Spector's Ex-Lawyer Says She Will Testify
Bowing to the California Supreme Court’s effective decision that attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply, a lawyer who formerly represented music producer Phil Spector says she will testify in his ongoing murder trial.
Sara Caplan is expected to testify today about whether she saw an expert mishandle evidence at the crime scene in her then-client’s home in the Alhambra area of Los Angeles, reports the Los Angeles Times. She asserted attorney-client privilege, but the trial judge said it doesn’t apply to destruction of evidence—and doesn’t apply in this case, too, because Caplan waived it in prior testimony.
Caplan had been held in contempt by the trial judge, Larry Paul Fidler, and told that she would be jailed for not testifying in the Los Angeles County Superior Court murder case, which is nearing a conclusion. As discussed in an ABAJournal.com post yesterday, that order essentially was upheld by the state supreme court’s refusal to hear Caplan’s appeal of an intermediate court ruling that affirmed the contempt ruling.
Spector, 67, is accused of shooting to death Lana Clarkson, 40, a restaurant hostess and former movie actress, in the wee hours of Feb. 3, 2003. He says she shot herself.
