Ex-Spector Lawyer, Facing Jail, Remains Mum

A former member of Phil Spector's defense team says she doesn't know what she saw and forensics experts can't say for sure who fired the gun.

Ambiguity all around.

Attorney Sara Caplan could still be held in contempt of court for refusing to testify about Dr. Henry Lee's actions back in 2003 at the scene of Lana Clarkson's death, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said Thursday during a hearing held without the jury present.

Caplan, who was working with famed defense attorney Robert Shapiro at the time, testified last month during an evidentiary hearing that she observed Lee, a veteran forensics expert, pick up a small, white object with rough edges in the hallway of Spector's Alhamba mansion on Feb. 4, 2003, the day after Clarkson died from a gunshot wound through her mouth.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has accused Lee of picking up a piece of Clarkson's acrylic fingernail and failing to turn it over to the prosecution, and Fidler ruled May 23—in the face of Lee's vehement denials—that the potential defense witness did collect something at the scene and not hand it over.

Caplan's testimony for the prosecution could diminish Lee's credibility, and Spector's camp has insisted that her testifying in open court would be a violation of the famed music producer's attorney-client privilege.

Fidler, who has threatened to lock Caplan up if she refuses to take the stand, said Thursday that the jury was entitled to know about the hypothetical fingernail.

"It could have been of great value," Fidler said. "Now we will never know. The people have been prevented from putting on their entire case. The jury is entitled to know that."

Despite the fact that she testified at that previous hearing, Caplan said today that she didn't know what she saw four years ago.

"I don't know that it was removed from the premises," she protested, calling the prosecution's tactics "despicable." "I don't remember where it was."

Fidler, who said last week that the attorney-client privilege doesn't apply when the issue is evidence tampering, pointed out that she "clearly testified she observed Dr. Lee put something in a vial. It was white, hard, with rough edges. You cannot reconcile Dr. Lee's testimony and Ms. Caplan's testimony."

The judge gave the dueling parties until Monday morning, when court reconvenes, to work out a compromise. Fidler stayed his ruling on whether to cite Caplan for contempt until June 22, to give her the chance to appeal to a higher court. "You're not going to jail today," he said.

"It goes without saying that nobody wants to be here today," Fidler continued. "Nobody has any personal animus against Miss Caplan. I admire her for taking the stance she is taking; I don't agree with it. You often have to do things you don't like."

After Fidler concluded these proceedings, the jury filed in and was further schooled in the subject of forensics.

The prosecution called L.A. County Sheriff's Department criminalist and firearms expert James Carroll to the stand to try and link Spector more firmly to the unregistered Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver that killed Clarkson.

While Spector has denied being the owner of the weapon, a detective who worked the scene testified earlier that an empty holster fitting the Cobra was found in a bureau drawer near where Clarkson's body was found propped in a chair.

Yesterday, sheriff's crime lab technician Donna Brandelli testified that no latent fingerprints were found on the weapon or the bullets, saying that only about eight percent of all guns in criminal investigations return usable prints because they don't adhere easily to wooden handles or the shiny metal typical to firearms.

Previous experts have testified that only Clarkson's DNA was found on the bullet tips. One witness said that Clarkson's blood could have covered up any DNA that Spector left behind on the gun by touch.

In an effort to link the Wall of Sound creator to the gun, Carroll testified today that three other revolvers confiscated from Spector's home contained the same type of ammunition that killed the 40-year-old actress.

The boxes of Smith & Wesson bullets found throughout Spector's house were also of the same make, design, style and weight as those in the Cobra—bullets that hadn't been manufactured since 1984, Carroll said. He even had to use some of the evidence bullets for firing tests because he couldn't track down any himself, he added.

"And with all the testing, did you put any conclusion in your reports on who fired this gun on Feb. 3, 2003?" defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden asked on cross-examination.

"I did not," Carroll replied.

The defense is arguing that Clarkson shot herself, becoming the victim of an "accidental suicide."

Deputy D.A. Alan Jackson, whose team is alleging that Spector had a pattern of threatening women with firearms and shot Clarkson after a night of drinking, suggested that the gun may have fired if Spector's finger had been on the trigger and Clarkson tried to push the gun away from her face.

Posing the possiblity that Clarkson may have been drunk at the time (both Clarkson's and Spector's fingerprints were found on two brandy snifters at the house and a print from Clarkson's right ring finger was found on the neck of a tequila bottle), Kenney-Baden asked, "You shouldn't handle a gun when you have both alcohol and drugs on board, correct?"

"It sounds like a good idea to me," Carroll said.

Kenney-Baden is scheduled to continue cross-examining Carroll on Monday.