Mistrial in Phil Spector murder trial
By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent
LOS ANGELES - The murder trial of music producer Phil Spector ended in a mistrial Wednesday because of a deadlocked jury. The mistrial came on the 12th day of deliberations on whether Spector murdered actress Lana Clarkson more than 4 1/2 years ago. The 12-member panel had heard about five months of testimony.
The jury foreman reported the panel was deadlocked 10 to 2 but did not indicate which way it was leaning. The jury reported a 7-5 impasse last week and had resumed deliberations with modified instructions.
"At this time, I will find that the jury is unable to arrive at a verdict and declare a mistrial in this matter," Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said.
Spector, 67, is charged with second-degree murder. Clarkson, 40, died when a gun went off in her mouth as she sat in a chair in the foyer of Spector's Alhambra mansion about 5 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2003. She had met Spector just a few hours earlier at her job as a nightclub hostess and went home with him for a drink after work.
The defense contended throughout the trial that Clarkson had personal problems and died of a self-inflicted wound that was an accident or a suicide.
Prosecutors presented Spector's chauffeur, who said that he heard a "pow" and that Spector then came outside with a gun in his hand and stated: "I think I killed somebody."
Prosecutors also called five women from Spector's past who testified that he long ago terrorized them with guns when they tried to leave his presence.
In a sideshow to the deliberations, authorities had said Tuesday they were investigating a possible threat to the trial judge that was posted on the Internet.
The MySpace.com posting contained the phrases "I love Phil Spector" and "The Evil Judge should DIE!!!!"
The posting was on a page called "Team Spector," said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. It was later taken down, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said.
Sheriff's investigators were looking into the messages, which were signed "xoxo Chelle," according to Parachini. Spector's wife is named Rachelle, but one of the music producer's attorneys, Christopher Plourd, said she denied having anything to do with the notes.
Spector emerged on the music scene in the late 1950s and became a top producer using a hit-making recording technique that became known as the "Wall of Sound." Clarkson was the star of Roger Corman's 1985 cult film "Barbarian Queen."
-------------------------------------------------------
LA TIMES
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ex-spector27sep27,0,7325416.story?coll=la-home-center
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels]
26th September 2007 05:49 PM
fireontheplatter
i think this guy is going to get away with murder. i really do
26th September 2007 06:02 PM
glencar
Of course he will get away with murder; it's California. They're known for having dim-witted juries.
26th September 2007 07:30 PM
mojoman
You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!
26th September 2007 08:17 PM
StephenNYC
Phil Spector has a lot to be thankful for today besides his fame and small fortune. And its not Michael Baden, Bruce Cutler or any member of his defense team. Its two holdout jurors and a judge who should have "dynamite charged" the jury a second time. Spector will be retried if he doesn't kill himself.
26th September 2007 08:24 PM
sammy davis jr.
If THIS fucking idiot gets off......
26th September 2007 09:00 PM
mojoman
quote:sammy davis jr. wrote:
If THIS fucking idiot gets off......
he already got off!!! shooting somebody is a buzz fer him!!!
28th September 2007 06:36 AM
Ten Thousand Motels
He's a Rebel: Phil Spector: Rock and Roll's Legendary Producer
by Mark Ribowsky
January 2007, 400 pages, $18.00
by Adam Bunch
PopMatters.com
There is no question that Phil Spector was one of the greatest producers in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. The lush instrumentation of his trademark Wall of Sound created some of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s greatest songs, he salvaged the Beatles’ Let It Be album from a pile of discarded tapes, and he worked with everyone from the Righteous Brothers, to Ike and Tina Turner to the Ramones and even Celine Dion.
The new edition of Mark Ribowsky’s He’s A Rebel: Phil Spector: Phil Rock and Roll’s Legendary Producer is there every step of the way: from his time as a 15-year-old teen pop star, to his years spent honing his craft in New York City with legendary Brill Building songwriters like Leiber and Stoller, to his triumphant rise as the music industry’s top producer. The book gives a detailed account of it all and while at times it gets bogged down in the minutiae of individual sessions and chart performances, it is a fascinating account of Spector’s staggering list of professional accomplishments. Ribowsky calls him a genius—and it’s no exaggeration.
But just as remarkable as his incredible talent is, Spector’s troubled personal history, culminating in the murder trial slated to begin soon (which prompts this new edition with five additional chapters of trial-related material). The stories of his “eccentric” behaviour have long been the stuff of rock legend—the time he fired a gun in the studio while John Lennon was there, or held one to Dee Dee Ramone’s head and forced him to record – and even in light of the recent charges, it’s tempting to think of them as just the kind of darkly humorous anecdotes that are part of what give rock ‘n’ roll its colourful history.
