More confusion in the old Phil Spector murder trial yesterday, as the dispute between the prosecution and defence counsels over allegations of concealed evidence continued. As previously reported, the murder trial has been on hold this week because Spector's main lawyer, Bruce Cutler, has been off sick. However, other lawyers involved in the case have been in court - albeit without the jury in attendance - so that Judge Larry Paul Fidler could consider claims by the prosecution that the defence were concealing evidence from them.
The claims aren't new - the prosecution have previously claimed the defence picked up a finger nail fragment at the scene of the crime after police officers had finished their search of Spector's home. The nail might be an important piece of forensic evidence and the prosecution ordered it be handed over, but the defence denied the evidence existed. Now the prosecution are claiming that a bit of finger nail and a fragment of a tooth were actually found by the defence, and are again demanding they be handed over. The defence again claim that neither bit of evidence exists, but this time the prosecution have a pretty credible witness who claims that they do - a former member of Spector's defence team.
The witness is called Greg Diamond, and he once worked as a clerk to Spector's former defence attorney Robert Shapiro. He approached the prosecution a couple of weeks ago saying he had important information about the case, though he was reluctant to go public with it. Ordered by Fidler to report to the court, he has now formally alleged that he joined Shapiro, another lawyer called Sara Caplan, and a forensic pathologist called Dr Michael Baden, when they visited the scene of the crime shortly after the shooting. He says that he saw Caplan find a "small white object" and hand it to Baden who, he claims, identified it as a bit of a tooth. "Dr Baden did make mention of what the item was", he told the court, "He said it was a fragment of a tooth... everyone had seen the item in some capacity".
But the defence continue to argue no such bit of evidence exists, and to that end they presented Baden to the court who denied being shown or recognising any tooth, adding: "I can recognise an intact tooth, not a fragment". He also claims to not remember ever meeting Diamond.
Quite how all this links to forensics specialist and defence witness Dr Henry Lee, whose public comments reportedly caused the prosecution to raise their latest evidence concealment claims, I don't know, unless they believe Lee will present forensic evidence based on the disputed (and possibly none existent) tooth and nail fragment.
If and how the evidence row will impact on the trial itself, which is due to resume on Monday, remains to be seen. As much much much previously reported, Spector stands accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his LA home back in 2003.