Saturday, March 13, 2010

Phil Spector’s Murder Trial Was An Absolute Sham

Los Angeles, CA—I wrote extensively about legendary record producer, Phil Spector’s first murder trial that ended in a mistrial when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. . I was not able to do much with the retrial because of other commitments, but it was even worse that the first trial.

Both trials were as unfair, and as outrageous as I’ve ever seen in my 40 years of experience inside the criminal justice system. During the trials I compared L.A. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler to Roland Freisler, the President of The People’s Court of Germany’s Third Reich. I don’t think that was an exaggeration because of nearly every ruling made by Fidler.

It was obvious to me that Judge Fidler had an agenda to convict Spector at any cost after numerous embarrassing high profile acquittals of other celebrity defendants. Fidler was drunk with power as he satisfied the harpy-pundits of that failed TV network, Court TV. It just so happened that I met Judge Fidler when he was invited to San Francisco to attend an Investigative Reporter’s and Editor’s conference in San Francisco with that very pretty, former Court TV correspondent, Beth Karas.

Spector’s trial was not about evidence but was an exercise of pure hatred. The trial manifested hatred for Spector’s wealth, flamboyant hair, manner of dress and lifestyle.

Spector had a lifetime’s worth of gold-digging women satisfying his libido and then angered when Spector did not give them the wealth and fame they sought. The very worst of this group were allowed to testify against Spector about decades old affairs.

Spector’s real crime was his sometimes horrible taste and judgment in the women he allowed in his bed. In that mix were thieves, extortionists and drug addicts. Some would return to haunt Spector for a slim chance at fame and of course the cash they could get from the tabloids for their tall tales.

The dead woman, Lana Clarkson fit Spector’s bedmates well. Clarkson was a failed and now too old actress with habit for ingesting Vicodin nearly a dozen times a day. The poor woman was an alcoholic suffering from depression and was nearly destitute. It was clear that Clarkson was under the influence of both drugs and alcohol when she died.

None the less Clarkson was a sympathetic figure that Hollywood used and spit out. Clarkson was beautiful and there was evidence she tried very hard to gain fame and fortune that sadly never materialized. Clarkson was really just another tragic story from The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Clarkson did not go home with Phil Spector who she just met for anything more than an act of commerce. Spector had money and Clarkson needed some.

A violent death occurred but the evidence of murder just was not there. On the contrary there was a lot of evidence suggesting suicide or a self-inflicted accidental shooting by a drunken woman.

We don’t have a video, instant replay of this tragedy. We and the jury had to guess how Clarkson died. It’s a human trait to want to assign blame for a needless death. The blame went to Phil Spector.

In Judge Fidler’s court Clarkson’s problems were sanitized while any and everyone who wanted was encouraged by the jurist to throw mud on Spector.

Phil Spector was railroaded to a prison cell for more years than the 70 year-old has left on earth. Spector very well may never live long enough to win his appeal. This is wrong.

With The People’s Court of Germany, the public did not see much of anything wrong with Judge Freisler’s show trials either. “Justice” was always administered there, swift and sure. What happened in this Los Angeles courtroom can happen to you or someone you love.

Read now the appeal brief filed on behalf of Phil Spector:
28176613 People vs Phil Spector Appellant s Opening Brief

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

How very sad that a man such as Phil Spector wa convicted by a judge and not a jury. The jury's decision was clearly based not only on the judge's interjections of "evidence" and "explanation" but equally on the witness descriptions. These women were not, in any way, "witnesses" to anything. To be angered because they slept with the man years ago and he didn't give them wealth and fame that they sought is not being a witness to anything. Phil Spector's past indiscretions have absolutely nothing to do with the Clarkson case. Phil came out with the gun in his hand? Hardly evidence. Could he not have tried to take the gun away from Clarkson as she was shooting herself? Face it, Clarkson was a down-on-her-luck, failed actress. It is likely that she went home with Spector in the hopes that he might try to revive her failed career - like many other women. When he declined to promote her debatable talents, she could have easily become depressed enough to commit suicide.

Anonymous said...

Judge Larry Fidler has been involved with both Phil Spector and Roman Polanski celebrity cases. See link for more info.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2010/3/13/115851/515

Anonymous said...

The Judge didn't protect him from a bunch of ex- girl friends with gripes in the Los Angeles Criminal Court, and now the prison isn't protecting him either.

Give the man a break, the man doesn't deserve this nor am I sure that Spector's guilt has been proved by County of Los Angeles Prosecutors beyond a reasonable doubt!

