Could you imagine Phil Spector in the adult business?
Hollywood- Legendary producer Phil Spector is currently on trial for the shooting murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Now, court papers reveal the music business icon’s extensive history of gun charges, alleged hostage taking and so-called terrorist threats. Prosecutors want a jury to hear about these past cases to prove Spector has an obsession with weapons.
Unsealed on Monday, the documents illustrate at least ten different occasions, beginning in 1972, where Spector either plead guilty to, or was accused of aiming a weapon, point blank, at various girlfriends and colleagues, including famed poet-troubadour Leonard Cohen. The documents show that, in 1977, Spector aimed a semi-automatic pistol at Cohen’s chest and said, “I love you, Leonard.” Spector then walked away, the papers say.
A 1988 incident is mentioned where Spector chased personal assistant Diane Ogden with an Uzi-type assault rifle. Another victim of gun threat was the personal assistant to Joan Rivers.
Papers also show that, ten months after the Clarkson murder, Spector entered a Pasadena Starbucks seemingly inebriated and shouted, “Where’s the pisser in this place?” He then threatened two customers, screaming, “I’m going to get my gun and blow you fat f*****s away!”
Spector became famous for producing major hits of the 1960s, including The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.” He is charged with murdering Lana Clarkson in 2003 at his mansion in Alhambra, California.
Prosecutors say the night of Clarkson’s murder, Spector drank at least 3 daiquiri cocktails, two navy grogs — a drink that contains three shots of different kinds of rum — then a shot of Bacardi 151, straight up. According to papers, Spector appeared so drunk, Clarkson had to help him walk. Spector’s driver than night told police that he heard a “pow” as he sat outside the mansion. The driver told detectives that when he confronted Spector, the music legend held a revolver in his right hand across the front of his abdomen and said, “I think I killed somebody.”
Detectives later found the murder weapon under Clarkson’s leg; it had been wiped clean.
Spector claims Clarkson killed herself. On the date of the incident, Spector blamed Clarkson for her own death, yelling to cops, “She had no right to come to my f*****g castle, blow her f******g head open!”
A cop at the crime scene said he heard Spector say, “I didn’t mean to do it.” But Spector later denied responsibility, claiming Clarkson was waving a gun, singing Spector’s songs and then shot herself to death.
Guns, violence, women and Phil Spector have converged for more than 30 years, according to a new document unsealed Monday in the murder case against the rock music legend.
Before Spector allegedly shot actress Lana Clarkson in the face in 2003, he had pointed a gun at nearly a dozen other people over the years – including several women who enraged him when they tried to leave him, prosecutors said.
From the LA Times: One victim, an on-and-off girlfriend who also worked as one of Spector’s personal assistants, told authorities that not only did he put a handgun to her face one night in 1988, but two weeks later chased her while wielding an assault rifle until she ran to her car and locked herself inside. He banged on her windows as she drove away, she said.
Another woman said Spector pointed a gun at her head in 1991 when she told him she felt tired and wanted to leave his house.
“Spector has a long history of gun-related violence, directed in large part at women,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas Sortino wrote in the motion arguing that such evidence should be admitted at the trial to show that the record producer shot Clarkson because she, too, was trying to leave.
Police found Clarkson’s body at Spector’s Alhambra mansion Feb. 3, 2003, after his chauffeur heard a gunshot and called 911.
Spector allegedly told the chauffeur that he thought he “killed somebody” and told police at the scene that “the gun went off accidentally.” But he later told police that Clarkson put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.
Spector’s defense lawyers plan to ask the court in the next few weeks to exclude any mention of other gun-related incidents from his past.
“It makes for interesting reading, but why don’t we try this case based on the facts of the case?” said Spector’s attorney, Roger Rosen, in an interview. “Who cares about something that happened 30 years ago? He’s not on trial for any of those things. He’s on trial for what happened to Ms. Clarkson.”
Legal experts say a judge’s ruling on whether to include such information will have a powerful effect on jurors.
The law generally prohibits prosecutors from introducing character evidence or prior bad acts to show that the defendant is a violent person, said Paul Bergman, a professor emeritus who teaches a course on evidence at UCLA Law School. But an exception could be made if the other incidents seem similar to the case at hand.
“The more these other incidents resemble this case, the more likely the judge will admit this as his modus operandi – M.O. – his way of dealing with someone,” Bergman said. “But there are differences. Obviously this woman ended up dead. These other people did not.”
A hearing before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler is scheduled in May.
According to prosecutors, Spector’s history of threatening people with guns dates to at least 1972, when a woman called the Beverly Hills Police Department to report that a man in a maroon jacket with a karate emblem pointed a gun at her in a Rodeo Drive club. After pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a loaded firearm in a public place, Spector was sentenced to one year of probation.
In 1975, a Beverly Hills valet heard a woman scream “Get away from me!” at two men. When the valet intervened, one of the men – Spector – turned around and pointed a revolver at him and another valet. Spector pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of brandishing a firearm and was sentenced to two years’ probation.
Other incidents cited include a 1993 assault, when Spector allegedly hit a woman on the head with a handgun when she refused to remove her clothes; and a 1995 incident, when he allegedly pushed a woman – and then pointed a gun at her – when she refused to go to his hotel room.
Many of these incidents occurred when Spector appeared to be drunk and romantically interested in a woman – just as with Clarkson, said prosecutors.