Phil Spector арестован по подозрению в убийстве

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Phil Spector Arrested After Scuffle

Famed producer Phil Spector, who is awaiting trial on a murder charge, was arrested yesterday (May 14) after getting into a scuffle with his chauffeur at the music producer's California mansion.

Both men were arrested for investigation of misdemeanor battery. Police arrived at the home around 10:15 AM to find them attempting to place each other under citizen's arrest, police Lt. Elliot Kase said.

"They had an issue over their business relationship," Kase said. "We're not exactly sure what the issue was, but they didn't seem to come to agreement. It was mutual combat, so they chose to arrest each other."

Spector, 64, was taken into custody and later released after a June 14 court date was set. The driver, Tobie Wheeler, remained in custody. Both men claimed to have suffered minor injuries, Kase said.

Spector was charged last year with murdering actress Lana Clarkson, who was found shot in his mansion on Feb. 2, 2003. He has denied the murder allegation and has suggested the woman killed herself. The case has yet to go to trial.

According to authorities, Wheeler, 46, had worked for Spector for three months and had no connection to the murder case. A figure in the case is another chauffeur who was on Spector's property at the time. Calls to Spector's lawyer Leslie Abramson were not immediately returned.

Spector judge rules on evidence

Spector (right) is pictured with one his lawyers, Leslie Abramson

Lawyers for music producer Phil Spector have told a court they are not hiding fingernail evidence from the body of the actress he is accused of killing.
Prosecutors had suggested a torn piece of Lana Clarkson's nail had been found at the scene of the crime last year.

But at a hearing on Friday, a judge accepted the defence's declaration that it had no such evidence.

Mr Spector, 62, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Clarkson at his Los Angeles mansion in February 2003.

The B-movie actress was found shot in the foyer of his hilltop home in the city's Alhambra district.

'Overlooked'

A coroner's report showed Ms Clarkson had been shot with a gun inside her mouth. She had gunshot residue on both of her hands, indicating she may have fired the weapon.

Earlier this year prosecutors said a piece of Ms Clarkson's nail found by a forensic expert had been overlooked by sheriff's investigators. They said the nail was blackened with gunpowder residue.

But on Friday, Superior Court Judge Carlos Uranga said the testimony of the forensic specialist, Henry Lee, was not needed.

Mr Uranga said if the defence did not have the evidence, neither side would be able to use it if it turned up later.

The judge set a preliminary hearing for 20 October to determine whether there was enough evidence to try Mr Spector for murder.

He was charged with murder in November and is on $1m (£550,000) bail.

Spector Sues Former Attorney
Jul 6, 2004, 2:15 PM PT

You'd think Phil Spector would have had enough of courtrooms by now. Think again.

The eccentric Rock and Roll Hall of Fame record producer, who has spent much of the last year in and out of the Alhambra, California, courthouse for a murder rap, is now ready to take his former lawyer to court. Spector has sued Robert L. Shapiro, alleging the high-powered attorney owes Spector a refund on a $1 million retainer.

The civil suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims Shapiro and his law firms "took advantage of Mr. Spector and used his legal plight as an opportunity to unabashedly line their own pockets" after the former Wall of Sound wunderkind was arrested for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson in February 2003.

The complaint accused Shapiro and his two firms--Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro and the Law Offices of Robert L. Shapiro--of doing "very little legal work" as legal counsel and alleges that what was done was "incompetently performed."

The 64-year-old rock 'n' roll icon went to visit Shapiro, whom he considered a "friend and confidant," at the lawyer's offices shortly after getting out of jail on a $1 million bond.

Per the suit, it was there that the attorney allegedly "coerced" Spector into agreeing to a nonrefundable retainer worth $1.5 million plus hourly fees, no matter how much time he spent on the case. At the same time, the reclusive producer claims he was frazzled--unable to take his routine meds for an unspecified "medical condition" and "under a tremendous amount of mental stress that comes with being arrested for murder."

According to court papers, Shapiro conducted himself in a way that was "unprofessional, unethical and unconscionable." The suit says Shapiro's firms were negligent in interviewing key witnesses, as well as properly collecting and examining evidence, prompting Spector to fire the attorney, who is best known for helping get O.J. Simpson off the hook. Spector replaced him with another celebrity defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, of Menendez brother fame.

Spector seeks $500,000 in reimbursement, plus damages. His attorney in the civil suit, Raymond Boucher, was out of the office and unavailable for comment.

Shapiro remained mum on the matter, except to say the issues will be adjudicated before a judge.

"Because of the attorney-client privilege, I cannot comment at all other than to say that we will contest the allegations in court," Shapiro told E! Online.

According to the suit, Shapiro was also the one to discover one of Clarkson's fingernails with gunpowder residue, which sheriff's investigators missed upon searching Spector's home for physical evidence.

