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Artist News Legal Top Stories
I worked very hard thank you very much: a sort of Spector trial update
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 23 January 2009
No Spector news stories for months, then two come along at once.
In related news, Robert Shapiro, the lawyer who represented Spector immediately after Clarkson’s death but who was fired a year later, long before the case got to court, has given a sworn declaration that he turned down other high profile work in order to concentrate on the Spector case.
The producer is re-suing Shapiro in a bid to reclaim a million dollar retainer he paid the legal man for that initial representation.
He argues Shapiro failed to dedicate enough time to his case, and that had a negative impact on his defence. That, Spector says, is why he chose to sack Shapiro in January 2004. He originally tried to sue his former lawyer for breach of contract in summer 2004, but later withdrew that lawsuit. He began new legal proceedings in late 2007.
In a sworn declaration filed in support of a motion to dismiss Spector’s latest lawsuit, Shapiro argues that he did dedicate a lot of time to the producer’s case, that he turned down some other high profile cases to do so, and that he was the one who negotiated the bail that has meant Spector has been free throughout the drawn out criminal proceedings relating to the case.
According to MSNBC, Shaprio says: “After being retained by Mr Spector, I received an inquiry as to whether I would interview with the family of Scott Peterson for the position of Mr Peterson’s defense counsel in the Laci Peterson murder case. I turned down the requested interview because of my representation of Mr Spector and my commitment to Mr Spector”. He adds that he was then approached by actor Robert Blake regarding the murder charges against him in relation to the death of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley. Shapiro adds: “I turned down that interview for the same reasons”.
On what he delivered for Spector while working for him, Shapiro says he immediately made contact with the bondsman after the charges against the producer had been made to secure him bail. The lawyer says: “As a result, Spector was free on bail on the very day of his arrest and has remained free on bail to this day almost six years later, which is highly unusual in any murder case”.
A hearing on Spector’s lawsuit against Shapiro, and the lawyer’s attempts to dismiss it, is due to take place on 1 Apr.