As He’s A Rebel makes abundantly clear, however, even before 03 February 2003—the night he (allegedly) blew the bottom off Lana Clarkson’s face with a Colt Cobra .38—it was obvious to those who knew Spector that his derangement went far beyond the amusing. Ribowsky draws on scores of interviews with people from Spector’s past who knew him both personally and professionally, and while they have varying opinions on the matter of his guilt, there doesn’t seem to be a single one who disagrees for a moment that Phil Spector is anything but a vicious asshole.
They call him “a snake”, “a lunatic” and someone who “just likes to torment people”. Together, they paint a grisly picture: of a husband who kept his wife a prisoner in their well-guarded home; of a father who abused his adopted sons; and of an alcoholic with an unpredictable temper who regularly forced people to do his biding at the end of a gun. This is not your typical rock ‘n’ roll misfit—by all accounts Spector is a truly cruel human being.
Ribowsky—who links Spector’s dysfunction with the childhood trauma of his father’s suicide—is clearly disturbed by his subject’s behaviour, particularly in light of recent events. Throughout his book, he’s wrestling with the question that so frequently plagues critics: to what extent do you have to qualify your admiration for a great artist who has led an abhorrent personal life? And, like so many before him, Ribowsky’s solution is to separate the artist from the person. “[I]t is my hope that history will be able to delineate the legendary producer from the disoriented sluggard in the back of that police cruiser,” he says at the end of his introduction to the new edition. “Let’s not forget that America once had its own Mozart and that his name was Phil Spector.”
Whatever wishes Ribowsky professes, however, his own book makes it clear that cleanly separating Spector’s life into two halves is an impossible task. The personality traits that led to the producer’s gunplay and his abuse of friends and family are the very same ones that he used to climb to the top of his profession. He lied and cheated all the way through his career—he stole the Crystals and the Ronettes from other companies, he manipulated business partners, musicians and songwriters to his own advantage, and he refused to let his acts have any artistic say on “his” projects.
Even the legendary Wall of Sound itself was only possible thanks to his heartless treatment of artists and sessions musicians in the studio—forcing them to work long into the night while he perfected his sound, keeping them in line through whatever means he found necessary. If Phil Spector weren’t a jerk, we would never have even heard of him; if he weren’t a tyrant, there would have been no “Be My Baby”, no “Instant Karma” and no “Rock and Roll High School”.
Of course, the truth is that he will be remembered for both. Spector-the-disoriented-sluggard-in-the-back-of-that-police-cruiser and Spector-the-legendary-producer will share their place in history—as they rightly should. To forget either in favour of the other would be an injustice. And that’s what makes He’s A Rebel such a great place to start exploring the life of this talented and tormented man. Ribowsky sees the tragic truth of the story that he’s telling: Phil Spector is a terrible man who made wonderful music.
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels]
28th September 2007 10:58 AM
glencar
Even Letterman was cracking wise about this trial last night.
28th September 2007 11:13 AM
gimmekeef
It must have gotten a little "hairy".....Why does CA even bother prosecuting murder cases?
28th September 2007 11:46 AM
sammy davis jr.
As Joey Ramone said "What has he done lately? Nothing." One of the most overrated jews of all time.
28th September 2007 11:50 AM
Saint Sway
I can tell you first hand that he's bad news and an absolutely criminally insane, horrible person
a few years after college a good friend of mine got into some real bad drug trouble - dealing/using. Right around the time we had to step in and do an intervention and actually physically force him into rehab, Phil Spector and his whack hanger-ons (mostly "escorts") were constantly over at his place at all hours doing blow and smoking crack. It was insane and absolutely frightening scene. He is an obsessive, violent, deranged, paranoid, schitzophrenic lunatic.
28th September 2007 11:57 AM
gimmekeef
quote:Saint Sway wrote:
I can tell you first hand that he's bad news and an absolutely criminally insane, horrible person
He is an obsessive, violent, deranged, paranoid, schitzophrenic lunatic.
So whats his nickname here then?
28th September 2007 12:09 PM
Saint Sway
quote:gimmekeef wrote:
So whats his nickname here then?
Gypsy
28th September 2007 12:15 PM
LadyJane
quote:Saint Sway wrote:
Gypsy
ya know...I TRY to keep out of these feuds, but I'm gonna say something here.
gypsy has the BALLS to take on the guys around here. Not an easy task given the ratio of boys to girls.
Most of what she says is in jest, but, unlike the posts the MEN make, SHE is always taken seriously. Ahhh...the old double standard.
She is a dear friend of mine and often I shake my head at what she posts, but I admire her.
There. I said it. And I'm not getting into any war of the words about it.
Still Switzerland,
LJ.
28th September 2007 12:21 PM
Saint Sway
For the record, LJ. I never started anything with her. But she goes at me all the time. To which, I've mostly ignored her.
but that said, as far I'm concerned, she's fair game
quote:LadyJane wrote:
Most of what she says is in jest, but, unlike the posts the MEN make, SHE is always taken seriously. Ahhh...the old double standard.
