them from the U.K. More are hoping to get seats. The author Dominick Dunne has also arrived.
Outside the courthouse, about two dozen photographers and videographers are awaiting Spector's arrival.
Is this really a celebrity murder trial? That's the question The Times' Geoff Boucher poses in a piece that looks at how Phil Spector became a music legend. But Geoff notes that Spector is not the celebrity that O.J. Simpson -- or even Robert Blake -- was:
Unlike O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake, whose own murder cases resonate in this latest celebrity trial, Spector never came into the living rooms of America on television. And his achievements in the music industry are remembered better by today's artists than today's fans. "Everybody in the music business knew who Phil was and they still do. He had a big impact on the way everyone made records, but now the general public might know him better as the guy going on trial," said Hal Blaine, the drummer who kept time for many of Spector's signature hits in the 1960s glory days.
The world is watching the Spector trial. At least the world media is watching. And every reporter seems to have a unique take. Here are some sample from Wednesday's opening statements:
"Looking for all the world like a small boy who has set off a firework that has burned down a house, Phil Spector sat in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday listening to a prosecutor outline the bare bones of a case that could consign him to life - and friends say almost certain death - in prison." -Mick Brown and Catherine Elsworth in the Telegraph.
"Spector, 67, wearing a blond page boy wig, beige suit and purple open-necked shirt, stared straight ahead as the Los Angeles deputy district attorney addressed the jury." -David Gardner in The Daily Mail.
"In spite of the graphic subject matter, there were a few moments of levity in Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler's courtroom Wednesday morning. Recalling the initial meeting between Clarkson and Spector,
Jackson
said the tall actress mistook the petite producer, who was wearing a shoulder-length wig, for a woman, referring to him as "Mrs. Spector." - Harriett Ryan at Court TV
Lawyers for four women who may testify that Spector threatened them with guns have filed a motion asking Judge Fidler to direct the media to report only their first names, and to not photograph them. Fidler is expected to rule on the matter Wednesday morning before opening arguments begin at 10.
Lana Clarksons mother, Donna, has mostly kept out of the public eye. She and friends of Clarkson will be attending Spector's murder trial, according to a statement from her laywers, who asked reporters to leave them alone.
The lawyers, who represent the Clarkson famliy in a wrongful death suit, will accompany the mother. The author Dominick Dunne, whose daughter was killed by a boyfriend, wrote that parents of murder victims should attend trials not only to be seen by the jury, but also because it is the last major event they will experience with their child. Dunne will also be on hand on behalf of Vanity Fair.
Selection of alternate jurors continues Tuesday. If that work is completed, opening arguments could begin Wednesday. The Times' Peter Hong reports in today's paper that Spector continues to bring out passionate feelings in the courtroom:
Another juror who was removed said if he served on a jury that acquitted Spector, his friends would think him "a moron." The juror, who had completed law school but does not practice law, also said he attended the same high school as a jury consultant for the defense and had seen her at parties.
Lawyers selecting alternate jurors for the Phil Spector murder trial on Monday once again hit a recurring obstacle: a jury pool exposed to years of news reports on the case.
One prospective juror said she believes Spector is guilty and did not think she could keep an open mind. The juror said her opinion was influenced by Nancy Grace, an acerbic CNN crime show host who has said of Spector on her program "he's got mommy issues or wife issues or girl issues -- I don't care."
Of Grace, the juror said, "I love her, I love watching her. She interests me, like with her opinions and what she says." (She was removed from consideration this afternoon)
Another prospective juror said he concluded Spector was guilty after reading what he called biased coverage in the Los Angeles Times.
None of the possible alternate jurors was replaced before the mid-day break.
Two book authors appeared in court Monday: Mick Brown, whose Spector biography is due for release in June, and true crime writer Carlton Smith, who is updating his 2004 book "Reckless: Millionaire Record Producer Phil Spector and the Violent Death of Lana Clarkson." Brown is covering the trial for Britain's Daily Telegraph. He's also in a bit of a delicate situation: he may be called as a witness in the case.
The British press is reporting that Yoko Ono and the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards will testify on Phil Spector's behalf during his murder trial. But both prosecutors and defense counsel tell The Times' Peter Y. Hong those names are news to them. More on what we know now about who might testify, check out witness list at the end of the juror questionnaire:
Witness list
A Dateline:NBC senior producer who covered the O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson trials is one of the jurors in the Phil Spector murder trial.
The producer, who was not identified by name, had been covering the Spector case, according to a questionnaire released by the court Friday.
The court is expected to release shortly the 18-page questionnaires the 12 Spector jurors filled out prior to their selection Thursday. With the new information, their identities could begin to take shape.
Twelve jurors are sworn in to decide the Phil Spector murder case. Spector appears visibly nervous now; his hands, fingers interlocked, are trembling.
The six alternates are still being selected. Lawyers should be giving their opening statements sometime next week, with testimony to follow.
Under questioning by prosecutor Alan Jackson, a juror mentioned a negative experience: her cousin was convicted in 1989 of a crime, while his accomplices somehow escaped punishment. She asked to discuss the matter at sidebar because she felt identifying the prosecutor could be inflammatory. When the woman returned to her seat, Judge Fidler told her it was okay to speak the name aloud. "Marcia Clark," she said.
One juror, a long-haired blond woman who said she works at the Sky Bar, was eliminated for cause. The Sky Bar is near the House of Blues in Hollywood, where Lana Clarkson worked as a VIP hostess; the juror said she and her co-workers followed the Spector case intensely.
She called herself an "avid reader of all things rock and roll" and said she knew much about Spector. She also said her father was a judge in Corpus Christi, Tex. Over and over, she had told prosecutors and defense lawyers she thought Spector killed Clarkson and doubted she could be fair. "What I read will always color how I feel," she said.
