An ex-girlfriend of Phil Spector, who claims that the music producer threatened her with a gun on two separate occasions, will be allowed to give evidence at his upcoming murder trial. Devra Robitaille, a former Warner Bros Records employee, claims that he pointed a loaded gun at her head over twenty years ago.
Prosecutors claim that the testimony will show that Spector has a history of violent behavior against women. The producer's lawyers had argued that the evidence was too old to be relevant to the case and maintained that it would simply delay the trial. LA Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler admits that he could be descending "a dangerous and slippery slope" in legal terms by allowing their evidence, but felt that the testimonies of Robitaille and several other women might have some relevance in finding a motive for the alleged murder of actress Lana Clarkson. The judge did, however, deny the admission of the evidence of a retired New York police officer who claimed that he once heard Spector drunkenly declare that "all women deserve a bullet in the head".
On the decision to allow Robitaille to testify, defence lawyer Roger Rosen told reporters: "I was very disappointed with the court's ruling. This kind of evidence is very salacious and seductive and gets the jury thinking about things other than the evidence".