I would hope that its obvious that my post was in jest
[Edited by Saint Sway]
28th September 2007 12:24 PM
LadyJane
quote:Saint Sway wrote:
For the record, LJ. I never started anything with her. But she goes at me all the time. To which, I've mostly ignored her.
but that said, as far I'm concerned, she's fair game
Oh she can take it.
I'm just expressing an opinion that's all.
BTW...Mr Sway...did you LOSE my snail mail addy????
Remember???
Magazine????
I'm still interested.
LJ.
28th September 2007 12:27 PM
Saint Sway
didnt forget ya LJ... actually its been passed around the office here... I force my staff to be listen and read all things Stones related. Will retrieve it and send it out today.
28th September 2007 12:30 PM
LadyJane
Thanks.
I really appreciate it.
LJ.
28th September 2007 12:32 PM
Saint Sway
aint no thang
28th September 2007 12:34 PM
glencar
quote:LadyJane wrote:
ya know...I TRY to keep out of these feuds, but I'm gonna say something here.
gypsy has the BALLS to take on the guys around here. Not an easy task given the ratio of boys to girls.
Most of what she says is in jest, but, unlike the posts the MEN make, SHE is always taken seriously. Ahhh...the old double standard.
She is a dear friend of mine and often I shake my head at what she posts, but I admire her.
There. I said it. And I'm not getting into any war of the words about it.
Still Switzerland,
LJ.
If you were REALLY Switzerland, I'd be happy about that. But that stupid asshole starts shit with me when I'd been nothing but nice to her & even made efforts on her behalf & she still couldn't stop herself from playing the fool. And yet you said nothing. I really do think she's doing something meth-wise & part of me feels bad but she really is pretty intolerable. Please, if you are claiming to be Switzerland, be Swiss!
28th September 2007 12:36 PM
glencar
quote:Saint Sway wrote:
Gypsy
BTW This? Funny stuff. You got a future!
28th September 2007 12:47 PM
LadyJane
quote:glencar wrote:
If you were REALLY Switzerland, I'd be happy about that. But that stupid asshole starts shit with me when I'd been nothing but nice to her & even made efforts on her behalf & she still couldn't stop herself from playing the fool. And yet you said nothing. I really do think she's doing something meth-wise & part of me feels bad but she really is pretty intolerable. Please, if you are claiming to be Switzerland, be Swiss!
I stay OUT of it, Blue.
OUT.
You are quite capable of defending yourself, no?
Do I jump in everytime someone throws the "Meth using", skank ho reference? No. Because SHE can handle it and I know it's ridiculous.
And if you are SO angry with her, talk to her offline.
I'm done with this.
LJ.
28th September 2007 12:55 PM
mrhipfl
I'd just like to add that Switzerland is quite possibly the greatest country on earth. For serious.
28th September 2007 01:26 PM
Nasty Habits
He hit me and it felt like a kiss
He hit me but it didn't hurt me
He couldn't stand to hear me say
That I'd been with someone new
And when I told him I had been untrue
He hit me and it felt like a kiss
He hit me and I knew he loved me
Cause if he didn't care for me
I could have never made him mad
He hit me and I was glad
28th September 2007 01:37 PM
monkey_man
I think I found one of Spectors hanger ons. . .
28th September 2007 03:35 PM
glencar
quote:LadyJane wrote:
I stay OUT of it, Blue.
OUT.
You are quite capable of defending yourself, no?
Do I jump in everytime someone throws the "Meth using", skank ho reference? No. Because SHE can handle it and I know it's ridiculous.
And if you are SO angry with her, talk to her offline.
I'm done with this.
LJ.
More than capable, evidently. As for me being angry at her, it's more disappointment. As I said, I defended her previously, even while acknowledging her insults to other posters' wives was below the belt. Way below. But that's where meth skank hos like it, I guess.
28th September 2007 03:52 PM
gypsy
quote:glencar wrote:
If you were REALLY Switzerland, I'd be happy about that. But that stupid asshole starts shit with me when I'd been nothing but nice to her & even made efforts on her behalf & she still couldn't stop herself from playing the fool. And yet you said nothing. I really do think she's doing something meth-wise & part of me feels bad but she really is pretty intolerable. Please, if you are claiming to be Switzerland, be Swiss!
It doesn't really matter what I say because you and Feej have convinced yourselves and other that I am a meth skank.
It's obvious that I am wasting my time trying to convince certain people that I am not on meth, and have never been on meth. Besides, I really don't care what you think anymore, as you've proven yourself to be a screaming little Couchie faggot anyways.
28th September 2007 04:30 PM
Fiji Joe
Blah...you got problems...your sole reason for posting here the last 3 years is to fuck with people...I can't stand you...I think you're a dolt...and have asked you many times to move on...but always, as with your above post, you insist on mentioning me...why?...who the fuck cares if you're actually on meth?...you behave like you are
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