Since the Brazilian chauffeur was working illegally and got a payoff and since Lana fell down and broke two of her wrists before she ever met Spector.

See:

Music legend Phil Spector roughed up for mouthing off to fellow inmate, says pal Steven Escobar

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/03/21/2010-03-21_music_legend_phil_spector_roughed_up_for_mouthing_off_to_fellow_inmate_says_pal_.html

Anonymous said...

ALL ABOUT STEVE

As Robert Harris the author of The Ghost Writer states, there is a lynch mob mentality in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office presently.

See:link for more info:

Http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/19/media-lynch-mob-roman-polanski?showallcomments=true#comment-51

This has been in operation for a few years, and was certainly present in the Los Angeles prosecution of the music producer Phillip Spector.

The lynch mob mentality is assisted in California by the Los Angeles Judges allowing Los Angeles prosecutors to dig up and use all your ex-girlfriends or boyfriends or acquaintances against you, and if any happen to say that you pointed a gun at their head 20 years ago. The Los Angeles prosecutors can use that witness information against you at any time in a jury trial, even if not true.

The logic of the Los Angeles Courts allowing all these witnesses to crap royally on you in a Court of “Law” is rather faulty since witness testimony is driven by many things that does not always include the truth, and 5 people saying you pointed a gun at their head twenty years ago does nothing to prove you in fact killed someone with a gun in February 2003, when those 5 were not witnesses. But it will certainly help a naïve jury to bring in their guilty verdict.

And it is also true to say that 5 witnesses who did not witness any murder, does not and should not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

In addition and not to forget that the Star witness for the Los Angeles prosecution in Phil Spector’s case Brazilian Chauffeur Adriano De Souza was paid handsomely for his witness testimony by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office with a US residency and forgiving De Souza’s crime that he was illegally working in U.S.A. which makes De Souza’s testimony even less credible since he had something to gain by giving that particular testimony.

This number was also pulled Polanski’s case – Put up a press camera and actress Charlotte Lewis who was in Polanski’s Pirates movie will come, especially if the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office pays her for her “witness” services.

So is it possible someone paid Charlotte Lewis to come to Los Angeles, even though the press & her lawyer Gloria Allred made a point of saying that Charlotte had flown to Los Angeles on her own dime.

Would Charlotte pay her own fare to Los Angeles to meet the L.A.D.A for free?

If Charlotte did not have sex with Roman Polanski voluntarily over a long period of time, and was happy to enjoy the fame and fortune by remaining silent at the time about the sexual encounter and displeasure & which took 28 years for her to report, it would follow that the only reason that she is no longer silent is to gain again financially in the same transaction.

In other words whether Charlotte Lewis is silent or not is dependent on what she is able to gain financially and career wise, and she doesn’t mind stabbing Polanski in the back now if it means more fame and glory and financial gain for her.

In addition and in regards to Steve, Charlotte is a useful star witness against Roman Polanski so that Steve can nail a stale crime against Polanski, and use Polanski’s demise for Steve Cooley's quest to become the next Attorney General of California.

Bottom line who is going to help Phillip Spector get a fair trial, where the ghosts of relationships past don't come back to haunt or nail you when these witnesses were never actual witnesses to what transpired on the fatal day.

Anonymous said...

In Spector case the scientific evidence was admitted. The problem for the defense was NOT in it NOT BEING ADMiTTED, the problem was that evidence from the Los Angeles Coroner’s office including County of Los Angeles PAID personnel from the Coroner’s office was ALSO ADMITTED that contradicted it

Also WHAT WAS ADMITTED INTO EVIDENCE, but which was extremely problematic and PREJUDICIAL was County of Los Angeles Judge Larry Fidler allowing in all these OLD SPECTOR GIRL FRIENDS WITH AXE TO GRIND.

This is DAMNING EVIDENCE for an unsophisticated jury,

and what ever Spector DID or DID NOT do to his ex girlfriends, does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt his murder of Lana Clarkson.

But repetition of the same thing – Spector held a gun to my head may SWAY and CONFUSE a jury very badly. Bottom line HIGHLY PREJUDICIAL ADMITTED EVIDENCE.

So this evidence admitted by County of Los Angeles Judge Larry Fidler was more prejudicial than helpful to the trial at hand which was -

Who pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Lana Clarkson on Feb 3 2003? And was the firing of the gun accidental or not?

Remember the first jury in the first Phil Spector trial was hung. The votes have to be unanimous in California to convict a person of a crime.

