Policeman contradicts Spector prosecution witness
By LINDA DEUTSCH
AP Special Correspondent
LOS ANGELES — A police officer called by prosecutors to corroborate testimony of Phil Spector’s ex-girlfriend Thursday wound up contradicting her account, saying he saw no injuries on her and never heard her say she was pistol-whipped by Spector.
The testimony involves a prosecution effort in the murder trial to show that the music producer had a pattern of threatening women with guns long before the shooting death of actress and former Napa County resident Lana Clarkson in his home in 2003.
Pasadena police Sgt. Chris Russ said he was one of two officers who responded to 911 call by Dorothy Melvin on July 3, 1993, and found what he described as “something of a domestic incident” in which she said Spector, who was her boyfriend, “had displayed a gun and kept her purse.”
Melvin, former manager of comedian Joan Rivers, testified earlier that she had a romantic relationship with Spector which ended after the incident. She claimed that a drunken Spector hit her head with a pistol, causing welts and drawing blood and said she showed her wounds to police, who gave her ice to put on them.
Russ said he couldn’t recall seeing any injuries on Melvin. Pressed by prosecutor Alan Jackson on the subject, he said he remembered Melvin “parting her hair” with her hands while she was talking to his partner “to show something,” but never saw what it was.
“You never observed any injuries, did you?” asked defense attorney Doron Weinberg.
“No, I didn’t,” said Russ.
“You don’t recall her saying anything about being hit with a gun?” Weinberg asked.
“No, I don’t,” said Russ.
Russ recalled that Spector was wearing a shoulder holster and the officers saw a shotgun in the house. When Spector became “agitated and aggressive,” Russ said, they handcuffed him and called a supervisor. Eventually, he said, Melvin’s purse was retrieved and she declined to press charges because it would cause unwanted publicity for Rivers.
“I felt it should have been an arrest initially,” he said. But after Melvin made her wishes known, the supervisor decided to drop it.
The officer also said he saw no sign that Spector was drunk.
Spector, 68, the legendary rock music figure, is being retried on charges of murdering Clarkson after a hung jury ended his first trial. Prosecutors are seeking to paint him as a man who became “demonic” when he drank, hated women and frequently threatened them with guns.
Clarkson and her family lived in Angwin in the 1970s. She attended Pacific Union College Preparatory School in Angwin in 1978 before moving to Southern California with her family.
Another Spector ex-girlfriend who met him 37 years ago and went to work for him, testified to being dazzled with the chance for a job with such a legend. Eventually, she said, he swept her off her feet romantically.
Devra Robitaille, a onetime child piano prodigy from England, said she was 20 when she met Spector through her job at Warner Records. Once, she said, Spector invited her to a recording session with John Lennon. Then she went to work for him.
“It was a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “... I thought he was absolutely phenomenal. He was brilliant at what he did. I idolized him.”
Eventually, Robitaille, who was married, said she began an extramarital affair with Spector. She remembered the beginning of romance after they had attended a Dion recording session.
“I was unlocking my car and I turned and he took me in his arms and kissed me,” she said wistfully.
Often, she said, she arranged parties at Spector’s home and when she tried to leave one of them, he pulled a gun.
“I was standing in the foyer and when I turned he had a gun pointed at my temple,” she said. “...It stopped me cold. I didn’t know what to do.”
“How did you feel?” asked prosecutor Truc Do.
“Outraged and disprespected,” she said. “...He was shouting at me different permutations of, ’I’ll blow your head off, blow your brains out.”’
She said she “became British” and told him to “stop mucking about” and put down the gun. She said that defused the situation and he got the keys and let her out.
After the incident, she said, she tried to quit but was coaxed back with flowers and pleas and she kept working with him for another year and a half.
“There was more good than bad,” she said. “It was interesting and exciting and for the most part Mr. Spector was a good guy. I put it aside.”
The trial is in recess until next Wednesday.
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Normbc9 wrote on Nov 8, 2008 9:38 AM: