Spector Prosecutors Seek Potential Secret Evidence

Prosecutors asked a judge Thursday to order Phil Spector’s defense to reveal potential evidence that they say is being kept secret in the rock producer’s murder case.

Neither side identified the evidence, but prosecutors say Spector’s lawyer, Robert Shapiro, has stated that it is something that was found shortly after the shooting death of a woman in Spector’s Alhambra mansion last year.

Speaking before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carlos A. Uranga at the Alhambra courthouse, Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas Sortino insisted that the Spector defense immediately disclose the nature of the “item of physical evidence.”

Prosecutors said Shapiro had ignored letters sent in September and December asking that the evidence be turned over to the district attorney. “I want to know today what was found,” Sortino said.

Shapiro, however, declined to acknowledge the existence of any evidence in his possession and said instead that he would prefer filing a motion with the court on the matter. “I am not saying” that the defense does or doesn’t have the item, Shapiro said.

The judge asked both sides to file motions defending their positions at another hearing scheduled for Feb. 17. He ordered Shapiro not to destroy or tamper with the evidence if it exists.

Uranga also set March 16 as the date to schedule a preliminary hearing in the charges against Spector. The 63-year-old record producer is accused of fatally shooting nightclub hostess and aspiring actress Lana Clarkson in the early hours of Feb. 3.

Free on $1-million bail, he faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

Spector and Shapiro left the courtroom flanked by half a dozen sheriff’s deputies and did not answer reporters’ questions.

Sandi Gibbons, the district attorney’s spokeswoman, said outside the courthouse that the prosecution would seek whatever item might have been found and claim it as evidence.

“He says, ‘We have evidence,’ and we want to know what it is,” Gibbons said. “We have the right to have it.”

She declined to say how prosecutors had learned of the existence of the item.