Also the fact that Phil Spector was tried a second time by the Los Angeles prosecutors and Judge Larry Fidler is sending a strong message to a NEW jury that the Judge and prosecutors both believe Spector is guilty otherwise WHY BOTHER –

and so a second jury is more likely to carry out the implication in their employment being the NEW jury, hampered in their impartiality through their knowledge that this is NOT the first trial, but the second trial against the same person. The implication is there was something wrong with the first jury, since it was hung, and that the NEW jury should find the defendant guilty, because that is what the powers that be want, who know better than anybody else.

In addition I don’t think the scientific evidence provided by the Los Angeles prosecutors proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Spector murdered Lana Clarkson

And I would suggest that nobody rely on the illegal Brazilian chauffeur’s testimony since he has been BRIBED and REWARDED by Los Angeles County for being the Los Angeles prosecution Star witness with a US residency which makes his testimony influenced, coerced and possibly corrupt?

Why is it - once the decision has been made to prosecute, and that the DA believes that someone is guilty of a crime or an Official believes that someone is guilty of a crime against the system by blowing the whistle on the corruption, then the system begins to take on a life of its own, and will do everything it can to keep their vision, their version of events, covering up anything that points to the contrary.

Anonymous said...

Update - Phil Spector to broadcast from jail in his civil law suit against his former attorney, rather than being allowed to show up to the courthouse in person. This does not help his image and his case especially if it is a jury trial.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/25/phil-spector-wont-appear-in-person-at-civil-trial/

Also seems that Al Pacino is going to play Phil Spector in an HBO movie about his life, David Mamet is also involved.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/al-pacino-to-play-phil-spector-in-biopic-20101012

Anonymous said...

The oral argument was heard for Phil Spector Appeal of conviction in California Appeal Court in downtown Los Angeles on 4/12/2011

Here is Linda Deutsch's account
http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Phil-Spector-murder-conviction-in-appeals-court-1332964.php

Anonymous said...

A foreign Newspaper said that the trial of Phil Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson is INCONCLUSIVE (see link below) .

Will the California Court of Appeals reverse the conviction and order a new and FAIR TRIAL? Or will there just be A STONE WALL OF INJUSTICE, in the court of appeal decision. We will have to wait and see.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/inside-story-the-weird-world-of-mr--mrs-phil-spector-2055932.html

Anonymous said...

A foreign Newspaper said that the trial of Phil Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson is INCONCLUSIVE (see link below) . 

Will the California Court of Appeals reverse the conviction and order a new and FAIR TRIAL? Or will there just be A STONE WALL OF INJUSTICE, in the court of appeal decision. We will have to wait and see.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/inside-story-the-weird-world-of-mr--mrs-phil-spector-2055932.html

Anonymous said...

May 2nd 2011

California's Great Wall of Injustice -

No big surprise here given what has gone on before with California InJustice.

What's past is prologue!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/phil-spector-murder-conviction-upheld-court-says-he-got-fair-trial.html

Anonymous said...

2nd May 2011

Fair Trials? Are There Any Fair Trials In LA?

What’s past is prologue!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/phil-spector-murder-conviction-upheld-court-says-he-got-fair-trial.html

2nd May 2010

http://www.bernard-henri-levy.com/i-can-remain-silent-no-longer-5380.html

Anonymous said...

Helen Mirren will not back out of movie about Phil Spector

http://www.anhourago.co.uk/show.aspx?l=8712808

Anonymous said...

Al Pacino is Phil Spector in a movie about the man, the artist, whose father was not able to be there for Phil, but Phil made it -VERY BIG anyway...for awhile

I BELIEVE PHIL SPECTOR & HIS MUSIC WILL LIVE ON - FOREVER - REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY SAY

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2023231/Al-Pacino-spitting-image-Phil-Spector-hideous-afro-wig.html

Anonymous said...

Phil Spector from Prison: ‘I’m Enraged with Hate at That Judge for Sending Me Here’

http://gawker.com/5361997/phil-spector-from-prison-im-enraged-with-hate-at-that-judge-for-sending-me-here

Anonymous said...

As a film starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren claims Phil Spector is innocent of murder, the victim's friends plead: 'Don't make this killer a hero'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2025045/Phil-Spector-movie-Al-Pacino-Helen-Mirren-film-makes-killer-hero-victims-friends-say.html

Anonymous said...

Phil Spector appeal at California Supreme Court rejected today.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-18/california-supreme-court-turns-down-phil-spector-appeal/2845444?section=entertainment

Would the US Supreme Court be able to pick it up? And will they pick this one out of the heap of 7000 they receive a year?

