HE threatened me with guns, struck me and tried to made me strip
after a night of heavy drinking, leaving me terrified and
sobbing.
-- AP
As the murder trial of celebrated music producer Phil Spector
(above) goes on in Los Angeles, the dark side of the 67-year-old
was heard in court through his ex-girlfriend Dorothy Melvin.
Ms Melvin was the first witness in Spector's trial for the murder
of actress Lana Clarkson more than four years ago. She was called
by prosecutors to boost their point that Spector had a history of
pulling guns on women.
Ms Melvin told jurors that during a vodka-soaked confrontation with
Spector in 1993, he struck her twice in the head and tried to make
her strip at gunpoint.
'I was sobbing and I said 'Why are you doing this Phillip? Why are
you doing this?' Iwas crying. I was terrified,' Ms Melvin, a former
manager for comic Joan Rivers, told jurors.
But during her cross-examination by Spector's attorneys, Ms Melvin
conceded that she never pressed charges and maintained contact with
him for a decade afterward.
Prosecutors say Spector, best known for his innovative
'wall-of-sound' recordings, shot the 40-year-old Clarkson dead in
the foyer of his mock castle outside Los Angeles as she tried to
leave at around 5am on the night of 3 Feb, 2003.
CONSUMED BOTTLE OF VODKA
Ms Melvin, who dated Spector for several years, said she spent a
'lovely' night at his Pasadena home on 2Jul, 1993, and that he was
charming despite consuming nearly an entire bottle of vodka.
But after falling asleep on his couch, she said, she awoke to find
Spector pointing a revolver at her Mercedes in the driveway and
demanding to know where she had gone.
Once inside, Ms Melvin said, Spector accused her of 'snooping' and
stealing from him and ordered her to strip, back-handing her in the
head again when she refused. Ms Melvin said that after she gave
Spector her jacket, he told her to leave.
But she was unable to drive away because the gate to his driveway
was closed.
'Then I saw Phil coming down the driveway and I heard the pump of a
shotgun,' she said. 'He was screaming, 'I told you to get out of
here.' And I was screaming, 'The gate won't open.' '
Ms Melvin said that after Spector opened the gate, she drove out
and called the police, who escorted her back to the house to
retrieve her purse.
The court day began with Spector's attorneys telling the jury
during their opening statement that Clarkson, star of films such as
Barbarian Queen and Amazon Women On The Moon, had shot herself
while under the influence of alcohol and painkillers.
The trial, being televised live, is scheduled to resume on Monday
after a day off yesterday, and is expected to last for up to three
months. Defence lawyers have not said if Spector, who has shunned
the public eye for decades and has described himself as battling
depression and internal 'devils' will testify. -- Reuters