Amy's Robot

Phil Spector's Wall of Nuts

The L.A. Times successfully appealed to get the transcripts of Phil Spector's grand jury trial made public, and today they give us a few choice tidbits of testimony indicating what a creepy loon Spector is. Testimony includes many past incidents of threatened violence toward women, and an early admission that he "accidentally" killed the woman, which he later denied. What's notable about these anecdotes is not just that Spector is quick to pull out guns and threaten people, it's also that he seems to have no grasp of reality and to be totally unstable and delusional. Here are a few of the stories.

• Deborah Strand told the grand jury that she did not know who Spector was when she saw her boyfriend's golden retriever jumping on a holiday party guest in their Beverly Hills-area home in 1999. She described the guest — whom she later learned was Spector — as a "drunk Dudley Moore." She said she "didn't know who this person was and why he was there," but he appeared not to be having a good time. "And I said, 'You can leave.' " The man turned around and pointed a handgun at her right cheek. "He said, 'What are you going to say now?'. He looked at me, and I looked at his bodyguard and I said, 'Get him out of here now.' That registered in his head, and he immediately took the gun off of my face, put it away; and in a matter of seconds they left without force."
• Dorothy Tiano Melvin testified that Spector had hit her twice in the head with his right fist while clutching a revolver, as she tried to leave his estate over the July 4, 1993, weekend. Melvin testified that Spector became agitated while she was asleep on a sofa in his 33-room estate. She woke up to find Spector pointing a handgun at her new car in his driveway. When she confronted him outside, she said, Spector "whirled around and he pointed the gun at me" and told her to go inside. Once inside, Spector sat on a staircase in the foyer, pointing the gun at Melvin from about five feet away. He repeatedly demanded that she undress and go to the third floor, where the bedrooms are, Melvin testified. When she refused, she said he hit her again. "He said, 'You're a liar. You weren't on the couch. Where were you? You were searching my house. You were snooping. You were stealing things.' " She said he took her purse and went through it. When Spector finally ordered her out of his house, Melvin, sobbing, ran to her car and drove to the locked gate. "I heard him running down the drive, and then I heard the pump of a shotgun," she testified. She saw Spector pointing a shotgun at her. When she told him the gate was locked, he said he would open it and went back toward the house.
• Photographer Stephanie Elizabeth Jennings testified that she had accompanied Spector to a party after the 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York. Back in her room at the Carlyle Hotel, Jennings said, Spector's bodyguard appeared at the door and announced that Spector wanted her to join him in his room. She said no. Spector came to her room next, and she again refused his request that she join him in his room, she testified. Spector blocked the door with a chair and a gun and would not let her leave. Jennings used her hotel phone to call 911 without Spector ever suspecting that she was talking to police. "He said, 'You can call your mom. She can't do anything,' something to that effect," Jennings testified.
• Police Officer Beatrice Rodriguez testified that when police arrived at Spector's home after the shooting, Spector said, "What's wrong with you guys? What are you doing? I didn't mean to shoot her. It was an accident."

categories: Celebrities, Crime
posted by amy at 2:11 PM | #