Better odds in Las Vegas - one can only hope...

Anonymous said...

David Mamet Thinks Phil Spector Was Railroaded

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/
06/david_mamet_phil_spector_alan.php

Anonymous said...

More info on Lana Clarkson’s prior accidents and there seem to be even more “ACCIDENTS” that LANA CLARKSON HAD that were NOT MENTIONED AT THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES TRIALS OF PHIL SPECTOR…

” After being severely injured last year, fracturing both wrists in 22 places, having four surgeries and not working for seven months, I have no choice but to take a ‘day’ job, ”

The injury Clarkson referred to was nearly incapacitating. And … the most recent in a catalogue of accidents.

A few years before, while horseback riding in Jamaica with Chris Blackwell of Island Records and ex-boyfriend Dickie Jobson, director of the reggae film Countryman, Clarkson fell and hurt her back. She had to be taken by helicopter to a hospital in Miami. “She was already in pain from an old injury,” Blackwell recalled, “and was having headaches.”

Clarkson’s wrist injury happened when she was trying to do the jig from Riverdance at a Christmas party. While dancing with two kids, she slipped on a loose rug and fell, requiring months of physical therapy during which her mother, Donna, her sister, Fawn, and her masseuse took turns feeding and washing her at her small cottage on the Venice canals.

“She was still healing,” her masseuse Milena Popovich said a few months after her death, in thickly accented English. “While she was healing, she broke her left wrist again.” According to Popovich, Lana’s wrists – on the night she died, two years after the injury – were so weak that she had trouble gripping a steering wheel. “Lana was very fragile,” Popovich said, “very easily hurt.” This applied to her emotional state as well. “Sometimes if you disagreed with her,” Popovich remembered, “she would burst into tears. She was like a little girl sometimes.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/lana-clarkson-and-phil-spector-the-hostess-and-the-hitmaker-441531.html

Phil Spector is no angel for waiving guns around, or for annoying John Lennon’s ears – but is he REALLY a murderer? Or was he framed because of an accident prone girl in his house.

Anonymous said...

The question is - is Phil Spector REALLY a murderer? Or was Phil framed because of an accident prone girl in his house.

So, you think Lana Clarkson shooting herself was an accident? Rather than suicide? Why would she want to kill herself, anyway?

Accident prone accidental killing victim? According to forensic evidence she put that barrel into her own mouth & then what? Pulled the trigger, by accident – or deliberately? Was she drunk, &/or stoned?

I doubt Spector killed her, at most by ‘accident’, just like Lana could have accidentally killed herself – & to convict him at a second trial - is to condemn an eccentric man innocent of actual murder.

I believe Lana Clarkson's shooting was an accident, which the scientific evidence pointed to, in addition to the modus operandi of Lana Clarkson herself, which was for her to have very bad accidents in public with other people around. She was accident prone.

Was it something psychological with Lana, was this accident prone thing something that repeated unconsciously for Lana Clarkson? And where is Freud when you need him? Was it Lana Clarkson’s way of crying out for help – in public – which resulted in her harming herself publicly? Or was she just a klutz, just accident prone – and we shouldn't read anything else into it

Also Phil’s modus operandi was pointing guns at some women he was close to, or shoot a gun into the air as per John Lennon’s case, frightening everyone and making a loud noise. (attention grabbing)

But Phil’s modus operandi for 60 years prior to Lana was never to kill anyone. So why if this was true - would he start to kill – so late with Lana? Was he turning into a Klutz too? Was he becoming senile?

If anything – the prior girl friends and their testimony prove that Phil Spector pointed guns at them –without firing those guns, but you can't use that testimony to prove he did fire the gun in Lana's case!!!!!

However what you do have here and what does EXIST IS TWO MODUS OPERANDIS COMPETING WITH EACH OTHER.

THE FIRST MODUS OPERANDI is that of Lana Clarkson the accident prone woman and

THE SECOND MODUS OPERANDI is that of Phil Spector the man who pointed his gun at a woman from time to time.

SO WHICH MODUS OPERANDI WON THE PRIZE ON Feb 3 2003?

PHIL SPECTOR WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE CHANGED HIS MODUS OPERANDI ON FEB 3 2003 IN ORDER TO SHOOT LANA CLARKSON - AS HE HAD NEVER SHOT ANYONE PREVIOUSLY - TO BE GUILTY OF LANA'S MURDER.

If we believe the modus operandi OF BOTH LANA CLARKSON AND PHIL SPECTOR DID NOT CHANGE– then the accident prone Lana had YET another accident!!!! AND PHIL SPECTOR HAS BEEN FRAMED FOR HER MURDER.