The jury box sits in front of floor-to-ceiling faux wood paneling in the fluorescent-lit courtroom. Eighteen jurors - 12 regular and six alternates -- are seated in the box. The rest of the pool of potential jurors is arrayed in rows in the audience, listening to their colleagues being questioned. When one of the 12 jurors is eliminated, an alternate moves up to a regular seat. When the six alternate seats are empty, six more jurors are called up to the box. At any point, prosecutors or the defense can say they accept the jury as constituted; if the other side agrees, game over and the remaining pool members go home. Otherwise, the process continues by a slow process of attrition.
Vanity Fair columnist Dominick Dunne tells MediaBistro that he's headed to L.A. to cover the Spector trial. Dunne, for course, has been in court for some of the biggest celebrity cases, notably O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake:
...Dominick Dunne, who told us he's headed out to Los Angeles to cover the Phil Spector trial for Vanity Fair. We've missed his reporting of late and eagerly await his dispatches from the left coast ...
No one seemed surprised today when the defense got rid of this potential juror:
One of those removed by the defense is a Los Angeles city prosecutor. She
smiled knowingly when her number was called for removal. Defense attorney Roger
Rosen turned to the jurors in the courtroom and quipped "Was it a big surprise?"
prompting much laughter. -- Peter Y. Hong
Possibly previewing prosecution arguments, Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Jackson started the morning off testing jurors' ability to understand legal concepts.
He is going over the idea of implied malice - the notion murder can be committed without intent to kill, only the intent to commit an inherently dangerous act. Thus prosecutors would not have to prove Spector intended to kill Clarkson.
A few jurors are struggling with the idea...
-- Peter Y. Hong
The popularity of TV forensic shows like "CSI" have concerned some in the criminal justice system who worry potential jurors expect the kind of flashy evidence only a Hollywood TV writer could produce (it was cited as a factor on the Robert Blake murder trial). On Tuesday, according to this AP account, it was an issue in Spector jury selection:
Also in the box were a TV producer and a woman who said she equated the Spector case with the O.J. Simpson murder trial and felt Simpson was guilty even though he was acquitted. She said she could put that opinion aside. Another woman who remained had been questioned by Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson about the influence of TV shows such as the "CSI" dramas, "Forensic Files" and other programs based on scientific criminal investigations. The woman said she knew the TV dramas were not realistic in showing how cases are solved. "They look at a bullet and know exactly what gun it came from," she said, adding she knew that is not the way it is done. "Are you going to hold us to that standard?" the prosecutor asked. "No," the woman said. "You’re not going to expect some high drama where people will walk in with a fancy machine and solve everything?" he asked. The panelist said she would not.
Famed attorney Bruce Cutler, part of the Spector defense, again made things interesting in court today (and we are still only in jury selection). According to AP:
At one point Cutler raised his voice and seemed to yell at the jury pool. A few minutes later he apologized for being so loud and asked if the five new prospects would forgive him. Four said they would and one answered, "No." The courtroom burst into laughter.
If reading coverage of the Phil Spector trial isn't enough, you only have to wait until June, according to Book Standard:
Knopf will publish a biography of music producer Phil Spector in June, written by the last journalist to interview him before actress Lana Clarkson was found dead in his home. Tearing Down the Wall of Sound will be written by Mick Brown, a U.K. journalist who interviewed Spector in December 2002.
Bruce Cutler, one of Phil Spector's lawyers, while questioning jurors Wednesday asked them if they could distinguish talent from celebrity. Of Spector, he noted, "Nobody handed Phillip anything in life."
Cutler asked jurors if they were aware of any celebrities accused of crimes.
When one mentioned Paris Hilton, Cutler walked toward Spector and placed a hand on his shoulder and proclaimed, "an example of talent ... versus celebrity."
With nearly every seat in the courtroom taken by jurors and those directly involved in the trial, I am covering events from an anteroom.
I peer through a 6-inch high glass slot and try to hear through the courtroom door. I might try holding a cup to the door to hear better. It is tough to make out what attorney Roger Rosen is saying.
Not a problem when attorney Bruce Cutler speaks. - Peter Y. Hong
Spector and Cutler greeted each other in the courthouse lobby for the second day of jury selection with a hearty embrace and kisses on the cheek. Mrs. Spector wore a Team Spector button on her lapel.
Spector's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, more than lived up to expectations Monday as a flamboyant attorney, turning his questions into discourses on his client, who he referred to as "Philip."
The murder trial of Phil Spector began in earnest Monday as potential jurors crowded into the courtroom for questioning by lawyers. Judge Larry Paul Fidler spent about a half-hour directing potential jurors on proper courtroom behavior and re-assured them that if they are selected, their faces will not be broadcast during the televised trial. By the time he finished, it was time for the noon lunch break.
Spector arrived in court this morning as he has for his past few appearances, flanked by his 26-year-old wife, Rachelle Short, and led by black-suited, broad-bodied guards. He wore a navy blue pinstriped variant of what appears to be his trial uniform for the trial thus far -- a knee-length jacket, open-collared shirt and high-heeled boots.
In the days before Lana Clarkson was found dead inside Phil Spector's Alhambra castle, a Web site devoted to tracking and mocking lesser celebrities had some fun with the fact that Kmart, which had used Clarkson in its television commercials, had fallen on hard times.
In the hours before he allegedly killed a woman in his hilltop mansion, record producer Phil Spector visited a music club, had a post-midnight snack and left a $500 tip on a $55 tab -- none of which seems to have been particularly out of the ordinary, according to those who saw him.
Phil Spector, the influential but erratic rock 'n' roll producer best known for his layered "Wall of Sound" recording technique, was arrested on suspicion of murder early Monday after an actress was found shot to death at his hilltop mansion in Alhambra.
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