The 41-year-old actress was found shot to death in the foyer of his Alhambra mansion on Feb. 2, 2003, hours after Spector picked her up at West Hollywood's House of Blues, where she worked as a hostess. Spector later told Esquire in an interview that a drunk Clarkson shot herself. The broken thumbnail and a coroner's report would appear to support that claim.

But now there's a dispute over whether the fingernail ever existed. Prosecutors have accused the defense of hiding evidence.

During a hearing in the murder case Friday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carlos Uranga ordered Spector's new defense team to turn over the mystery nail to the D.A. for review--or be forbidden to use it in the future. Abramson denied hiding anything and even offered to bring in another O.J. player, forensic expert Henry Lee, in a pretrial hearing to testify that all he found was a piece of white thread tainted with blood.

The judge decided Lee's testimony wasn't necessary. Instead, he set an Oct. 20 preliminary hearing to decide whether there's enough evidence for Spector's case to go to trial.

Phil Spector Hires Former Gotti Attorney

LOS ANGELES - Music producer Phil Spector has hired an attorney who used to work for mob boss John Gotti to defend him on murder charges after his previous attorney resigned from the case.

Leslie Abramson said Tuesday that she and her co-counsel resigned as Spector's attorneys but were taken by surprise when Bruce Cutler filed a motion to take over the case while Abramson was out of the country.

"We were put in an untenable position, and we were forced to resign," Abramson said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "If we wanted to be ethical and competent, we had to resign."

She declined to elaborate.

Cutler, speaking from New York, said he has known Spector for a long time and had signed on as his personal attorney before Abramson and Marcia Morrissey took over the criminal case.

"I was engaged as Phillip's attorney and confidante last January," he said. "Leslie and Marcia were brought on in February, and they quit in July. They just jumped ship, and I had to take control of the ship and bring it into port."

Federal prosecutors in New York have portrayed Cutler as "house counsel" for the Gambino crime family. He won three trials for Gotti before prosecutors were able to get him disqualified from the defense team by playing 1990 tape recordings on which he had conversations with Gotti about other defendants.

Gotti died in prison in 2002.

Spector, famed for creating rock 'n' roll's "wall of sound" recording technique in the 1960s, is charged in the fatal shooting of Lana Clarkson at his mansion in February 2003.

Clarkson, 40, had gone home with him from the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip where she was a hostess. She was best known as the star of Roger Corman's cult film classic "Barbarian Queen."

The case is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 20. Cutler said they would seek to postpone the hearing to get up to date on the proceedings.

Spector, 64, is free on $1 million bail.

Abramson was hired in February to replace Spector's original attorney, Robert Shapiro, who was a member of O.J. Simpson's defense team.

Team Spector Buys Time
Tue Sep 14

Phil Spector may have finally found some lawyers he likes.

The famed music man, arrested for the 2003 murder of B-movie actress/House of Blues cocktail waitress Lana Clarkson, swooned over his new lawyer, Bruce Cutler, Tuesday after Cutler secured a later start date for a preliminary hearing in advance of Spector's probable murder trial.

"I think Bruce Cutler is a genius," Spector told the Associated Press. "There was no crime committed, and I'm sure he'll bring forth evidence that the district attorney has been hiding," he continued.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office sees the all-but-certain trial against the 64-year-old music legend a bit differently. The D.A's office "obviously disagrees" with Spector's statement, said Los Angeles County district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

Although the prosecution believes Spector is guilty, they did not fight team Spector's request for more preparatory time before the preliminary hearing. Prosecutors know they will need to have their case down cold before they face Spector's high-powered legal team and could probably use the extra time.

The case against the producer has been fraught with several twists, turns and delays since news of his arrest broke early last year. Spector has long maintained that Clarkson killed herself ("kissed the gun" in Spectorese) at his Alhambra estate outside of Los Angeles.

While it took police more than eight months to complete their unusually long investigation, last November they finally brought charges against the producer, who remains free on $1 million bail.

"It's not an accident, it's not a suicide," police Captain Frank Merriman told the Los Angeles Times Sept. 19, 2003. "Phil Spector shot her."

Since Spector's arrest, he has gone through some of Hollywood's most well known attorneys in a quest for dismissal of charges brought against him.

Earlier this year, for example, Spector tapped O.J. Simpson dream team ringleader Robert Shapiro. He eventually dropped, then sued Shapiro for $1 million for allegedly doing "very little legal work" as legal counsel.

After dumping Shapiro, Spector hired Menendez brother defender Leslie Abramson. Spector had his differences with Abramson, and she was eventually off the case as well.

More recently, the mercurial producer, known for his "wall of sound" recording technique, made headlines for hiring former mob boss John Gotti's legal team--the New York-based Cutler and Los Angeles-based Roger J. Rosen.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carlos Uranga, after meeting with both Spector's lawyers and prosecutors Tuesday, has now scheduled a Dec. 16 date to schedule a preliminary hearing for Spector.

If Spector is ultimately convicted, he faces a possible life sentence.