Anonymous said...

David Mamet's Phil Spector is premiering on HBO in Spring time - 2013.

Linda Kenney Baden, (Phil's lawyer from his first trial) believes that Phil Spector is innocent as per the forensic evidence, as does David Mamet, the director of this new movie. Also so does Michael Baden forensics expert who testified on Phil Spector's behalf at the first trial.

Links:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/al-pacino-helen-mirren-david-408735

http://www.educationforensic.com/advisors/bio_michaelbaden.html

Link to the first mistrial

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-phil-spector-trial-spector-dances-literally-and-the-aftermath-20070928

The Agony and The Ecstasy of Phil Spector (A Documentary) 9 links

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6oVEMOTyyo
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqs_DQKOZzk
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnEH4X7rWEg
Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyGBnXrq7GI
Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeG0hfU2Z9g
Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqWFISLinSI
Part 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z769pxL4hrg
Part 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoS8toedNCo
Part 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2yDN3vK2QY



Anonymous said...

Talking about intimidation destroying a man's castle - while the man is away.

Phil Spector has sued the city of Alhambra over damage to his home.

His lawsuit, says there was a landslide caused by construction done by the city of Alhambra that has made his home uninhabitable.

If his wife Rachelle was there when the landslide occurred that would be a pretty scary occurrence for her to have to endure in her own home!!!!

Isn't this Government intimidation and bullying at its worst!!!! The man is serving time - he may be guilty, but there again he may also be innocent since the forensic evidence pointed that way - and apart from that

What business has the Government

A) to destroy Phil Spector's home -
B) Or to intimidate his wife, by bulldozing their home
and C) cause them more torture and grief?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/phil-spector-lawsuit-alhambra-property-damage-314243

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90zip4w_ICU&feature=endscreen


BBC TV 2 Arena The Agony and Ecstacy of Phil Spector
(full better version)

Anonymous said...

Could it be that Phil Spector is only as guilty as the mother in the CT Case, in that guns were accessible to crazy brand new accident prone friends in his house, or as in the CT case - family?

Remember no blood splatter on Phil Spector’s white jacket!

Could it be that Phil Spector case is an example of the Government putting people off, legally owning any guns at home. After
understanding the Newtown CT case which highlighted millions of guns, and the fact that Phil Spector owned guns most of his 70 years of life, seems quite normal in America in fact.

Also let us not forget that his friend John Lennon died because he was from another land and decided to not protect himself in America even though he was famous and thus more of a target.

Anonymous said...

March 15 2013

The Phil Spector HBO movie with Al Pacino is here. The verdict from Hollywood Reporter below

The Bottom Line

Mamet will succeed in planting doubt (reasonable or not) in viewers' minds in this account of the murder trial of the larger-than-life Spector, brilliantly embodied by Pacino.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/hbos-phil-spector-al-pacino-428228

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57574191/phil-spector-our-verdict-on-al-pacinos-hbo-drama/

and re: protest at Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/phil-spector-hbo-film-protested-by-lana-clarksons-former-publicist-20130315

Anonymous said...

Phil Spector's Wife Does Not Like and Is Upset by HBO TV Movie on Phil Spector:

She says, 'They Depict Him As A Minotaur'

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2013/03/14/phil_spectors_wife_upset_by_tv_movie_t

Anonymous said...

Phil Spector has an angel as a wife.
Bright, beautiful, and devoted.

See interview.

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/phil-spector-movie/514746372b8c2a441000030a

SOULRECORDER said...

I feel sorry for Phil in having being railroaded and thus taken advantage of in the name of false justice. Bless his heart as he is a great man.

Anonymous said...

I just saw the HBO movie Phil Spector and it is a good film for one big reason. It reconstructs and shows how Phil Spector could be very very innocent of murder, and was tried more for having an Afro and being a freak from the 60's, than any proper evidence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector_(film)

http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/phil-spector-review-hbo-david-mamet-al-pacino

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10148042/David-Mamet-on-Phil-Spector-I-dont-give-a-damn-about-the-facts.html

Anonymous said...


Phil is ill.

There have been some new court papers
filed by Phil Spector's attorneys.

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/true-crime/sicko-phil-spectors-final-jailhouse-plea

Anonymous said...

A sad state of affairs. A dog eat dog world. Phil Spector will probably die in prison.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3555427/Phil-Spector-files-divorce-wife-10-years-splashing-cars-jets-homes-money-receives-paltry-300-monthly-allowance-bars.html